2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program Interpretive Report Volume 1 Executive Summary 2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program | Volume 1 Executive Summary Foreword This report forms Volume 1 (of four) for the 2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program (STSIMP). It presents an integrated summary of the key findings from the: long term trend analysis (greater than ten years) six case studies 2013-14 annual data report Ocean Sediment Program 2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program | Volume 1 Executive Summary Page | 1 Table of contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................................ 7 1.2 The Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program (STSIMP) ........................................... 7 1.2.1 2014 Interpretive Report ....................................................................................................................... 8 2 Structure of this report............................................................................................................... 11 3 Trend analysis ............................................................................................................................ 12 4 Case studies ............................................................................................................................... 17 4.1 Theme One: Treated wastewater discharges .................................................................................... 17 4.1.1 Assessing the Impact of the St Marys Water Recycling Initiative on the Hawkesbury Nepean River .................................................................................................................................................... 17 4.1.2 Hawkesbury Nepean River and South Creek model: a powerful tool to inform management decisions in the Hawkesbury Nepean catchment ............................................................................... 19 4.2 Theme Two: Sewage overflows .......................................................................................................... 20 4.2.1 Modelling wet weather overflows in the upper Parramatta River ........................................................ 20 4.2.2 Validating the expected benefits of the Malabar Beach stormwater diversion ................................... 21 4.3 Theme Three: Sensitivity of the receiving environment .................................................................. 23 4.3.1 Assessing long term oceanographic fluctuations using deep water ocean outfall plume models ...... 23 4.3.2 Assessing the ecological and recreational amenity impacts on the Georges River of a large sewage overflow event at Glenfield in November 2013 ...................................................................... 24 5 2013-14 Data report .................................................................................................................... 25 5.1 Wastewater discharges ....................................................................................................................... 26 5.1.1 Wastewater quantity ............................................................................................................................ 26 5.1.2 Pollutant loads ..................................................................................................................................... 26 5.1.3 Pollutant concentrations ...................................................................................................................... 26 5.1.4 Toxicity ................................................................................................................................................ 26 5.1.5 Wastewater overflows ......................................................................................................................... 26 5.1.6 Dry weather leakage detection program ............................................................................................. 27 5.1.7 Recycled water .................................................................................................................................... 27 5.2 Environmental waters .......................................................................................................................... 27 5.2.1 Beach Suitability Grades ..................................................................................................................... 27 5.2.2 Urban rivers, estuaries and lagoons: chlorophyll a ............................................................................. 28 5.2.3 Urban rivers and estuaries: freshwater macroinvertebrates and intertidal communities .................... 28 5.2.4 Hawkesbury Nepean River and tributaries: nutrients, chlorophyll a and algae .................................. 29 5.3 Testing of Shellharbour rocky intertidal communities..................................................................... 29 5.4 Ecosystem health: Intertidal communities ........................................................................................ 29 5.4.1 Wave sheltered rocky intertidal communities ...................................................................................... 29 5.4.2 Settlement panels in wave sheltered areas ........................................................................................ 30 5.5 Freshwater macroinvertebrates .......................................................................................................... 30 6 Ocean Sediment Program .......................................................................................................... 31 7 References .................................................................................................................................. 32 2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program | Volume 1 Executive Summary Page | 2 Figures Figure 1-1 Wastewater systems showing location of plants ....................................................................... 9 Figure 2-1 STSIMP interpretive report structure ....................................................................................... 11 Tables Table 3-1 Regression results presented longitudinally for Hawkesbury Nepean River monitoring sites (where >10 years of data available) .................................................................................... 15 Table 3-2 Regression results presented for estuaries and urban rivers ....................................................... 16 Table 4-1 Summary of results from the SMWRI Aquatic Environmental Assessment Program in the Hawkesbury Nepean River .......................................................................................................... 18 Table 4-2 Beach Suitability Grades before and after implementation of the stormwater diversion at Malabar Beach ............................................................................................................................. 22 2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program | Volume 1 Executive Summary Page | 3 Glossary/Acronyms (for Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4) ADCP Acoustic Doppler Current Profile AEAP Aquatic Environmental Assessment Program AED Aquatic EcoDynamics AFRI Acute Febrile Respiratory Illness Amm Ammonia nitrogen ANOSIM Analysis of similarities ANOVA ANalysis Of VAriance ANZECC Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council. AWTP Advanced Water Treatment Plant BACI Before After Control Impact BOD Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOM Bureau of Meteorology CAP Canonical Analysis of Principal coordinates CBtotbv Cyanobacteria (blue-green) total biovolume CBtoxcnt Potentially toxigenic cyanobacteria count CCTV Closed-Circuit Television Cells/mL Algal cells per millilitre cfu/100mL Colony forming units per 100 millilitres Chla Chlorophyll a Cond Conductivity CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation CTD Conductivity Temperature Depth profiler DC Decommissioned DISTLM Distance based linear model DO Dissolved oxygen (concentrations) DOsat Dissolved oxygen saturation (percent) EBA Effects Based Assessment EC50 Effect Concentration for immobilization of 50%of exposed target biota EIMP Environmental Indicators Monitoring Program EIS Environmental Impact Statement EPA Environment Protection Authority EPL Environment Protection Licence FTP Filterable total phosphorus HRC Healthy River Commission KL/day Kilolitre/day Licence Environment Protection Licence LOEC Lowest Observed Effect Concentration Maximum Maximum value of set of observations MBACI Multiple Before After Control Impact 2014 Sewage Treatment System Impact Monitoring Program | Volume 1 Executive Summary Page | 4 MDS Multidimensional Scaling nMDS Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling Mean Mean value of a set of observation Median Median or 50th percentile value mg/L milligrams per litre Minimum Minimum value of a set of observations mL Millilitre ML Megalitre mm3/L Algal biovolume millimeter cube per litre NA Not applicable NARCliM NSW and ACT Regional Climate Modelling NATA National Association of Testing Authorities NHMRC National Health and Medical Research Council No. or No. of Obs Number of observations NOEC No Observed Effect Concentration NOx Oxidised Nitrogen NTU Nephelometric Turbidity Unit OEH Office of Environment