- Groundwater - recharge
- Stormwater and Drainage
- Water Conservation
- Wastewater Treatment
- Water Reuse
- Garden, Landscaping and Irrigation
- "By integrating key design elements, it is possible to reduce water demand, improve water use efficiency, while providing for environmental, aesthetic and recreational values."
Peel-Harvey water sensitive urban design technical guidelines, Oct 2006
FEATURED EVENTS
Water Sensitive Cities Speaker Series September
From the ground up: Building a secure water future in Salisbury, Adelaide
Colin Pitman
Director City Project, City of Salisbury, SA
12:00-1:00pm
Thursday 16 September 2010
Atrium theatrette – Level 4
168 St Georges Tce Perth
In an average year, South Australia takes around half of its water supply from the River Murray. Recent years have seen only 20 per cent of long-term average inflows into the river system. Additionally, run-off to the basin is predicted to reduce by a further 20 per cent for every one degree of warming. Thus, after decades of mismanagement and over-use, the Murray-Darling system is proving to be an unreliable source of water for both human use and the environment, which is in serious decline.
Within the City of Salisbury, although winter rainfall remained steady, the combination of the decreasing availability of water from the River Murray and a lack of storage/catchment areas in the City meant that the Council relied almost exclusively on potable mains water to meet all of its water needs.
After a journey which started in 1994, the City of Salisbury now operates an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) system which consists of 53 wetlands, 16 ASR bores and detention dams, managing 33GL of stormwater flowing through the City. Although the system currently captures 5GL and sells 1.5GL, there are plans to increase capture to 14GL within 5 years.
Total investment in the program in Salisbury to date has been nearly $52 million, of which the Council has contributed $17.2 million; the Commonwealth Government $20.3 million; the State (principally through its land development agency and connected with its responsibilities as a land owner) $13 million; and others, mainly industrial users $1.4 million.
Although the approach that has been taken did not deliberately set out to recycle stormwater, it has been an emerging journey of discovery with shifting goals that has both shaped the debate in South Australia and contributed significantly to the culture of the organisation.
This talk by Colin describes the work that has been pioneered at the City of Salisbury in northern Adelaide in the capture, harvesting and reuse of stormwater, highlighting the potential of Local Government to contribute significantly to a major public policy issue and develop innovative and creative solutions to issues of sustainability.
Colin Pitman has a background in agriculture and engineering, holding degrees in both. He has extensive experience in the private sector prior to working at the City of Salisbury. In recent years, Colin has been an active proponent of stormwater being a key part of the solution to Adelaide’s water supply issue. Amongst other responsibilities, he has led a team who has been innovative in Energy Management, Environmental Design, Waste Management and the traditional Civil Engineering works of Local Government. More notably however, over the last 21 years he has been a leader locally and internally in Water Management having won numerous awards culminating in the World Water Association Award in Beijing in 2006.
New WAter Ways would like to acknowledge the foresight and effort of the City of Canning to bring this most respected speaker to Perth and we thank them for the opportunity to share Colin’s expertise with a wider audience.
No rsvp required.
For further information, please contact
