Byron Shire Council

Brunswick Area Sewerage Augmentation Scheme

Environmental Rehabilitation

The Brunswick Valley Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) will be located on cleared grazing land adjacent to areas of High Conservation value vegetation and fisheries habitat. The area contains valuable terrestrial and aquatic habitats that form part of the wildlife corridor that traverses the site; Byron Shire Council is regenerating these areas to return them to pre disturbance condition. Riparian restoration works will contribute to improved water quality; aquatic ecosystem and fish habitat within the Brunswick River

Presently the riparian zone (river bank) is suffering from impacts such as:

• uncontrolled cattle access
• severe erosion of river and stream banks
• decline of river bank vegetation
• weed infestations

Council has commenced a range of environmental rehabilitation works to restore and enhance the area’s biodiversity values including:

• Installing 4.5km of riparian fencing - to protect the river banks from erosion through cattle trampling
• Producing a koala management plan– to protect the koala population and enhance habitat
• 300 hours of bush regeneration activities – removing weed species and restoring native seedlings
• Tree planting of approximately 11,000 trees to date along denuded sections of the Brunswick river bank and salt marsh areas.

Community Tree Planting (pictures included of the day  Mick B to supply)

A recent day held at the site saw approx 500 trees planted by members from the community. A range of species were planted including hoop pine, tallowwood, lily pilly, swamp she-oak.

• Planting these trees will benefit the environment by:

• improving fisheries habitat by shading the saltmarsh that is used as a fish nursery  
• encouraging the growth of the saltmarsh which is an endangered ecological community.
• providing habitats and corridors for local fauna including koalas, swamp wallabies, bandicoots, honeyeaters, owls and sacred kingfishers
• trapping sediment and reducing erosion which will improve and protect water quality
• cleaning up the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide a dangerous greenhouse gas

More tree planting days including koala feed tree planting are planned.

Future Works

Byron Shire Council will conduct ongoing management and monitoring of all the work completed so far. This will include ongoing weed management, regrowth monitoring and water quality testing.

Winter of 2008 will see:

• the construction of new causeways that will reintroduce tidal inundation to the western oxbow. This will help restore natural flows in the oxbow and help to improve its water quality.
• reopening of fish habitat in salt marsh areas. These were lost when the oxbows were artificially disconnected from the Brunswick River in the earl 1900’s.
• river bank stabilisation and rehabilitation works at eroded river bank sites.

Ecologically sustainable

The new Brunswick Valley STP will ultimately manage sewage in an ecological sustainable way whilst by minimising the impacts of the development on the environment.

• The new STP is designed to:

• Meet the needs and expectations of existing and future communities.
• Protect public health
• Provide a new STP and pump stations that will be designed to cope with projected population growth and tourism, and also minimise overflows to the river
• Utilise modern current technology for sewage management to create a high standard of effluent
• Maximise reuse opportunities of biosolids and effluent and aim for greater than 80% recycling for irrigation in dry weather.
• Improve Brunswick River health by eliminating discharges from the outdated Brunswick and Mullumbimby sewage treatment plants and by diverting dry weather discharges from the Ocean Shores Sewage treatment plant towards beneficial rural reuse in the Brunswick valley.
• Enhance Biodiversity values in and around the site

The STP is the result of ten years of planning and development and has had extensive community consultation throughout.

The STP will ultimately mean better wastewater management practices in the Mullumbimby and Brunswick area and improved water quality in the Brunswick River estuary.