Page 317 - Week 01 - Thursday, 29 November 2012
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limited water abstraction and to manage stormwater discharge from surrounding suburbs.
Lake Burley Griffin is a major community asset well beyond its national significance and is the responsibility of the commonwealth, whereas other water bodies like Lake Tuggeranong and Lake Ginninderra are ACT government responsibilities.
Following the tabling in the Legislative Assembly of the commissioner’s report on Lake Burley Griffin in June 2012, the Chief Minister met with senior representatives of the National Capital Authority, Queanbeyan City Council, Palerang Council and Cooma-Monaro Shire Council. As a result of that meeting the ACT Chief Minister convened a senior officials task force, which was charged with developing an action plan for Lake Burley Griffin and its catchments to improve water quality in the short, medium and long term.
The task force submitted its report in August 2012 and the government immediately released the action plan to the community. The composition of the task force reflected the multijurisdictional nature of contributions to the management of the lake’s catchments covering the Molonglo and Queanbeyan rivers and Jerrabomberra Creek across the ACT and New South Wales.
The task force also sought the input of an expert panel to provide specific technical advice on the proposed remedial actions for the lake. The members of the panel, all local water quality experts—Dr Stephen Skinner, Dr Bill Phillips and Dr Ralph Ogden—were chosen to complement the technical advice already provided to the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment in the preparation of his report.
The views of key community stakeholders, such as lake users and catchment groups, were also sought through a community workshop conducted by the task force during the preparation of the action plan. Community organisations concerned with Lake Tuggeranong and Lake Ginninderra were also invited to the workshop, given the similarity of issues associated with these lakes.
The task force reviewed and examined the recommendations made by the commissioner in his report and accepted them in principle as a basis for developing the action plan.
The action plan incorporates a range of additional actions contributed by task force members, the expert panel and stakeholders that serve to further emphasise the role of evidence-based management decisions. The task force concluded that many of the pressures now placed on the lake have developed over a period of years and that a significant, but not exclusive, driver has been population growth, its resulting development and the construction activities and their consequences.
All parties, including those community groups consulted, agreed that easy, quick-fix remedies were not scientifically or practically possible. A concerted and planned response over time was collectively acknowledged as representing the most viable way forward to ensure a sustainably healthy lake into the future. In other words—and I think this point is worth emphasising—it has taken a long time for the conditions of the lake to reach this current state, and it will take a long time to fully remediate them.
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