The Better Bays and Waterways Program
This program aims to improve water quality in the region’s bays, rivers, creeks and estuaries. It is a partnership at the local, regional, state and national level.
The Port Phillip and Westernport region is an area of 12,000 km2. It includes a population of 4.3 million people. The bays and beaches as well as the 8000 kilometres of rivers and creeks are vitally important natural assets to the community.
The health of these bays and waterways can be directly linked to human activities. As the population of Melbourne and surrounding areas continues to grow, the difficulty of protecting water quality increases.
Development of this program is jointly funded by:
The Australian Government’s Coastal Catchments Initiative
component of the Natural Heritage Trust, Environment Protection Authority Victoria; and
Melbourne Water
The program will integrate current water quality activities with new ideas to frame water quality improvements for the major rivers, creeks, estuaries and bays.
Many organisations and communities are already working to improve the water quality. Building on this work, Better Bays and Waterways seeks to blend existing ideas and new initiatives to provide clearer directions for the future.
How can I get more information?
Download the brochure (Adobe PDF file, 920KB) for further information on Better Bays and Waterways, or please contact EPA Victoria's Better Bays and Wayerways Program Manager on (03) 9695 2570, or alternatively send an email.
Stakeholder Advisory Group
A Stakeholder Advisory Group is being established to provide opportunities for input into the development of the Better Bays and Waterways program.
The Stakeholder Advisory Group will provide a forum to discuss water quality priority issues and threats, and how these might best be addressed. The group will also discuss current projects addressing issues such as urban stormwater management, pollution monitoring, and agricultural land management practices.
Members of the Stakeholder Advisory Group will be chosen to represent a diversity of backgrounds and views of the people and organisations in the region that have an impact on or interest in water quality, including local government, environment, industry, research and education sectors and the broader community.
Membership of the group is voluntary and will be for an initial 12-month period with the possibility of extending beyond this timeframe if required.
The group will meet 2-4 times per year.
Applications for the Stakeholder Advisory Group closed on 9 February 2007.
Watch this space to find out more.
Information Session Presentations
An information session was held March 2007 to share outcomes from the various components of the Better Bays and Waterways program. The session covered topics including
- Project overview for Bettter Bays and Waterways (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 13 MB)
- Decision Support System catchment model (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 10 MB)
- Receiving Water Quality model (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 13 MB)
- Beaches Protection (recreational health) (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 13 MB)
- Water Quality Monitoring (pollution loads) (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 1.6 MB)
- Risk Assessment (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 30 MB)
- Agricultural Best Management Practices (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 874KB)
- Water Sensitive Urban Design (institutionalising) (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 96MB)
- Pollution Offsets (investigating a market) (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 194KB)
- Market research (community perceptions related to water quality) (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation, 3MB)
Conservation Group Community Consultation Workshop
A workshop to discuss the Better Bays and Waterways program was held for environment and conservation groups. The
views expressed at the workshop, held on the 28th of March 2007 can be downloaded here
(Adobe PDF format, 206KB)
Watch this space for news updates