Environment News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", December 2007/January 2008

Safeguarding Maleny's Water By Alan Lander, Co-op member

Do you know where one of south east Queensland's most significant water catchment areas is? Here's a clue: you're standing on it.

At a time when water has become one of the nation's most precious commodities - rural allocations of which are changing hands at skyrocketing prices in southern states to the extent that some farms are now selling with or without water rights - Maleny and other communities on the plateau of the Blackall Range are located in one of the most prized water catchments in Australia.

And at a time when the region's population is increasing at such a phenomenal rate, is it not time to be carefully considering development impact on these local environs?

Residents well know the Obi Obi Creek's passage around the town not only supplies locals, but also swells the levels of Baroon Pocket Dam which, at 61,000 megalitres, is the biggest dam on the Sunshine Coast.

Less known by some, is the Mary River headwaters sprout from the westward side of the Range. Whatever you may think of the proposed Traveston Dam, it's waters from here that will supply it, in a far more significant way than actual rainfall on the dam itself.

Even less considered are the headwaters of the Stanley River, also on the westward side, which make their way to Somerset Dam, which in turn feeds the all-important Wivenhoe Dam, one of the largest Brisbane catchments.

Last but certainly not least, there are numerous small feeders on the Range's east side that meander to Ewen Maddock Dam at Landsborough.

Rainfall is high, even during these drought-ravaged times. In fact, according to local weather and rainfall statistician Patrick Stacey, rainfall in Maleny during August and September 2007 was considerably higher than the averages.

Dangers facing our catchment
Division 1 councillor, Dick Newman, is passionate about the need to control the constant, creeping concreting of the area. He has coined the phrase 'Catchment Central', which aptly describes the present and future importance of the Maleny area's ecological and economic role, climate change notwithstanding. Cr Newman has concerns about future land use and that government bodies are not properly recognising Maleny's status.

"Maleny's status as Catchment Central is not particularly recognised by government," he says. "It may seem a bit crazy, given that we are at the headwaters of some major water supplies, but according to government, the bigger problem in our area is siltation (deposition of silt on the beds of streams or lakes) of the coastal areas.

"For example, government sees that there is a very big siltation trap just downstream from us in Baroon Pocket Dam. As for water quality, the government spent up big on water treatment at Landers Shute, so the bulk of the funds goes to water treatment rather than water quality prior to treatment."

Cr Newman, having sat on the board of water supplier Aquagen, does give a tick to the organisation regarding water quality. As far as he is concerned, some developments have been simply bad examples.

"The dangers to any catchment are development and lack of funding for private landholders," says Cr Newman. "In respect to development, Maleny Woolworths is an example of bad development practices - we spend time, effort and money teaching primary school children that certain things like a supermarket car park should not be built near a creek. Big business then goes and does it.

"A whole lot of creek frontage is in private ownership. Rural landholders who are trying to make a living from the land really find it difficult to fund environmental restoration of esplanades. This is why support from organisations like Aquagen is so important; they can at least help fund the capital component of restoration, but this still leaves the land owner to manage and maintain that land.

" The much-vaunted South East Queensland Regional Plan (SEQRP) has helped to strengthen the area against development threats - but not on its own.

"The SEQRP is probably overall beneficial to the catchment as it provides a stronger layer of planning control to the catchment area," Cr Newman says. "The better protection, however, comes from the strong environmental provisions of the Local Government Management Strategy (LGMS).

" With a new regional council around the corner, some say Maleny and other towns may lose out on important protection as they get swept up into a 'super-city', but Cr Newman says it is unlikely to affect water.

"The provisions of the SEQRP, LGMS and City Plan are all in place. Probably the strongest protection we have for the catchment is that there are a range of infrastructure problems that will prevent further growth in the area," he says.

According to Peter Stevens, President of Lake Baroon Catchment Care Group (LBCCG), our catchment doesn't have any real protection, even under the auspices of the SEQRP. "The SEQRP is subject to review and can be changed," says Peter. "The Montville Links was a good example of where Council supported the development, even though it was outside the SEQRP, and for a while I thought it might actually happen."

On a positive note, Aquagen Water Board has recently approved $1.8 million in funding for the Lake Baroon catchment, which LBCCG will use over 10 years for environmental restoration, mostly on private land.

The pipeline problem
There is also one great irony as far as water supply is concerned in the area, and it concerns Maleny's own supply. The bureaucracy has decreed that, despite the town having a permanently-running creek through its centre, a pipeline needs to be built to augment that supply.

In short, this means water that has fallen on and passed through the area, is to be collected at Landers Shute in order to be pumped back up the Range to supply the town. Go figure, as the Americans say.

Cr Newman attempts - with a wry smile - to explain the seemingly ridiculous circumstances.

"The deal with the pipeline is that it will be constructed because our current system may fail two days in every decade or so," he says. "Any other solution we come up with is blocked by rules, regulations, red tape and dollars. Everything we looked at could not be considered due to rules.

"The last go we had was for an additional small off-stream storage (enough to boost our back up supplies to about two months for a fully developed Maleny). We could potentially overcome our first problem by getting the community to sign off on the amount of water - staff want you to have about 18 months' supply as a back-up."

"(But) in Maleny, it is extremely unlikely that you would ever need two months, let alone 18 months, of back-up.

"The problem comes with the cost of constructing the back-up supply - the community would be happy with an earth wall dam (fairly cheap). But the government now requires dams to be constructed to withstand the effects of a one in 10,000-year event (e.g. a cyclone from the north meeting a cyclone from the south over the top of your dam!).

"This may be a very good thing where large bodies of water are stored, but we are talking about perhaps 50 megalitres which, if suddenly released in that area, isn't likely to do any major damage.

"Things like storing a bit of highly treated effluent in a natural system against a dry spell also get ruled out. No matter how highly we treat it, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] is unlikely to approve storage near the creek in case it spills into the creek.

"Now this may seem silly to you, as the water I'm talking about would be far cleaner that what's in the creek, but the concern is that the spillage would mix with elements such as cow pats on the way to the creek and give a bit of a boost to the nutrient load. It's arguments like this that are certainly frustrating to the community."

According to Peter Stevens, the pipeline was chosen as the cheaper, easier option when a more integrated approach should have been considered to keep our water local.

"Unfortunately, there's a lack of storage for the amount of rainfall we have, and that issue isn't easily addressed. But it could be addressed by people supplementing their water supplies with tanks, or more innovative systems. For example, Maleny High School could collect water on its roof and supply it to Erowal [Retirement Village]. Both have large roof areas and one sits above the other - it's a gravity feed.

"We have to put in three or four different approaches to making Maleny sustainable, so that the local community can have more control over its own water supply. The attraction of living here is that the water comes from the area and is collected in the area. You feel like you're living within the constraints of your environment.

"Perhaps only 30 per cent of people on a reticulated supply need these measures. It's a pretty expensive pipeline for what are really short periods of demand, and people [may] then automatically propose more development because the water is there.

"We are talking to people and trying to get some recognition that this is a significant water supply area. Nothing in legislation says this is an important water catchment area. That concerns me. The thing is, what is the best method for recognising that?

"Other areas, like Wivenhoe, have Declared Catchment status. It may turn out that Declared Catchment status isn't the most appropriate way to deliver protection, but it's certainly something that could be done in the interim, and if the legislation is out of date, then let's bring it up to date...The problem is, governments look at water resources in terms of dams and infrastructure. They don't look at it as a living system that needs to be taken care of.

"The new divisional boundaries for the proposed regional council will now give one voice to most of the Maleny plateau and Blackall Range. Candidates for the 15 March 2008 election will hopefully carry awareness of the region's water catchment seriously in the race for the new Division 5 leadership.

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", December 2007/January 2008; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@ serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]