Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

The Clean Seas Program

The Commonwealth's Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) supports the Clean Seas Program (CSP) with over $40m funding. The program encourages changes in conventional water management to reverse damage to the marine environment caused by runoff and sewage.

In partnership with Local and State Government, industry, applied research organisations and communities, CSP funds on-ground works that minimise sewage and stormwater discharges into rivers and oceans. Through its many projects, the CSP demonstrates reuse options and innovative technology by turning environmental problems into opportunities.

Nationally significant projects have attracted funding up to several million dollars. Assistance for locally significant projects ranges up to $250,000. Among the many projects delivering the benefits of water recycling are:

• A trial of hydroponic techniques at Woolgoolga on the North Coast of NSW using treated effluent to grow cucumbers.
• Recycling water from wastewater plants at Bellambi and Port Kembla to replace water stored in the Avon Dam near Wollongong for use in the BHP Steelworks.
• Irrigating sugar cane at Maryborough in Queensland by redirecting effluent currently discharging into waters flowing to the World Heritage area of Fraser Island.
• Supplying water from Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brisbane to the new BP Oil Refinery.
• Using water from the Latrobe Wastewater Treatment Plant in Northern Tasmania to increase the productivity of agricultural lands.
• Redirecting effluent of forestry plantations rather than discharging into the waters of the Maria Island Marine Park on the East Coast of Tasmania.

Treating septic tank effluent threatening aquaculture in North West Bay at Howden near Hobart by using a package sewage treatment plant to irrigate a golf course.

The following articles are also included in this edition or go BACK to the main page: