Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water) Share this | Hansard source

Last month I had the great pleasure of meeting with the Urban Water Stakeholder Reference Panel in Adelaide. The panel was established in 2008 and consists of urban water experts from across Australia, including members from the water industry, local government representatives and scientists—including some Queenslanders, Senator Boyce. Yes, we try to include them in all of our considerations. I had met some of the panel members before, and it was a pleasure to meet the rest of the panel for the first time. The panel meets three times a year and provides practical advice on Australian government urban water policies and programs. Since it was established, the panel has provided advice on its recent research and work programs. These include: case studies on commercial and industrial water savings; research on urban rivers under different stormwater scenarios; and innovative stormwater and aquifer recharge projects.

To gain a greater understanding of the construction and operation of stormwater harvesting and reuse, the panel visited—and I know this will be of interest to Senator McEwen—a number projects in the north of Adelaide. My home state of South Australia leads the nation, as I am sure the senator is aware, in stormwater harvesting and reuse for managed aquifer recharge. The northern suburbs of Adelaide have been at the forefront of that leadership. The panel and I visited three of these northern suburbs sites, guided by the very well-known stormwater figure Colin Pitman. He is the city engineer of the City of Salisbury. He has played a major role in the development of projects in that particular council area.

Our first stop was the Unity Park biofiltration scheme. The Australian government is providing nearly $7 million in funding for this project, which will deliver up to one billion litres of treated water each year when it is fully operational. This water will be used for industry, new residential developments, schools and sports grounds in the northern suburbs. This will reduce the demand on valuable drinking water supplies, helping to keep these areas green and vibrant during the hot summer months. Of course, that is what they looked like while we were out there. The project will initially offset potable water demand by up to 400 million litres a year, with the capacity to increase that offset to one billion litres a year.

During our visit at Unity Park we saw that the construction of six biofiltration beds is well underway, with aquatic plants already in the ground in some of these beds. Biofiltration—as I am sure you are aware, Mr President—is a pollution control technique that uses, for example, constructed wetlands to capture and biologically degrade pollutants.