Urban stormwater quality management infrastructure -the need for a balanced approach

Throughout the 1990s, agencies responsible for the maintenance of ecological health in waterways within and around urban centres in Australia became increasing aware of the significance of pollution from stormwater. In most major metropolitan areas, the nature of this problem has now been well researched and in some cases, quantified. While States, Territories, Cities and Shires are responding to this awareness in different ways, one aspect appears to be consistent - the bulk of expenditure by government on urban stormwater quality management is still being spent on the construction of large structural measures (regional infrastructure) and its maintenance. Examples include a wide variety of gross pollutant traps, wetlands, and ponds. In this paper the allocation of funds for storm water quality management is briefly assessed at the Federal, State and Local Government level. In particular, recent expenditure by the NSW Stormwater Trust and Brisbane City Council is reviewed. A finding of the paper is that leading authorities with several years of experience in managing significant funds for urban stormwater quality management are starting to shift the emphasis of funding from large structural devices to projects that combine structural and non-structural elements, or non-structural elements alone. It is suggested that this trend will continue for several years and has implications for many Australian urban stormwater managers and researchers. For example, even though in Victoria and NSW there is a shift towards funding a wide variety of projects that incorporate non-structural measures for stormwater quality management (such as education), there is a paucity of high quality research on the effectiveness of such measures. This paper also examines why it is a common trend for public authorities to allocate seemingly disproportionate expenditure for regional urban storm water quality management infrastructure and its maintenance. Finally, this paper describes the measures Brisbane City Council is taking to move towards a more balanced urban stormwater quality management program and recommends a way forward for stormwater management in general.