2016-07-12 - Item 14 - Att 1 - Effluent Disposal Planning Study

6. Future Policy Direction for Noosa Shire
Reference has been made to a previous Planning Study On-Site Effluent Disposal & Water Quality
in Noosa Shire 1997. The context of the study remains relevant today.

            Noosa Shire is located within a sensitive but rapidly growing part of coastal
            Queensland. A significant proportion of future development within the Shire will
            be located in areas where reticulated sewerage systems are unlikely to be
            developed. On-site wastewater treatment and disposal is an important town
            planning, health and environmental issue.
            Future planning aims for sustainable development. It is important to incorporate
            wastewater treatment and disposal within town planning guidelines at an early
            stage to avoid costly errors. Listed below are a number of important issues
            relating to domestic wastewater disposal.
                    1. Water quality must be maintained at its present standard as the
                        minimum acceptable water quality.
                    2. Significant areas of the Shire are devoted to National Parks and
                        nature reserves that must be maintained in pristine condition.
                    3. The Shire has an extensive system of rivers and lakes with extended
                        residence periods. These systems are considered sensitive to
                        increases in nutrient loading.
                    4. The Shire is dependent upon tourism for a significant portion of its
                        revenue and this industry will be threatened by a deterioration in
                        environmental standards. This particularly applies to ecotourism,
                        fishing and other aquatic recreation.
                    5. The Shire has undergone a rapid increase in population in the
                        hinterland region where there is no provision of reticulated wastewater
                        collection. Significant expansion of the existing wastewater collection
                        system into these areas is not considered likely due to the very high
                        cost of infrastructure development and maintenance.
                    6. The Shire will be faced with increased demands for housing as the
                        population of South East Queensland rises.
                    7. Whilst a large body of water quality information exists for the Shire,
                        the data has largely been collected on an ad hoc basis with little
                        uniformity in collection or testing methodology. It is difficult to use this
                        data to infer long term changes in water quality.
                    8. Knowledge of the response of local streams and lakes systems to
                        nutrient, pathogen and sediment loadings is rudimentary and largely
                        based upon inference from other Australian or overseas studies.
                    9. The rainfall/run-off behaviour is highly variable and water quality
                        factors (stream flow, depth, light transmission, sediment load, nutrient
                        load, dissolved oxygen, etc) are likely to change by an order of
                        magnitude during different periods of any one year.
                    10. It is considered difficult, expensive and time consuming to undertake
                        remedial activities in most catchments or water bodies to correct
                        mistakes that occur. In particular, permitting urban development to
                        proceed in areas where reticulated wastewater collection is
                        impractical, will result in increases in nutrient export that are extremely
                        difficult (if not impossible) to control.
                    11. Should dwellings be permitted in any area it is almost impossible to
                        remove them. Urban development is considered essentially an
                        irreversible process that has highly variable effects on the general
                        environment.




On-Site Effluent Disposal in Noosa Shire 2016                                                     Page 22