Page 3925 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 25 November 2014
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trap soils and debris in urban stormwater, to improve the quality of the water flowing into the Murrumbidgee River. Lake Tuggeranong is also in effect part of the ACT drinking water supply catchment, with ACTEW investing in pumping infrastructure downstream at the Cotter River to draw water for treatment at Stromlo.
However, since Lake Tuggeranong’s establishment the lake water quality has declined as a result of the accumulation of urban pollutants from its surrounding catchment. The most immediate impact has been a loss of amenity associated with the lake. Because Lake Tuggeranong is a tributary of the Murrumbidgee River, a failure of the lake to trap pollutants could have negative impacts on downstream water quality.
Lake Tuggeranong is currently open for primary contact (swimming) in three of its five recreational areas and open for secondary contact (boating) for all five recreational areas. The Environment Protection Authority had closed the lake as a precautionary measure on 20 March 2014 after high levels of blue-green algae were detected in multiple areas of the lake. However Lake Tuggeranong has been open for recreational use since 26 June 2014 due to a number of management actions that have taken place.
An example of recent management actions includes the opportunistic draining of Tuggeranong Weir. The draining of the weir enables a host of chemical, physical and biological processes to occur that will effectively refresh the weir so that it becomes more effective at trapping and binding stormwater pollutants/nutrients.
Immediate issues with the management of Lake Tuggeranong and its surrounding areas are dealt with through the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate; however, there are also a number of actions being carried out by the Environment and Planning Directorate as discussed below.
The second point to the petitions states that “Your petitioners, therefore, request the Assembly to call on the Government to take immediate action to clean up Lake Tuggeranong, and fulfil their election promise to build wetlands in the Tuggeranong Valley, which will help improve the quality of water flowing into the lake.
As you may be aware, the ACT Parliamentary Agreement for the 8th Legislative Assembly for the ACT (2012) states on this issue:
3.11 Restore the Health of Canberra’s lakes and catchments by allocating $85m of MDBP funds to establish a Water Catchment Management Authority to ensure the following: a) Construction of four new wetlands to improve water quality at Tuggeranong (2), Yarralumla and Ginninderra by June 2016;
The ACT government remains strongly committed to improving water quality in our urban waterways. Following the submission of an ACT government business case to the Commonwealth government in late 2013, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, and I, on 26 February 2014, made a joint announcement of $85 million of Commonwealth funding for an ACT Basin Priority Project. This project is expected to have a significant positive impact on water quality for the ACT and Murray-Darling Basin.
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