Catchment Management

Catchment management is an important part of the ‘catchment to tap’ philosophy. If we look after our drinking water catchments, we can help to ensure quality source water and help to maintain a sustainable environment.

Catchment management is about more than improving the quality of the water in the rivers. MidCoast Water supports several programs to assist farmers improve their management practices. Our funding has been able to provide a mixture of on ground projects - such as restricting stock access to waterways, providing off-stream shade and water and relocation of laneways and creek crossings - and farm planning and nutrient management. We have undertaken these types of works in the Karuah, Crawford, Manning and Barrington River catchments.

MidCoast Water will continue working in our catchments, which includes continuing to be at the table on issues around coal seam gas and mining impacts, and supporting farmers to improve their management practices. The Manning catchment, in particular, is very large and much of it falls outside of our local government areas. We will liaise with these councils, including Tamworth Regional and Walcha Councils, regarding catchment management activities.

Working to reduce turbidity in the rivers in our drinking water catchments is a part of the ‘catchment to tap’ philosophy. Over the coming years, we will work to establish long term catchment management water quality monitoring programs as a way to measure our success in this area.

Target

We will establish a long term catchment management water quality monitoring program to look at reducing average turbidity in our rivers.