Stormwater Management

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (16:28): The January rainfall is around 20 millimetres, and halfway through January we had had no rain whatsoever. In fact, for the several months preceding that first rain, we had had little rain, to the extent that mothers and fathers, when it was first raining in January, were holding their sons and daughters of four months saying, 'This is rain.' None of them had seen it and we had not had much at all.

In January, Adelaide received just over 50 millimetres of rain. I think it fell in about two or three events during that period. The average rainfall in February in Adelaide is 12.8 millimetres and, to date, in a single event in February (during that storm earlier) we have received 18 millimetres. Going on our year-to-date figures, our city has received 70 millimetres, well in excess of the average. This entire rainfall occurred over three or four rain events.

You might be asking, Deputy Speaker, where I am going on this. Let me tell you where I am going with this. I have probably five or six kilometres of coastline along the western boundary of my electorate, from Breakout Creek outlet down to about Trimmer Parade at Tennyson. Along that boundary we have the outlet, as I call it, for the River Torrens and many other stormwater outlets which also include several drainage outlets under the control of the City of Charles Sturt, two of which discharge at Marlborough Street and the Grange jetty.

For a good few days after the January rain events the gulf waters adjacent to my electorate turned brown. After the February storm the water was a really dark brown for at least a kilometre out from the shoreline as these outlets spewed significant amounts of stormwater from the catchment outage points. So bad was the situation following the February storm that the surf lifesaving clubs had to suspend their Nipper events along the water at Henley and Grange, the West Beach Surf Lifesaving Club had to suspend its annual Pink Swim, and lifesavers advised others not to take to the water.

Compounding this problem was the amount of rubbish that washed up to the beach as a result of that stuff being contained in the stormwater that was heading out to the ocean. I remember as a young person that I would get to the end of the Henley jetty and jump off with my goggles, snorkel and flippers and head north towards the Grange jetty, come inshore a little bit and there would be beautiful seagrass beds over that area. Today you have to go about two kilometres out from the shoreline to see any seagrasses at all.

No doubt it has been human activity that has caused the demise of seagrasses with stormwater, sewerage outlets and other human activities in the area. I know that Adelaide needs infrastructure and that during heavy storm events we must get the water away, otherwise it will flood houses. I know that and I also know that, as a city and as a state, we have made significant improvements in stormwater retention and storage. I know that we have made significant improvements in the quality of wastewater discharge going into the gulf from our wastewater plants. I know that we have made significant improvements in catching and removing trash from our waterways. However, what I also know is that we must continue to improve.

We must do better in managing our waterways. We must do better in reducing debris and rubbish and we must do better in improving and increasing the range of our stormwater recycling efforts. To not do any better, to not improve will allow the marine desert that exists along metropolitan Adelaide that goes out for a couple of kilometres, particularly in my electorate, to continue to slowly spread throughout the gulf. We need to improve this. We all have a role and a responsibility to make sure that the spread of this marine desert, as I call it, does not occur.

Again, I highlight that we have made significant improvements, but we need to do better. We certainly need to make sure that we do not have the discharge of those elements in the quantities that currently exist going into the gulf that continue to affect our marine environment, particularly in and around metropolitan Adelaide—but the same exists in some of our larger country regional centres, as well. It is our responsibility to do something in the present to enable future generations to be able to enjoy our marine environment.