INTRODUCING STORMWATER VICTORIA'S
'THE OUTLET' NEWSLETTER
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Welcome from our President - Jamie Tainton
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Welcome to our first Stormwater Victoria Newsletter in a very long time. It's great to set-up another mechanism to communicate with you all as the world spins awkwardly around us. Your Stormwater Victoria Committee has done an amazing job pivoting and changing at each step. In fact, I think the new online meeting format we now have works better for everyone’s timetable!
I’m really proud of our committee who are still advocating in this ever changing world with the passion and persistence to improve the health of our waterways.
I’ve also seen our wonderful broader stormwater industry, and its partners, do the same. Actually, I’d like to challenge you all. Who here hasn’t looked at our waterways and water bodies, and wondered “how much better are they functioning with the reduced pollutant loads?”. We all saw the photos of great cities like Beijing who’s smog lifted and the people saw clear skies for the first time in decades. For once they could breath easily and enjoy their great city, albeit from their balcony or home.
What we need now is evidence, evidence that showcases how that intense slowdown in our great city has bettered the condition of our waterways. How the fewer car movements, less trains and reduced flight numbers have generated a better environmental response. Where was the biggest improvement? Was it near your home or your normal workplace? Was it your favourite fishing spot or the beach?
I’m keen to hear from you all and see what we can do as a collaborative team to prove that pushing pause on society made more than a virus related impact. That it highlighted that we can improve the health of our waterways if we just work a little smarter together….
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Stormwater Victoria - What’s New...
The Stormwater Victoria Committee is hard at work tackling some bold new challenges and providing value and support to our members, our industry and the wider community.
With a new president and a newly structured subcommittee arrangement, we have some exciting new projects and activities in the pipeline. Here is what we've been up to:
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Special Projects
Special Projects is a newly established subcommittee with some ambitious projects on the go. In fact, this very newsletter you're perusing right now is one of them. Our role in the Special Projects team is to support Stormwater Victoria and the wider society of
Stormies
by advancing these kinds of passion projects. We seek to identify the needs of the industry that, while important, often lack the urgency that compel the delegation of resources, and then find them.
Our hard working team has hit the ground running with a number of working groups targeting some important industry ventures. including website restructure, and best of all, driving the development of a comprehensive Victorian Urban Drainage Manual (VUDM); a document that will collate all key industry stormwater guidelines, standards and practices into one, all-inclusive "How To" for drainage design in Victoria. The Association of Land Development Engineers (ALDE) have jumped on board and is helping steer this right from the start. Feel free to get in touch if this interests you and you'd like to be involved!
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Policy and Advocacy
It’s shaping up to be a busy year in stormwater policy. The long awaited review of BPEM and stormwater management targets continues to progress, and SV have been strengthening our relationships with EPA and Melbourne Water as part of early consultation efforts. We’re keenly aware of the interest in and impact of these changes on our members and will be actively seeking your feedback through our upcoming events and social media as further details are released. Watch this space.
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Conference and Awards
The Stormwater National Conference "New Frontiers for Stormwater - Into the next Decade", originally set to be hosted in Melbourne in June 2020, has been rescheduled for April, 2021. We already had the program prepared when the date was changed, so we can confirm a strong line-up to host over 250 delegates in the new year. Registrations are open with early bird extended. Get your tickets now because the event will now be capped!
With our major networking events affected by the changing world, Stormwater Victoria's Conference and Awards subcommittee are proactively adapting to the new climate and are engaged with the wider industry to continue to innovate. We ensure we can continue to provide our membership with the best events and professional development and networking opportunities possible.
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Memberships and Technical Events
The onset of COVID-19 hasn’t slowed down the Technical Events subcommittee. We’ve shifted our events to webinars to ensure we keep in touch with our members in these new and challenging times.
We worked with our advocacy committee to define key issues for discussion for the Healthy Waterway Strategy webinar series which was held in May. The sessions were well attended, but if you missed out, you can still catch up. They were recorded and will be made available soon. Please stay tuned for further info.
Session 1: Overview of the HWS and the science behind the strategy. How the strategy could be implemented with state legislation.
Session 2: Technical challenges of the Healthy Waters Strategy on the ground, viewpoints from Local Government and practitioners.
In partnership with Clearwater, we shifted the June Water Drinks to a virtual platform due to the current COVID-19 restrictions. The event was held on Zoom on the 4th of June. Ross Allen (Three Seeds Agency) and Simone Maus (Collective Insight) sponsored and facilitated the event and they shared their 5 golden rules for engaging online events. This was followed by networking in a speed-dating format and an isolation fashion parade, which was great fun.
We’ve also been arranging our next webinar to be held on the 16th July, which focuses on using smart technology: talking tanks for flood management, water conservation and environmental baseflow. Registrations open soon.
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DELWP Update
DELWP are consulting with industry stakeholders (including Stormwater Victoria) on a number of stormwater management, policy and planning matters. Have a look at some of the projects DELWP has under development.
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Integrated Water Management Forums and Projects
State government supported Integrated Water Management (IWM) Forums and projects continue to progress with partners across Victoria. This work is informing strategic policy investigations and alternative water related reforms. In metropolitan Melbourne, catchment scale IWM plans are being developed to deliver evidence-based whole-of-cycle water planning and guide policy reform and investment.
In addition to the more than 100 active partner-run IWM projects statewide, the Victorian Government is co-investing in a package of 18 metro and 11 regional IWM projects to improve the health of urban waters, secure the use of alternative water supplies and support liveability and resilience.
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Melbourne Urban Stormwater Institutional Arrangements (MUSIA)
DELWP, the Municipal Association of Victoria and Melbourne Water (MW) held a joint workshop on the 13th March 2020, to explore potential options for stormwater management. Participants developed considerations and ideas for future arrangements. The workshop outcomes will be developed into potential options, which will be thoroughly examined and tested with councils, MW and other stakeholders.
For information on the next steps, please refer to the project page on
DELWP’s website
and to register your interest in upcoming engagement activities.
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Understanding Victoria’s Stormwater Planning Requirements
Since the introduction of planning reforms (October 2018) that broadened the range of development types subject to stormwater planning requirements, DELWP has run 17 information sessions to a state-wide audience of over 800 people. This included an industry event with Stormwater Victoria.
On the 25th August 2020, further training on Victoria’s stormwater planning requirements is being delivered through the Planning Institute of Australia’s professional development program PLANET.
Stormwater Victoria committee member, Kate Matthews, is a co-presenter of this course.
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Marine and Coastal Policy
The Victorian Government is pleased to announce the release of the
Marine and Coastal Policy. DELWP has developed the Policy with guidance from the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council.
The Policy guides decision makers, including local councils and land managers, in the planning, management and sustainable use of our marine and coastal environment, and in dealing with issues, including the impacts of climate change, population growth and ageing coastal infrastructure. Chapter 8 – Coastal settlements is most relevant to the stormwater industry.
If you have any questions, please contact the project team via
[email protected] or the Customer Service Centre on 13 61 86.
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Meet the Speaker - Daniel Fokkens
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Thanks again to
Daniel Fokkens
who provided his local government lens in the Healthy Waterways Strategy 2-part webinars. His presentation summarised the challenges of funding, enforceability, achievable targets and practical solutions.
Applying the HWS to a few cases found that some of the strategy’s outcomes could already be met, but there were other key areas where the industry would have to focus in the future, in particular, the balance between recycled water and stormwater uses.
Daniel is a Civil Engineer who has worked in the stormwater industry for 14 years, across the strategic planning, design and construction fields. He has extensive experience in water management, working on local and interstate projects and a range of projects across the land development and infrastructure sectors for both the public and private sectors. He is known for his passion in integrated water management.
Daniel started his career working in the private sector for many years, but is now enjoying his time in local government having started with the City of Casey in 2014. Daniel is the Team Leader of the Subdivision and Development Engineering team, where he enjoys working between developers and the water industry to implement best practice in water management.
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We met with Daniel (virtually) to have a lighthearted conversation about stormwater.
SV: Thanks again for getting involved with our seminar series. To start off, how did you get interested in Stormwater?
Daniel: I grew up by the beach, so I’d say my love for water started there. My love for stormwater and particularly stormwater quality grew through the interesting subjects I studied at University.
SV: How long have you been at Council? And What’s your favourite ‘Sounds boring’ but is actually interesting task?
I’ve been at Council since 2014. My favourite “sounds boring” task is around data collection to keep a track of how development is tracking in the City of Casey. I love seeing the trends in the housing market and comparing that with the figures we collect. Sounds boring, but I find it very interesting
😊
SV:
That does sound very interesting; being able to compare general housing market trends to what is happening on the ground currently. On the other hand, if we look at your work history, what has been your favourite project in the past?
Picking a favourite is too hard to say but a highlight is being part of stormwater harvesting and water reticulation project team, which included the construction of a 15km pipeline transferring non-potable water from the treatment wetlands to an offline storage and aquifer recharge system. The system supplied non-potable water to end users for fit for purpose use.
SV: And finally, what’s your favourite stormwater / recreational spot to take your family to?
Anywhere in the Victorian high country with a river and a camp fire.
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Upcoming Events
Despite the current climate, the stormwater industry has not slowed down. We continue to strive to bring you the best in networking opportunities, speaker lineups and seminars. In fact, with the shift to online, we have the added advantage of being able to share our events with other states.
Here’s what’s happening in the stormwater industry in Victoria and Nationally:
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Smart Technology: Talking Tanks for Water Conservation, Flood Management and Environmental Baseflow
Run by Stormwater Victoria
Date: Thursday 16th July 2010
Location: Online – Zoom
Speaker: David Bergmann (South East Water)
Alma Park Stormwater Harvesting Online Site Visit
Run by Clearwater
Date: Thursday, 14th July 2020
10.00 am - 11.30 am
Location: Online – Zoom
Speaker: Alastair McHarg (Senior Project Manager), Sam Innes from City of Port Phillip, Gary Walsh from E2Design
Webinar: Challenging the current Queensland regulatory framework for rainwater tanks
Run by Stormwater Queensland
Date: Thursday, June 25th 2020
1.00 pm to 1.45 pm
Location: Online – Zoom
Speaker: Daniel Niven, Principal Water Engineer at Engeny Water Management
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Webinar: A Blueprint for Improving Waterway Management
Run by Stormwater Queensland
Date: Thursday, 9th July 2020
1.00 pm to 1.45 pm
Location: Online – Zoom
Speaker: Glenn Browning – Civil Engineer at Healthy Land and Water
Stormwater 2021 National Conference
Run by Stormwater Australia
Date: 14th -16th April 2021
Location: Crown Promenade Melbourne - Southbank, VIC
Hot Topics: Strengthening cross-sector collaboration for sustainable, resilient & liveable outcomes
Run by Clearwater
Date: Tuesday, 28th July 2020
Location: Online - Zoom
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If you are interested in contributing an article, upcoming industry event or news item to The Outlet newsletters, please send an email to
[email protected]
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