Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary System Management Strategy ...

EPA Report on the Peel-Harvey Progress and Compliance Report, 2003
The advice provided in the ERC report will assist greatly the discussion with the public
on environmental values and objectives.
Environmental management plan
Environmental Condition number 4 of the Ministerial Statement of 2 October 1991 that
the Peel Inlet – Harvey Estuary Management Strategy may be implemented set out that
the proponents shall develop an integrated catchment management plan to the satisfaction
of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). The proponents undertook a number
of actions during the 1990’s, but this did not include the preparation of a catchment
management plan. Perhaps more importantly, the target for a reduction in the annual
phosphorus inputs into the river system set in Environmental Condition 2 has not been
achieved.
The development of catchment management plans, under different names, has been given
greater attention by the EPA in recent times in the preparation of EPPs. The 1998 EPP
for the Swan and Canning Rivers required the EPA, in consultation with relevant parties,
to prepare a Comprehensive Management Plan to achieve the environmental quality
objectives that specifically referred to water quality of the watercourses within the policy
area.
The draft Cockburn Sound EPP that has been submitted to the Minister for the
Environment for consideration is also about water quality. The EPP sets out that one of
the mechanisms for protecting the environmental values of Cockburn Sound will be an
Environmental Management Plan prepared and implemented by a committee established
under the EPP and approved by the EPA.
The Environmental Conditions set down in 1989 for the Peel-Harvey strategy required
the proponents to develop an integrated catchment management plan. Following the lead
given in more recent EPPs, the EPA needs now to take a more pro-active role in the
development of a catchment management plan to protect the water quality in the Peel-
Harvey system, and this should be written into the EPP.
Discussions are currently taking place between Environment Australia and the EPA with
a view to Commonwealth funding being made available to assist in the preparation of a
Water Quality Improvement Plan for the Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary. The EPA is
aware that community-based Natural Resource Management groups have been
established to advance catchment management, and one of these is the South West
Catchments Council as an NRM Region. A Peel-Harvey Catchment Council has also
been formed and is under the umbrella of the South West Catchments Council.
The Peel-Harvey Catchment Council is a new entity in the broad approach to the
development and implementation of a catchment management plan. The establishment
of the Council is supported by the EPA. However, its area of interest falls within the
policy area covered by the Peel-Harvey EPP. The EPA needs to develop an
understanding with the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council in relation to the initiatives to be
undertaken by the EPA in the review of the EPP and the development of a catchment
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