State Environment Protection Policy (Waters) Review
Beneficial Uses – Proposed Changes
April2017
Purpose of this Paper
This paper provides an overview of the proposed changes to ‘beneficial uses’ for inclusion in the formal Draft State Environment Protection Policy (Waters), to be release in early 2018, for a three-month public consultation period.
‘Beneficial uses’ is the term used in the SEPP (Waters) to describe the values and uses of water environments that Victorians want to protect.
The paper draws on feedback contained in public submissions to the 2015 Discussion Paper for SEPP (Waters). It also incorporates the feedback gained from extensive stakeholder consultation undertaken during 2016 and early 2017. The paper is informed by a rigorous analysis and assessment of each beneficial use completed by DELWP and EPA during 2016, the results of which are summarised and included.
Contents
Purpose of this Paper
Context
State Environment Protection Policy (Waters) Review
Scope of Proposed Changes to Beneficial Uses
Method for Enacting the Proposed Changes to Beneficial Uses
Overview of Beneficial Uses
Beneficial uses relating to the protection of water dependent ecosystems and species
Beneficial uses relating to water for human consumption
Beneficial uses relating to water for agriculture, aquaculture and industry
Beneficial uses relating to water for recreation
Beneficial uses relating to water for cultural and spiritual values
Beneficial uses relating to other uses of water
Key terms used in this paper
Context
The primary regulatory mechanism used for addressing problems that impact on the water quality in Victoria’s water bodies is the Environment Protection Act 1970 (the Act). The Act defines high level objectives for protection of Victoria’s environments (including water-related environments) and gives the EPA roles, responsibilities and powers in respect to environmental protection.
Statutory policies – State Environment Protection Policies (SEPPs) – provide detailed requirements and guidance to help apply the Act. They aim to protect environmental values and human activities in Victoria from the effects of pollution and waste by:
•stating in law, community expectations, needs and priorities for using and protecting the environment
•setting out the values and uses of environments that Victorians want to protect (known as beneficial uses) and objectives and indicators required to protect those beneficial uses
•describing clauses and programs that will manage, protect and improve environmental qualities.
Two separate policies currently cover the protection of Victorian waters:
•surface water environments, including inland fresh waters, estuaries and marine waters, are protected under SEPP (Waters of Victoria) and its associated schedules
•the protection of groundwater environments is addressed separately under SEPP (Groundwaters of Victoria).
SEPP (Waters of Victoria) includes schedules relevant to specific locations to guide water quality in more detail.
State Environment Protection Policy (Waters) Review
The State Environment Protection Policies are reviewed periodically, typically every 10 years. The two water-related SEPPs and schedules are being reviewed concurrently, with the aim of producing a single SEPP that includes both surface water and groundwater. This will be known as State Environment Protection Policy (Waters).
Under the Environment Protection Act 1970, the new SEPP (Waters) must identify beneficial uses of water environments that Victorians value and want to protect and enhance. Reviewing the water SEPPs and associated schedules will ensure a clear policy framework that addresses threats and risks regarding water quality to protect beneficial uses.
The statutory or ‘formal’ consultation process involves the release of a draft SEPP (Waters) and Policy Impact Assessment, anticipated for release in early 2018, for a three-month public consultation period. The final SEPP (Waters) is expected to be released mid-2018 – see Figure 1.
Ahead of the release of the draft SEPP (Waters), an extensive consultation and engagement process is underway. In 2015, a SEPP (Waters) Review Discussion Paper facilitated understanding of the role of SEPPs in protecting water environments. Communities and stakeholders were asked to provide feedback on how water environments should be managed and protected in the future. Feedback was received via 46 written submissions and through associated workshops, meetings and discussions.
DELWP and EPA have considered thesesubmissions in developing this paper. Extensive engagement with stakeholders has been conducted during 2016/17 as the basis for reaching consensus on each beneficial use included in this paper.
Any group or individual that has provided comment at any stage of the review process to date will be kept informed and included in further consultation.
Figure 1: Consultation process for SEPP (Waters) highlighting where this paper fits in to key steps
Scope of Proposed Changes to Beneficial Uses
The Discussion Paper submissions and consultation with stakeholders provided feedback on the existing beneficial uses– see Table 1. Consistent feedback highlighted where beneficial uses should apply by bringing together beneficial uses from SEPP (WoV) and schedules, and SEPP (GoV) and that some beneficial uses could be stream-lined. Feedback raised questions as to why some beneficial uses in schedules werenot more widely applied across Victoria.
Table 1:Scope of proposed changes to beneficial uses following public submissions on Discussion Paper SEPP (Waters) and stakeholder engagement
Existing SEPP(Waters of Victoriaand schedules, Groundwaters of Victoria) / New SEPP (Waters)
Concept of beneficial uses as useful means of describing the values and uses of water environments that Victorians want to protect / Retain – no change
Breadth of beneficial uses to cover water quality for the protection of ecosystems, human consumption, agriculture and industry, recreation, cultural and spiritual values and several other uses / Retain – no change
Separate beneficial uses for surface water, groundwater apply to areas/segments / Change – combine in to a single policy
30 beneficial uses / Change – streamline to 13 beneficial uses
Gap – geothermal use of water
Gap – aquifer recharge / Change – add new beneficial use
Remove
Feedback also highlighted a range of views on applying beneficial uses to segments within the new policy. Some believed it would be useful to have a hierarchy of beneficial uses to help with deciding where and when beneficial uses should apply. Others believed consultation with the communities at a regional level is important when applying beneficial uses rather than using a prescriptive, state-wide approach. This is not within the scope of this paper. Refer instead to the Matching beneficial Uses to Segments (DELWP, 2017 in prep).
An assessment of the costs and benefits of maintaining each beneficial use in the draft SEPP (Waters) to the economy will be carried out as part of the Policy Impact Assessment process. Therefore, no detail on the costs and benefits of beneficial uses are presented in this paper.
Method for Enacting theProposed Changes to Beneficial Uses
Table 1 outlines the scope of proposed changes to beneficial uses for incorporation in to the new SEPP (Waters). The process for updating and drafting the words on beneficial uses to include in SEPP (Waters) has been overseen by the SEPP (Waters) Project Control Board, the Internal Review Committee and the Stakeholder Reference Committee.
To ensure each change was adequately considered, a methodical process for reviewing and assessing against agreed criteria was undertaken for each beneficial use separately.
The review for each beneficial use included:
•oversight via a groundwater working group comprised of EPA and DELWP
•collation and analysis of feedback from the 2015 SEPP (Waters) Review Discussion Paper
•review of national and state policies and strategies to determine consistency between environmental values and beneficial uses
•analysis of new scientific research since the prior SEPPs (WoV, GoV and schedules) were released
•assessment of the beneficial use against a set of criteria to assist in determining whether it remained relevant to be included in the revised SEPP (Waters).
As noted in the final step of the review, each beneficial use was assessed against the following criteria:
•should align with the beneficial use definition within the Environment Protection Act 1970
•must be developed with definitions that apply across Victoria, with no special categories
•will have relevant definitions and apply to inland, wetland, estuarine, marine and/or groundwater segments
•should be protected by providing a certain quality of water
•require policy to protect them
•should have indicators to demonstrate whether water quality objectives to protect beneficial uses are being met or not
•must be able to be updated with existing science
•seek to align or be consist with a range of Victorian and national policies and strategies
•seek protection by being embedded or justified in other processes and management actions.
Overview of Beneficial Uses
The beneficial uses listed in the current water SEPPs can be categorised into six themes as shown below.
- Protection of water dependent ecosystems and species
- Water for human consumption
- Water for agriculture, aquaculture and industry
- Water for recreation
- Cultural and spiritual values
- Other beneficial uses.
Table 2 provides a summary of beneficial uses included within the water-related SEPPs and schedules and the beneficial uses recommended for SEPP (Waters).
Further discussion will be provided in the following sections to outline how the recommended beneficial uses have been developed, their intent and how they capture the intent outlined in the existing water-related SEPPs.
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Table 2:Summary of beneficial uses included within the existing water-related SEPPs and schedules, and the beneficial uses recommended for SEPP (Waters)
Beneficial uses in the existing water-related SEPPsSEPP (WoV) and schedules, SEPP (GoV) / Beneficial uses recommended for SEPP (Waters) / Beneficial use purpose or intent / Waters that beneficial use is applicable
Protection of water dependent ecosystems and species
- Aquatic ecosystems
- Maintenance of natural aquatic ecosystems and associated wildlife
- Maintenance of ecosystems (groundwater)
- Maintenance of indigenous riparian vegetation
- Passage of native fish
Water for human consumption
- Human consumption after appropriate treatment
- Potable water supply
Water quality is protected for the desalinisation plant / surface water
- Potable water supply (desirable / acceptable)
- Potable mineral water supply
Water for agriculture, aquaculture and industry
- Agriculture and irrigation
- Agricultural water supply
- Stock watering and agriculture
- Agriculture, parks and gardens
- Stock watering
- Fish, Crustacea and molluscs for human consumption
- Production of molluscs for human consumption
- Consumption of fish, Crustacea and molluscs for recreation and commercial purposes
- Commercial and recreational use of edible fish and crustacean (the consumption of seafood other than molluscs)
*as defined in the Fisheries Act 1995 / surface water
- Aquaculture
- Fishing and aquaculture
- Production of molluscs for human consumption
*as defined in the Fisheries Act 1995 / surface water
- Industrial and commercial use
- Industrial water use
Water for recreation
Water based recreation
- Primary contact recreation
- Secondary contact
- Aesthetic enjoyment
Water for cultural and spiritual values
Indigenous cultural and spiritual values / Traditional Owner cultural and spiritual values / Water quality that is suitable for cultural and spiritual needs and that will ensure that Traditional owner cultural, spiritual and ceremonial practices can continue. These include the spiritual values of surface and groundwater held by traditional owner communities. / groundwater and surface water
Non-indigenous cultural and spiritual values / Cultural and spiritual values / Water quality that is suitable for cultural and spiritual needs and that will ensure that cultural, spiritual and ceremonial practices can continue. These include the cultural values held by both urban and rural communities (e.g. water based festivals and celebrations) / groundwater and surface water
Water for other beneficial uses
Navigation and shipping / Navigation and shipping / Water quality that is suitable for shipping transport and harbour facilities / surface water
Buildings and structures / Protection of buildings and structures / Groundwater quality that will ensure that introduced contaminants do not cause groundwater quality to become corrosive to buildings, structures, property and materials / groundwater
N/A - new / Geothermal / Water quality that will not affect the geothermal capacity of the groundwater / groundwater
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Beneficial uses relating to the protection of water dependent ecosystems and species
There are broadly four beneficial uses relating to the protection of ecosystems and species in the existing water-related SEPPs and schedules. These are:
- Aquatic ecosystems and maintenance of natural aquatic ecosystems and associated wildlife
- Maintenance of ecosystems(groundwater)
- Maintenance of indigenous riparian vegetation and
- Passage of native fish
Water SEPPs definition and intent
SEPP (GoV) listed maintenance of ecosystems as a beneficial use. The intent of this beneficial use was to ensure that groundwater quality does not adversely affect surface water ecosystems, where they connect.
Aquatic ecosystems/ associated wildlife is listed in SEPP (WoV) and the schedules. The intent of these beneficial uses was to protect the integrity and biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems. The definition of aquatic ecosystem used in SEPP (WoV) is “the community of organisms living within or immediately adjacent to water (including riparian and foreshore zones)”. Community includes vegetation, vertebrates, invertebrates, and aquatic ecosystems includes both estuarine, freshwater and marine.
In addition to the aquatic ecosystems beneficial use, Schedule F7 Waters of the Yarra Catchmentlisted maintenance of indigenous riparian vegetation and passage of native fish as beneficial uses.
The SEPP (WoV) description of the aquatic ecosystems beneficial use included three categories:
Aquatic ecosystems that are:
- Largely unmodified
- Slightly to moderately modified
- Highly modified
The definitions of these categories were linked to SEPP (WoV) Part VIII, Schedule A (A1) that states:
“the environmental quality objectives are those specified in the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000) (the Guidelines). Unless otherwise stated, the level of ecosystem protection in the Guidelines that needs to be used to determine the objective is:
a)99% for largely unmodified aquatic ecosystems
b)95% for slightly to moderately modified aquatic ecosystems
c)90% for highly modified aquatic ecosystems.
As defined in table 3.4.1 denoted as level of ecosystem protection (% of species).”
The three levels of environmental protection were included in SEPP (WoV) to recognise that ecosystems can be protected to different levels depending on their level of modification (human influence on their condition).
Recommended beneficial use and purpose
It is recommended that the beneficial use protection of water dependent ecosystems and species is retained in SEPP (Waters) as the umbrella heading. The recommended beneficial use maintains the intent of the SEPP (WoV) and schedulesand SEPP (GoV) and incorporates the protection of groundwater dependent and subterranean ecosystems.
The term water dependent ecosystems and species has been used in place of aquatic ecosystems to allow a broader intent of the beneficial use. Water dependent ecosystems are defined as a surface water ecosystem or a groundwater ecosystem, and its natural components and processes, that depends on periodic or sustained inundation, waterlogging or significant inputs of water for its ecological integrity and includes an ecosystem associated with a wetland, stream, lake or waterbody, salt marsh, estuary, karst system or groundwater system. A reference to a water dependent ecosystem includes a reference to the biodiversity of the ecosystem[1].