A Coastal Management Program (CMP) sets out the long-term strategy for the coordinated management of the coastal and estuarine zone. This program will help us identify, understand, prepare for and respond to the current and emerging risk impacting estuarine environments.

There are some management options that we will include in the final Program. They are not included in the survey. They include operational activities such as maintenance of water quality assets, upgrading stormwater assets to address tidal inundation, improving planning controls to protect our estuaries and addressing legacy dumping issues. The non-negotiable items are outlined below.

Inundation

Install three new tidal level gauges in Wallis Lake at:

• Nabiac on the Pacific Highway Bridge
• Coomba Park or Coomba Bay
• the junction of the Coolongolook River and the Wang Wauk River.

This will allow us to collect data to inform future modelling on tidal inundation and the understanding of sea level rise impacts.

Land use planning

• Update SEPP Resilience and Hazards Mapping for coastal wetlands
• Develop a planning proposal to protect coastal wetlands with planning controls.
• Prepare a planning proposal to amend the SEPP Resilience and Hazards Coastal Environment Area to include additional areas of the Forster and Tuncurry towns.
• Amend the MidCoast Development Control Plan to include development controls for integrated water cycle management to regulate development and protect ecological health.

Erosion and sedimentation

Support ongoing improvements in erosion and sediment control practices across the public and private sectors to help minimise sediment runoff and protect estuary health.

Urban stormwater and litter

• Relocate and upgrade stormwater assets to reduce the impact of tidal inundation within the estuary.
• Water quality asset management and maintenance program
• Ensure that Council-owned and priority privately owned water quality improvement assets are maintained from asset handover to ongoing maintenance. This will ensure public and private water quality assets are in functioning effectively to remove nutrients and sediments from urban stormwater.
• Investigate contamination and develop a feasibility study to rehabilitate Talanbar Dump, Wallis Lake.

Monitoring and research

• Develop partnerships for sharing monitoring data and resources.

Human health

• Maintain the Wallis Lake island toilets and rationalise and upgrade these facilities as required. Develop a formal agreement (MOU or similar) between MCC and NPWS for the cleaning and asset maintenance of the toilets on NPWS land. Undertake a condition assessment, determine usage and identify if any of the toilets can be decommissioned or need renewal. Upgrade toilet facilities as required.
• Incorporate human and estuary health risks in Council’s Onsite Sewerage Management System (OSSM) Audit and Compliance Strategy to protect high-value ecosystems.

Our estuaries are facing a range of different issues including, climate change, lack of community stewardship, agricultural impacts, aquaculture and commercial fishing, loss of coastal wetlands, changes to estuary entrances, impacts to human health, flooding and inundation, recreational impacts, threats to biodiversity and habitat, land use planning, erosion and sediment control and stormwater and litter.

Check out the booklet below to find out the main issues our estuaries face and what we are already doing to manage them.

To view the booklet in full-screen, select the bracket icon at the bottom-right side of the toolbar.

If you are having trouble viewing the document in the interactive PDF viewer, you may also download the summary of issues booklet.

This project is supported by the NSW Government through its Coast and Estuary Program.