After winning its category in the NSW Stormwater Awards for Excellence in August, the project progressed to the 2018 Stormwater National Awards for Excellence which were announced last week.

Announcing the awards, Dr Belinda Lovell, president of Stormwater Australia said that the finalists in all six categories had already been judged as the very best in their own state and so the winners and highly commended projects really do represent the 'best of the best' in stormwater management from across Australia.

“We are very proud of this award – the first national award for MidCoast Council. I congratulate the MidCoast Council staff involved in this ground-breaking work to protect the environment,” MidCoast Council’s mayor, David West said.

“The MidCoast community can be proud that development across the region is approved using our own Australian best practice policy on stormwater discharge into our waterways.”

Council’s manager of natural systems, Gerard Tuckerman said the award was testament to the power of collaboration.

“It is fitting that the success of this project was largely due to engaging closely with local external stormwater planning consultants, designers and customers on work undertaken by council’s engineers, planners and scientists.

"This project has delivered a standard of best practice for our region that is clear and concise for all users of the water sensitive design chapter of the development control plan. Applying these improved water sensitive design controls not only improves customer service, it helped maintain water quality in our rivers and estuaries despite continuing urban development.”

The development control plan guidelines assist developers to include measures for treating stormwater runoff from any proposed development in the Mid Coast. For small scale residential developments, the measures typically include a rainwater tank and small rain garden to treat the overflow from the tank.

Rain gardens allow the stormwater to slowly sink through a sand filter, while special plants take up the nutrients.  The clean water then either drains back to the stormwater system, or infiltrates into the ground.

With new development comes an increase in hard surfaces such as roads, roofs and driveways.  When it rains, stormwater rushes off these surfaces carrying sediment and nutrients, litter, oil, detergents and other pollutants straight into our waterways - having an impact on water quality in lakes and waterways.

"This can lead to a significant impact on fishing, oyster and tourism industries, and for many of us the health and cleanliness of our rivers and lakes is also central to what we love about this region,” Gerard said.

"The water sensitive chapter of the development control plan is now a clear, concise and robust policy. Combined with updated standard drawings, mapping, education materials and guidelines, customers have clear information to prepare development applications that address all of Council’s requirements."

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