PART ONE - Campbelltown City Council - NSW Government

Planning and Environment Committee Meeting 5 April 2011 Page 962.8 Community River Health Monitoring Program Report Card2.8 Community River Health Monitoring Program Report CardReporting OfficerManager Environmental PlanningAttachments1. Community River Health Monitoring Program Report Card – Spring 2010 (distributed underseparate cover).2. Community River Health Summary - Spring 2010 Report Card (distributed under separatecover).PurposeTo provide Council with an update on the Georges River Combined Councils Committee(GRCCC), Georges River – Community River Health Monitoring Program.HistoryIn 2009, the GRCCC was granted $210,000 from the Federal Government as part of the ‘Caringfor Our Country Community Coast Program,’ for the GRCCC Georges River - River HealthMonitoring Program. The Program involves the monitoring of macro invertebrates, water qualityand riparian vegetation at 42 selected sites along the Georges River Catchment. The datacollected is being used to produce a series of program 'report cards' which provide a snapshot ofthe health of the Georges River.The objective of the project is to gain a greater understanding of the Georges River System. Itwill identify areas of high biodiversity that should be protected, areas where on-ground workshave been effective, areas where remediation works could be carried out in the future and areaswhere future investigation may be required. The results will inform more rigorous studies andguide expenditure for environmental works within the catchment through the identification ofproblem areas.The project also aims to create an on-going "culture shift" to allow and encourage residents to beactive in "their" River's management. The program is to be conducted over two years, with fourrounds (in Spring and Autumn) of testing, which will produce four report cards.The first two rounds of testing took place in Spring 2009 and Autumn 2010 with the results usedto produce report cards released in 19 April 2010 and 14 October 2010 respectively. Both reportcards were presented to Council in reports to the Planning and Environment Committee.ReportThe third round of testing was undertaken between 16th October - 15th November 2010 alongthe course of the River and the results have been used to produce the Spring 2010 Report Card(Attachment 1) which was publicly released on 31 March 2011.