Merri Creek Industrial Pollution

Further pollution and water quality monitoring technologies

Engagement with University

External Funding

Academic knowledge on sensors

Opportunity for future monitoring and research

Victoria University

Melbourne Water

Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment

Social Impact Assessment

Health Impact Assessment

Evaluative framework that quantifies the level of risk at each site

Native species

Growling Grass Frog

Platypus

Legislation and Policy

Friends of the Merri Creek

Historical data of water quality monitoring by the EPA and Hume City Council (Bio2Lab and Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Monitoring(CAPIM))

Consult Health and Safety Team

Victorian Waterway Management Strategy

Bring back Cleaner Creeks, Everyone's Business?

Education and awareness program

IWMP 2020-2025

Liveable Communities, Liveable Waterways Program

Identified hotspots at the industrial sites around Merlynston Creek

Measuring Chromium, Copper, Lead, Nickel, TPH, Zinc

Risk level based on Bio2Lab Risk classes developed through extensive collection and analysis of industrial stormwater sampling data, with the risk categories illustrating the relative magnitude of contamination compared to background industrial drains.

Outcomes Based Approach

As observed in the Waterways Investment Prioritisation Merri Creek Catchment Pilot Study

Prioritising solution implementation schemes that are appropriate in terms of applied technical solution, the level of control and the benefits realised for the customers and the environment.

Aligning with stakeholders investment to achieve the agreed outcomes.

Encompasses risk assessment and mitigation within an adaptive framework that allows continual improvement over the agreed planning horizon.

Stormwater diversion technology?

Tactical stormwater to sewer diversion, stormwater treatment tanks, gross pollutant traps (stormwater and wastewater overflows)

Stakeholders

Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC)

EPA

Melbourne Water

Friends of Merri Creek (FoMC)

The Merri Paddle

Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018

General Environmental Duty

Goal: Protect Waterways from urban stormwater pollution.


Objective 2: Improve water quality or discharges to waterways by minimising pollution to waterways from Council, industry and development activities

Victorian Litter Plan

Melbourne Water Healthy Waterways Strategy 2018-2028

the state-wide policy instrument for the protection of beneficial uses of water environments in Victoria. Beneficial uses are defined as the uses and values of the water environment that the community and Government want to protect.

Victoria University

Can reach out to Claire Fenby about having this project be run by the community and source funding. May be more effective that way. Also can chat to MCMC about their participation?

Asset Planning

Installing a wetland aroud the creek for biodiversity, ammenity, stormwater treatment.

Wetland Asset Opportunities

Pollution Interception (Melbourne Water)

Environmental Protection (Water and Wetland Biodiversity) Policy 2019

Merri Creek Amenities

Identifying areas and parameters for pollution monitoring

Under the updated Environment Protection Act (the Act) that came into effect in 2021, everyone in the community has a duty to protect our environment from pollutants. We are not exempt and we need to protect our waterways from chemicals entering via our stormwater drains.

GGF Masterplan

Sensors - evaluating types of sensors to use and where to put them

Key recommendations

Results:

  • Drain outfalls (downstream) has highest levels of contamination
  • Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon is a major concern. Pulse Pollution events detected on-site likely from top of catchment.

Learnings from EPA Trialing projects: The mobility of the real-time sensor hubs trialled in parallel to this project would allow EPA to locate the source of the pollution impacting Merlynston Creek.

Passive samplers 🧪

Ammonia Passive Samplers

EPA Trialing in 2020

What:

  • Analysis was done by flow system with a limit of detection (LOD)
  • Quality control
  • Measurement uncertainty
  • Conversion of values to give estimate of pollutant concentrations over large temporal scales when compared to grab sampling techniques.
    Final concentrations reported as ammonia-N

Where: Fabrication and analysis of ammonia passive samplers was completed at the University of Melbourne, School of Chemistry

Where: Samplers deployed for 10 weeks at 3 key sites

StormScout Samplers

EPA Trialing in 2020

Where: Samplers deployed at 10 locations for 5 weeks

How: The pollution risk ratings are based on summary statistics derived from stormwater pollutant concentrations detected in the StormScout Samplers over a 12-year period.

How: All chemical analysis performed by National Association of Testing Laboratories Australia (NATA). Contaminant concentrations converted into a simple colour-coded pollution risk rating. The site risk score was determined by average pollutant concentrations across the 5 weeks of sampling.

What: After each sampling event, media from the sampler was collected, processed, and analysed for common persistent contaminants

Active sensors 🔗

Real-time pollution sensors

EPA Trialing in 2020

Where: Sensors deployed at 7 locations in the Merlynston Creek catchment

What/How: Data streamed via the 4G network every 15 minutes to a data visualisation dashboard. Monitors for Ammonia, pH, copper + other metals. Water collected periodically for spot-checking. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and water level monitored in real time across the catchment.

Passive Samplers Recommendations: Incorporating ammonium passive samplers as part of future studies is recommended. Additional samplers deployed at multiple sites within catchments allows for a quick and approach for isolating and sourcing contamination.

Hume CC WSUD Masterplan

MCMC GGF Masterplan

Merlynston Creek Masterplan

Victoria University are wanting to partner to provide funding for a Masters Student on a future project.

Hume Health and Wellbeing Plan 2021-2025

Live Green Plan 2021-2026

Contributes to the themes of the Community Vision and Council Plan:

  • A city that cares about our planet and is appealing and connected.
  • A council that inspires leadership, is accountable, and puts the community first.
  1. Get involved and take action for the environment: Environmental Community Group in Hume

Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance (Inactive group) - Provides a strong, unified, and influential community advocacy regarding regulation and operation of hazardous industries such as waste and recycling facilities.

Hume City Council Industrial Stormwater Code of Practice

Section 3.

  • Advice on construction pollution control.
  • Improving the Site
  • Improving environmental management
  • Site audits
  • Advice on constructing pollution controls.

Project Objectives

Understand health and safety risks of Merri Creek and other tributaries (e.g Merlynston Creek)

Understanding potential impact on wetland assets (existing and planned)

Compliance with planning permits in industrial estates

Research with RMIT Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership

A3P Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership

Contact Dave from Monash Uni who worked on this project and recommissioned the toxicant treatment facility

Merri Creek and Environs Strategy 2009-2014

Authority: MCMC

Instituted by the Merri Creek Management Committee with the endorsement of the City of Whittlesea, the Merri Creek and Environs Strategy specifies a number of catchment and waterway management actions to be undertaken by stakeholders within the Merri catchment, including Council. The current SWMP has been developed with reference to this document and is in line with its recommendations.

CIty of Whittlesea Stormwater Management Plan 2012-2017

Merri intersect the City of Whittlesea

City of Whittlesea

is it possible to put in an application with them given that Merri Creek intersect through their city and they also have interest in the Merri Creek?

Potential online treatment options through lab trials (e.g sand, scoria, bluestone, charcoal)

Can support research with providing resources. They have previously worked with RMIT for research into sensor technology for industrial pollution.

Toxicant Treatment Facility Barry Rd

This project was managed by the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR), a collaborative research centre that combined expertise from across La Trobe University, Monash University, and the University of Melbourne

The Merri Creek waterways and Healthy Waterways Strategy

The need for structural and non-structural practices to address pollutants from industrial catchments

O'Hern's Wetland

Hendersons Creek Wetland

Merri Creek becomes a perenial stream in this section

Darebin Creek

Morang Wetlands

Plenty River

Contructed wetland in Doreen and Mernda

Aquifer Storage and Recovery techniques for water storage

Tanunda Wetlands

Plenty River

AQUEST Aquatic Environmental Stress Research Group

This project aims to:

  • Undertake an international literature review to identify what toxicants typically accumulate in stormwater wetlands and how they affect wetland performance and management
  • Conduct surveys in stormwater wetlands across Melbourne to determine what toxicants are present in local stormwater wetlands and where they are accumulating through the treatment process
  • Review traditional and emerging methods for monitoring wetland ‘ecological health’ and develop simple, cost-effective monitoring tools to determine the effects of toxicants on wetland performance

This is a collaboration with Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership (MWRPP) Project B2.

Findings

Metals (Zn, Cu, Ni and Pb), TPH, synthetic pyrethroid pesticide were commonly present in inlet sedimentation ponds.

No correlation between toxicant concentration and wetland age

Melbourne growth corridors investment priorities in conservation area 34 - NORTH & SOUTH

Four high priority reaches based on Biosis Research’s existing metapopulations. A portion of Merri Creek Reach 4 is a Nature Conservation area because of its very high biodiversity values, and is therefore unsuitable for wetland construction.

It is located at Barry Rd, Campbellfield, Melbourne,
Victoria. Stormwater first passes through a Gross Pollutant
Trap and then to a flow splitter where it is discharged into three
1m3 treatment tanks constructed in parallel to enable direct
comparative performance of three filtration media. When
inflow volumes exceed the capacity of the TTF, water flows
over the diverter into the main drain and directly into the creek.

Regulation and enforcement, behaviour change program, online treatment

Merri Creek and Environs Strategy Chapter 3.2 - Water Quality and Stream Health

Industrial sites

GGF Plan (to be released early 2024)

Water quality monitoring

City of Merri-Bek

IWM Strategy 2020-2025

Outcome 1.13 Develop a plan for utilising and target water quality monitoring, such as Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) Waterwatch2, to give us a better understanding of changes and impacts

Strategic Risks and Opportunities

• Recognition of the need for a comprehensive understanding and allowance for resourcing for ongoing maintenance of existing and new large WSUD assets. Response: Ensure enough trained resources and funding has been allocated for maintenance of WSUD assets.

Wetlands

Moomba Park Wetland and frog habitat

Construction underway (construction excpected to be complete by May 2023)

image

Taskforce

Sustainability Taskforce

Upper Merri Taskforce

Edgars Creek and Edwardes Lake Taskforce

RMIT

RMIT Discussion Paper

Structural

Structural Isolation within buildings

Structural isolation

Non-structural

education - tools trainings, info capacity building targets to SME industrial

Incentives - positive recognition assistance

Behaviour Change - site inspections, evaluations to each business, continued over time to maintain change

Enforcement

click to edit

required in new builds

retrofit old buildings and washdown areas

test efficacy of this

Gully baskets, litter traps at the end of the industrial estate to remove gross pollutants from entering the receiving waterway.

Stormwater runoff of dry weather flows and first flush in a storm event treated through filtered material which capture pollutants – build in the design of the industrial estate. Send these flows to sewer.

Biofiltration should only be used in 'low risk' industrial estates

Stakeholders in Industrial Pollution Monitoring

Tertiary Institutions

RMIT

Victoria University

State Government

Local Councils

City of Whittlesea

City of Brimbank

City of Maribyrnong

City of Mitchell Shire

City of Banyule

The community

Local businesses

The Envio Champions

The Sustainability Taskforce

Friends of Merri Creek

Merri Creek Management Committee

Friends of the Merri Paddle

Water Corporations

Melbourne Water

Yarra Valley Water

City of Hume

Community based organisations and groups

Department of Health

Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

The developers and builders