Page 4760 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Cheyne for her question and her interest in the environment right across Canberra.
Lake Tuggeranong was constructed in the early 1980s to provide erosion and sediment control for the developing suburbs of Tuggeranong, protect the environmental values of the Murrumbidgee River, and provide amenity and a focal point for the Tuggeranong town centre. To date it has delivered on these tasks.
Unfortunately, a result of trapping nutrients and protecting downstream environments has been blue-green algal blooms in previous summers. With hot, dry conditions expected this summer, more blooms are quite likely. The ACT government is aware of this issue and is working hard to improve water quality in Lake Tuggeranong to prevent algal blooms occurring in the future.
MS CHEYNE: Can the minister provide an update on the government’s work to improve water quality in Lake Tuggeranong?
MR GENTLEMAN: The ACT government is committed to improving water quality in Lake Tuggeranong. That is why we co-invested with the Australian government in the $93 million healthy waterways project, focused on addressing water quality issues in the region’s waterways.
Significant elements of this project have been and continue to be conducted in Tuggeranong. Seven of the 20 water quality assets constructed through the healthy waterways project are in the Tuggeranong catchment. These include four rain gardens, a wetland, a pond and channel restoration.
In addition to the construction of water quality assets in the Lake Tuggeranong catchment, research led by Associate Professor Fiona Dyer and her team at the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra is being undertaken as part of the healthy waterways project. Associate Professor Dyer and her team are investigating the source of nutrients driving algal blooms in Lake Tuggeranong and identifying options that could be applied once algal blooms arise. I would like to take this opportunity to commend Associate Professor Dyer and her team for their work to date. I look forward to the release of the report in the coming weeks.
The government will continue to work with key stakeholders during the summer of 2019-20, on initiatives such as public education aimed at reducing pollution from households; examining the management of city-owned green spaces; and investigating whether some of the codes, such as the water sensitive urban design code, are supporting the water quality outcomes that we would expect.
MS CODY: Minister, how has the ACT government’s commitment to healthy waterways improved the water quality in Lake Tuggeranong?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Cody also for her interest in the environment in this area. The government’s commitment to healthy waterways is helping to improve the water quality in Lake Tuggeranong. The seven assets I talked about earlier
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