Environment

THE ENVIRONMENT

South Gippsland Water’s objective is to protect the environment by conducting its operations in accordance with its Environmental Management System, policies and procedures, operating licences, and environmental legislation and regulations.

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ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The environmental policy is the driver for implementing and improving the Corporation’s environmental management system so that it can maintain and improve its environmental performance. It forms the basis upon which the Corporation sets its objectives and targets, and reflects its commitment to comply with applicable legal requirements.

SGW Environment Policy - PDF

South Gippsland Water’s commitments

South Gippsland Water:

Recognises that in addition to supporting the social and economic values that have helped make South Gippsland popular and prosperous, it must also do its part to protect the environmental interests of the area.
Will ensure that the extraction, storage, treatment and distribution of potable water is undertaken with due consideration for our important natural assets and that the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater is managed in an environmentally safe and sustainable manner.
Will make all reasonable efforts to minimise the environmental impacts associated with our activities by endeavouring to operate in accordance with Best Practice protocols that will enable us to meet our environmental obligations.
Comply with relevant legislation, industry standards and internal commitments and other requirements that relate to our environmental aspects.
Is committed to continual improvement in environmental performance and prevention of pollution.
The environmental policy is proudly displayed at all South Gippsland Water facilities, and is underpinned by an environmental management system which provides the foundation for the management of our environmental aspects.

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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

South Gippsland Water is committed to responsible environmental management. The Corporation has developed and implemented an Environmental Management System (EMS) that has been certified to the Australian Standard ISO 14001. The role of the EMS is to enable us to identify, manage and reduce the impacts to the environment from our activities.

Some of the key areas of the EMS include:

Environment Policy
Identifying impacts that the Corporation may be having on the environment
Operational and incident management procedures
Setting objectives and targets to improve our environmental performance.
Environmental responsibilities
Continual improvement

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SUSTAINABILITY

South Gippsland Water is committed to providing water and wastewater services to the region in a sustainable manner. As an essential service provider, it is important that we identify how we will continue to contribute to a secure economy, enhanced environment and healthy community.

Sustainability Strategy

To deliver our vision “to be widely recognised as an exemplary service provider and valued as an essential contributor to regional development and resource sustainability”, South Gippsland Water is focused on four key sustainability priorities. These are:

Water and wastewater services
Water and wastewater quality
Natural environment
Climate change

South Gippsland Water has developed a sustainability strategy which details objectives, goals and targets to enable us to become a more sustainable Corporation. In helping us to realise the four key sustainability priorities listed above, the Corporation has developed eight fundamental aspects that will be taken into consideration during decision making. These are:

Planning with foresight
Sound investment logic
Proactive community and customer engagement
Business adaptability
Quality people
Exemplary environmental management
Timely and accurate data and information
Effective governance

The sustainability strategy is currently being finalised, with the next step being implementation through working towards the goals and objectives set out in the strategy.

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GREEN HOUSE

South Gippsland Water aims to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to minimise our contribution to climate change, and be an adaptable business to enable our services to be delivered in a changing climate.

In 2008, South Gippsland Water undertook an energy audit of the entire Corporation and its activities to determine our current levels of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, and identify opportunities to reduce our emissions.

The energy audit has identified around 50 options for energy savings. The key energy efficiency improvement opportunities centred around the following:

Reduction of treatment volumes in wastewater and water treatment
Efficiency improvement of pumping systems
Investigating use of the potential energy in water, sun and wind
Motivation of employees to be efficient with their energy use

As a result of undertaking the energy audit, South Gippsland Water will research the emission reduction opportunities identified, and develop an energy management plan to guide the Corporation in becoming a more sustainable business.

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CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT

South Gippsland Water regards itself as a principle stakeholder in environment and catchment management initiatives within the region. The Corporation recognises the close link between catchment management and its goals to manage and provide, in an environmentally sound and efficient manner, safe high quality drinking water to its customers.South Gippsland Water has a number of programs in place to protect water quality and enhance the environment.

EPA Catchment Officer

South Gippsland Water have joined forces with EPA Gippsland and the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority to fund a Catchment Officer position within the EPA. The main focus of the position is to carry out dairy farm audits to improve water quality within our drinking water supply catchments.

Battery Creek Catchment

Battery Creek supplies drinking water to the township of Fish Creek and surrounds. Over the past 10 years, South Gippsland Water have worked closely with Greenfleet to revegetate around 40 hectares of land within the catchment.
A couple of years ago the Corporation purchased a further 88 hectares of land within the Battery Creek catchment. Currently this land is being grazed by sheep, however we have developed a revegetation plan for the land that will see it eventually planted entirely with native vegetation that will reinstate natural habitat to the area.

Weed Control Program

South Gippsland Water has developed a significant weed control program on our land. Our objectives of managing environmental weeds are to:

Maintain indigenous biodiversity, particularly ecosystems of high conservation value;
Maintain the viability of threatened species and communities;
Promote ecological sustainability and the provision of ecosystem services; and
Prevent adverse social or economic impacts by taking an integrated approach to management

Weed issues that are noticed within the water supply catchments, but not on our land, by SGW are directed to the South Gippsland Pest Plant and Animal Landcare Facilitator.

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RIVER HEALTH

SGW extracts water from a number of rivers and small streams to provide high quality drinking water to its customers. The vision for South Gippsland Water is to provide this service in a sustainable way focusing on:
• Protecting all waterways in which South Gipplsand Water has links with:

Maintaining social and economic river asset values;
Managing all SGW activies that may impact on the river and waterways in an environmentally sustainable fashion.’

A key issue in monitoring river health is an understanding of the condition of the river system, particularly macro-invertebrate and fish communities which are used as indicators of river health.
South Gippsland Water is implementing a river health monitoring program. The program draws on concepts and requirements as detailed in the Victorian River Health Strategy as well as the Government’s commitments in the Our Water Our Furture action plan for water.

SGW river health program involves

an on-going five year study of fish populations in the Tarwin, Tarra, Agnes and Powlett River catchments.
On-going macroinvertebrate monitoring of all SGW catchments including the Tarwin Catchment ( Ruby Creek , Coaltiion Creek , and Ness Creek), Bellview Creek , Deep Creek, Tarra River, Agnes River and Powlett River catchments.
On-going water quality monitoring of rivers and streams including dissolved oxygen and salinity recordings at sites of SGW river and waterway extractions.

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RECLAIMED WATER

South Gippsland Water recognises that with appropriate management, by-products of wastewater treatment (e.g. treated effluent) can be a resource rather than a waste, and we are endeavouring to reuse where possible.

The Corporation currently has a number of reuse schemes which include the following:

Tarraville wastewater treatment plant – a nearby farmer uses approximately 100ML of recycled water per year for irrigation of pasture. The pasture is used for grazing beef cattle.
Inverloch wastewater treatment plant – a nearby farmer uses around 20-30ML per year to irrigate crops for cattle fodder.
Toora wastewater treatment plant – the Toora Football Club uses 2-3ML per year of recycled water during summer to irrigate the football ground, which saves them using the town water supply during the driest part of the year.
Leongatha and Korumburra wastewater treatment plants – recycled water is available from a standpipe at each treatment plant for approved customers to use instead of town drinking water. Uses so far have included weed spraying and road works/dust suppression.

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PARTNERS

South Gippsland Water support a number of organisations both financially and in-kind. These include:

South Gippsland Landcare Network
Bass Coast Landcare
West Gippsland Waterwatch
Gippsland Regional Water Monitoring Partnership
South Gippsland Environmental Education and Interpretation

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