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Storm Water Cost Shifting An Expensive Waste of Resources
October 11th 2005


NSW Democrat MLC, Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, has criticised the State Government's proposal to shift the responsibility, and costs of improvements in storm water quality, to local councils. The LOCAL GOVERNMENT (STORMWATER) AMENDMENT Bill, allows local councils to raise more funds for the improvement of storm water quality through rates, is list for discussion in NSW Parliament this week.

"The Government is trying to get all this costly infrastructure off its books. We've seen it with the roads, and now we have this plan to make councils responsible for improving storm water quality. Of course, this is immediately passed on to the ratepayers because that is primarily how local government is funded," he said.

Dr. Chesterfield-Evans believes that splitting the responsibility for storm water quality is likely to have mixed results for water quality and an unequal distribution of costs for councils that have higher levels of pollution in their run-off.

"There is no way of guaranteeing that the amount of storm water, collected in each council area, will match the number of ratepayers available to pay for improving it. Some areas will also have to invest more to improve the quality of the water in their area, because they include industrial areas and arterial roads," he said.

Dr. Chesterfield-Evans is also concerned that this mixed management will have an impact on reuse initiatives, which are likely to require a coordinated response, and standards, for water quality.

"Sydney's annual water usage could almost be met by the storm water we lose each year. It makes much more sense to put the job of cleaning it up into properly funded and well-coordinated hands," Dr Chesterfield-Evans concluded.