Is stormwater sexy? (Spoiler, it’s not!)

Live-tweeted from the franc.sydney conference | March 2022

Stormwater is the water that falls on roofs and roads in urban areas and flows (usually without being filtered) straight into local creeks, waterways, bays, and beaches. Every year there are conferences around the world discussing how to deal with stormwater. And more and more, about how to turn this problem into an opportunity.

In March 2022 the Stormwater NSW committee held the franc.sydney 2022 conference which our team attended. While we were there, we live-tweeted some of the talks and insights.

A key question that was being posed was ‘Is stormwater sexy?’. We think people are really asking why doesn’t this type of infrastructure and investment get more attention from the government, and from the community.

But first, stormwater…

Here is a quick overview of where stormwater sits in the whole water cycle, in the form of a series of tweets!

Water industry in Australia is made up of several sub disciplines (just like transport, health, law, retail, hospitality, IT, etc is too). You have the water supply, the pumps and pipes, desalination, waste water, recycled water, groundwater, stormwater, rainwater, wsud, groups

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Today's conference is mostly about stormwater. Expect stormwater links with flooding in cities a big issue. Just three years ago 96% of NSW was in drought.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

The big issue is how to do what we call 'integrated water management', or 'water sensitive urban design'. Basically this means water is managed not as one issue (e.g. flooding send drainage), but as many. Can you harvest rainwater / stormwater and use it for potable water?

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

How to create integrated design solutions is what we at Wave Consulting spend over 50% of our time working on. We have active projects in 3 of 8 capital cities in Australia right now.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Stormwater works are really the unsexy and boring part of the water industry. Mostly. And the industry is quite small. But in Sydney there would be over $25 billion in infrastructure of stormwater assets. Mostly underground.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

And the liveability of a city can be dramatically influenced by stormwater assets. After the March 2022 floods there is more and more talk regarding whether some properties are liveable in the long term. The impact of is so bad that maybe people should permanently move.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

On this issue of permanent relocation and property buybacks, the water related problem starts to go beyond stormwater, and moreso catchment wide runoff and town planning. Lismore isn't really affected from stormwater, but a small catchment that cops it bad with east coast lows

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

So we'd call this catchment integrated water management, rather than integated water management, a term we use for city type of solution. (But others may disagree with this terminology)

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

So what are the more sexy parts of the water industry? In my opinion, it is desalination and dams. Dams for city supplies, dams for city flood protection, and dams for farm irrigation. Just this week the Deputy Prime Minister talked about over a billion dollars for Tamworth.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Desalination gets a good run in the media too. Think 'water factory'. 97% of the world's water is salt water. So a magical factory that churns out clean drinking water is cool. Oh but it is expensive. And energy intensive. Ouch.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Almost every Australian city now has desalination plants. The drought in 2000s forced most metropolitan water authorities (and governments) to diversify.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

And that is really the long term solution. Diversity and what we call 'All options on the table'. See @AustralianWater report https://t.co/GSFsqixokI

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

I think @tonywong_crc described it well some ten years ago about developing a portfolio of water options. Like a stock market portfolio.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

The problem is water infrastructure takes a long long time to build. Quite similar to urban transport infrastructure. So if it is at all political, then all hell breaks loose. And is it political? Hell yes. It is similar to the way energy debates in Australia are ideological.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Some of the best (env, economical) solutions to water problem are in more efficiency and more recycling. Yes drinking recycled water. Like we do now. Sydney does now. But to bring that in at a greater scale is too controversial.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

And that is interestingly where stormwater starts to rise in political support. Can stormwater become a water supply option. It is in Orange (NSW). It is in Singapore. It is in over million homes of Australian that rely solely on rainwater for all water needs.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

But stormwater generation is variable. Like solar power. We find, as consultants that work on renewable energy precinct solutions and water options, that the parallel between these issues is incredibly close. Distributed water and energy options hit similar hurdles.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

And stormwater is dirty. I mean it isn't waste water, but it isn't drinkable.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Australia has adopted what is called a separate system. Stormwater is in one pipe. Sewer drains in a separate pipe network. Sewer goes to a treatment plant. Stormwater generally isn't treated, and flows under gravity to rivers, bays and the ocean.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

In Europe and USA they have a combined system. All stormwater and sewer goes into one pipe system. So less pipes. But more water to treat. And more likely to overflow (ie not filtered). The Thames used to get a big spill on average every single week.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

So stormwater is generally not filtered in Australia. If we are lucky 1% would be. It was never designed to be. Until now. Now we have rules that require a new building to have 'water sensitive urban design'. Basically filter your stormwater.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Today's conference in Sydney (https://t.co/U10taENglb) will see many people advocating for more of this WSUD infrastructure. It has a lot of multiple benefits. There was a 9 year research program focused on why, how and who does WSUD. See @crcwsc

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

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Stormwater is a heavy hitter

So in the context of extreme flooding, water supply options, irrigating green spaces, preventing pollution from entering creeks and beaches, and a healthier and cooler city, stormwater is a heavy hitter.

But it’s probably not that sexy. Especially as people mostly just see and think about drains and pits!

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More from the franc.sydney conference

Some seriously interesting people and talks happened at the franc.sydney conference. These are some of the highlights of what we captured.

First talk at the NSW Stormwater conference. Panel with several leaders from @UNSWWRL, @blacktowncc, Tony from @Alluvium_AU, Dr Britta Denise Hardesty @CSIRO on urban water links with blue green infrastructure.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Will says Melbourne Water has 500 constructed wetlands or lakes. But they struggle to deliver good water quality and amenity. Because whole guideline is based on a lake built in 1972 in Ohio!

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

We don't know enough about climate change and climate variability, but we know enough to change.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Plastic pollution major issue. But there are community and technology solutions. From @CSIRO

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Dr William Glamore talking about Tuggerah Lakes and water quality. It became an election issue. So politicians appointed an expert committee, that Will leads.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Water quality in Tuggerah Lakes is largely related to stormwater.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Some key findings from this committee was about communication and capacity. Many in community wanted to swim in lake but also didn't want to take individual action.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

But council told to accommodate 40,000 more people in this catchment.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Now Keysha from @blacktowncc talking about need for leadership. Every council can do their bit, but still need a larger organisation to lead.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Keysha days maintenance is a dirty word. But so so so necessary.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

Tony says we need more people in the room. Case in point is that in this conference right now, there are no urban designers, one planner, no landscape architects, and four ecologists. Maybe 100 engineers.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

There are some smaller groups within the #stormwater industry. There is the pure drainage, the flood management, the water quality, the litter traps, and the green infrastructure sectors. Everyone gets along but useful to acknowledge what you do for work, and core objective is.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 28, 2022

In the next 20 years more infrastructure will be built around the world than has been built in the whole s past history. So let's get it right.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 29, 2022

In 2018 the NSW Government brought in the concept of a blue green grid. It aims to support the protection of existing assets (or rivers really) but also support investment in creating new green and blue assets.

— Wave Consulting Aust (@_TheWaveGroup_) March 29, 2022

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