Page 511 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 June 1989
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Leave granted.
MR JENSEN: Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the house for giving me this facility. I rise, as I have already indicated, in support of my colleague Mr Moore, and confirm, as I think people are well aware, that the Residents Rally is supporting this Bill proposed by the Government but, as I think has been already indicated, not the amendment proposed by Mr Humphries.
It goes without saying, Mr Speaker, that the Rally supports any reasonable measure to improve the water quality in our Territory. It was indeed opportune today that Ms Maher raised the issue of urban pollution by referring to problems of urban runoff from government land at Isaacs. In providing her answers, I wonder whether the Minister was aware of the document already referred to by my colleague Mr Moore, produced by the National Capital Development Commission and the ACT Administration in February 1988 called Standard Practices - Guidelines on Urban Erosion and Sediment Control Practices. This document provides a fine summary of the issue, including the requirement for the pollution control authority to determine the measures practicable and necessary before a licence is issued.
I am sure many of you have seen advertisements in the local media periodically providing information on what licences are being granted to allow the discharge of waste into the water system. The document to which I referred was produced, in its own words, to assist those contractors and their design agents in preparing an erosion and sediment control plan for their work. This plan is required to be submitted to the pollution control authority when they seek a licence to discharge water.
It would appear, Mr Speaker, that many of the problems referred to by Ms Maher could have been avoided if the conditions of the licences issued by the pollution control authority were properly implemented and enforced. I would suggest that this amendment Bill may go some way in assisting the authorities to help that enforcement.
The guidelines acknowledge the problems of land servicing and their effect on water quality in the ACT. Many of the small lakes and ponds and even larger lakes, like Lake Tuggeranong, were constructed to alleviate this problem. In particular, it would seem that it was only the need for the protection of the Murrumbidgee River that finally convinced the Federal Government of the day to release its purse strings and allow the new lake to be constructed, a facility that I am sure will not only assist in the protection of the Murrumbidgee and its ecosystems by reducing the amount of suspended solids and turbidity in that river but also reduce the effect on organisms like clams, dragonflies, beetles, bulrushes, sedges, et cetera, as well as the occasional platypus that I understand frequents those areas.
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