Document Index 1999-2000 Ministerial Statements Investing in our Natural and Cultural Heritage Chapter 7

LIVING CITIES PROGRAMME

• Chemwatch
• Urban Waterways and Reducing Coastal Pollution (National Stormwater Initiative)

The Living Cities Programme recognises that Australia's environmental problems are not restricted to regional and rural areas and it addresses urban environmental problems. The Programme has five elements.

• Waste Management.
  
  
• Chemwatch.
  
  
• Air Toxics.
  
  
• Compressed Natural Gas Refuelling Infrastructure. (See Chapter 8.)
  
  
• Urban Waterways and Reducing Coastal pollution.
  
  

The programme will provide $10 million in 1999-2000.

Waste Management

The waste management element of the Living Cities Programme will support a resource recovery centre programme. The key challenge for recycling in the current inadequacy of markets. The resource recovery centres are urgently needed to develop more diverse and sustainable markets for a wider range of recycled materials. $2.1 million has been allocated to this project over a three year period (1999-2000).

Contact: Environment Australia: Environment Protection Group, 02 6274 1623

Chemwatch

Chemwatch is a new programme to which $14.4 million has been allocated over three years from 1999-2000. The objective of Chemwatch is to improve chemical management in Australia, primarily in relation to agricultural and veterinary chemicals. There are two main elements:

• A programme for the national collection, storage and destruction of unwanted rural chemicals, including organochlorine pesticides. The collections of unwanted rural chemicals are expected to begin early in 2000 and will be managed by State and Northern Territory environment agencies. Commonwealth funding is being provided on the basis that the States and the Northern Territory will match funding for the collection programme on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Commonwealth and State Government representatives have also been working with industry representatives to ensure safe management of unwanted rural chemicals after the government collections take place. Avcare, the Veterinary Manufacturers and Distributors Association and the National Farmers' Federation have finalised an agreement, the Chemclear Agreement, to ensure that unwanted chemicals do not again accumulate in rural areas.
  
  
• A national database of agriculture and veterinary chemicals usage. A detailed proposal is being developed by a joint Standing Committee on Environment Protection and the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Resource Management (SCEP/SCARM) working group by December 1999 for approval for ANZECC and ARMCANZ. The database will give effect to elements of the National Strategy for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals.
  

The outcomes of the Chemwatch programme in the year 1999-2000 will be:

• the establishment of the national collection, storage and destruction of unwanted rural chemicals scheme; and the development of a national database of agricultural and veterinary chemicals use.
  

Contact: Environment Australia, Environment Protection Group -- 02 6274 1036

The Air Toxics element of the new Living Cities Programme is the Government's second stage response to the independent inquiry into Urban Air Pollution in Australia. The Air Toxics Programme has been allocated $5 million over three years from 1999-2000 to support the development of a national strategy to monitor and manage air toxics. The State of Environment Report (1996) defined air toxics as `pollutants present at very low concentrations, known to cause or suspected of causing long-term health effects in humans'. The air toxics strategy will monitor, establish the levels of community exposure to, and manage emissions of selected air toxics. Consideration will be given to the inclusion of air toxics in a future National Environment Protection Measure. Outcomes of the Air Toxics Programme in 1999-2000 will include:

• the development of a `state of knowledge report' relating to air toxics in Australia;
  
  
• commissioning of a number of studies to fill the information gaps identified by the `state of knowledge report'; and
  
  
• the identification of a priority list of air toxics.
  
  

Contact: Environment Australia, Environment Protection Group -- 02 6274 1642

Urban Waterways and Reducing Coastal Pollution (National Stormwater Initiative)

Under the Living Cities Programme, The Government has committed $25 million over three years to further improve the health of urban waterways, in part by building on existing programmes such as Waterwatch. All major urban centres, except for Canberra are on the coast so that urban waterways are a significant source of coastal pollution. $11 million has been allocated to the development of a National Stormwater Initiative. This programme will address the major sources of pollution of urban waterways and the coast, and lead to improvement in the management of stormwater (including sewage overflows).

Attention to stormwater management and control will have a major effect in alleviating coastal pollution and will build on initiatives under the Coasts and Clean Seas Programme by initially focussing on a selected highly degraded waterway in major coastal cities. The existing Waterwatch and River Health programmes would be integral to the assessment and evaluation of the programme.

Contact: Environment Australia, Environment Protection Group -- 02 6274 1870