Frequently Asked Questions By the General Community
Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions by members of the general community:
- What can I do to help protect our waterways?
- Is Healthy Waterways Waterwatch a program run by Melbourne Water?
- What do I need to study to become a Waterwatch Coordinator?
- Can Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program run activities at my child’s school?
- What’s the health of our local river or creek like? Is it healthy?
- Why is the river/creek so dirty?
- Who looks after our waterways?
- Who pulls out the trolleys and other rubbish in the creek?
- Is anyone doing anything about the pollution in my creek?
- Who do I call if there's a pollution spill?
- What does participation in Healthy Waterways Waterwatch involve? Can I join?
- Is Healthy Waterways Waterwatch available in my area? Are there groups already monitoring our local river or creek?
- Where can I monitor?
- Can I get access to Healthy Waterways Waterwatch data?
- What does Healthy Waterways Waterwatch test?
- Can I drink the river / creek water?
- Is it good to have bugs living in the river / creek?
- Does Healthy Waterways Waterwatch work with anyone other than schools and monitoring groups?
If you can't find the answer to your question in the list above, please contact us. We will be only too happy to help you.
1. What can I do to help protect our waterways?
Being involved in Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program is a great way to help protect our waterways. We raise awareness of waterway health issues, which helps people understand the impact of littering and pollution on our rivers, creeks and catchments. Monitoring also helps to protect our waterways, as volunteer monitors can detect and report changes to the health of rivers and creeks and take action to improve their health.
2. Is Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program run by Melbourne Water?
Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program is administered and sponsored by Melbourne Water. It is also funded by the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s “Vision for Werribee Plains” and local governments in the Port Phillip and Westernport catchment area.
3. What do I need to study to become a Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Coordinator?
Coordinators have a vast array of qualifications; including Education, Ecology, Zoology, Natural Resource Management, and Environmental Science. A science background is not necessarily required as we trian Coordinators in monitoring methods and understanding data.
4. Can Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program run activities at my child’s school?
Yes. Information about our school activities can be found in the Schools sections of this website. Interested teachers should visit the Schools section for further information or to arrange a school session.
5. What’s the health of our local river or creek like? Is it healthy?
Each creek has it’s own unique characteristics that affect the health of the waterway. Information about the health of your local waterway can be found in the Your Local Waterway section of this website, by contacting us or requesting Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Data.
6. Why is the river/creek so dirty?
Stormwater (water that enters our waterways after heavy rain) has the biggest direct impact on the quality of water in our rivers, creeks and bays. Contaminants that enter our waterways come from either:
- a specific site (point source), such as a pipe or factory
- many diffuse sources (non-point source), such as off roads in a suburb
Since the 1970s, EPA Victoria has required factory discharges to be connected to the sewerage system. There are now very few of these point source discharges into the rivers, creeks or bays, and their contribution to pollution has declined significantly. Most of the remaining point sources are discharges from local sewage treatment plants operated by retail water companies, and these are subject to licence control by EPA Victoria.
Non-point source discharges result from millions of actions, at thousands of locations, within the catchment. Many result from road and transport use and vehicle emissions. Some result from deliberate polluting behaviour such as littering but most are the by-product of day to day living and working. Non-point source pollution is difficult to manage as, when it rains, contaminants are flushed from the land into drains, then into local rivers and creeks and into the bays.
Pollution and littering can be reported to EPA:
Melbourne metropolitan area, telephone: 03 9695 2777 (24 hours)
Outside metropolitan Melbourne, telephone: 1800 444 004 (24 hours)
7. Who looks after our waterways?
Melbourne Water is the caretaker of river health in the Port Phillip and Westernport region. Melbourne Water is responsible for:
- managing and monitoring rivers, creeks and wetlands
- managing the regional drainage system
- providing a safe level of flood protection
- working with community groups to improve river health
- managing river diversions
- regulating works on rivers and creeks
- cleaning up pollution spills under direction from EPA Victoria
- ensuring urban development is safe and meets flood and environment standards.
A number of other government agencies, organisations and community groups also help to manage our rivers and creeks, drains and floodplains. More information about these organisations can be found on the Melbourne Water website.
8. Who pulls out the trolleys and other rubbish in the creek?
Melbourne Water is responsible for removing rubbish from the waterways in the Port Philip and Westernport catchment. If you see any rubbish in the creek or river, telephone Melbourne Water on 131 722.
You can also win $1000 by reporting a dumped trolley to Trolley Trackers.
9. Is anyone doing anything about the pollution in my creek?
Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program conducts activities to monitor and report on the health of our waterways. Volunteer monitors are in the frontline when it comes to identifying and raising the alarm over pollution in our rivers and creeks. Through education programs and community monitoring activities, we also increase public awareness of pollution including helping people to make the connection between dropping litter on our streets and pollution entering our waterways through stormwater run-off.
Melbourne Water invests around $60 million a year to protect and improve the health of our rivers and creeks. This includes:
- improving river beds and banks
- preventing pollution and erosion
- creating and improving natural environments for native animals and fish
- improving water quality by building litter traps, wetlands and other stormwater treatment measures
- removing weeds and cleaning up litter and pollution spills
- working with landowners and local communities to replant along rivers and creeks
- working with councils and developers to treat pollution and stormwater from urban areas (with a focus on managing urban growth)
- monitoring the health of our rivers and creeks
- educating the community about our rivers and creeks.
10. Who do I call if there's a pollution spill?
For pollution spills call EPA Victoria on: 03 9695 2777
11. What does participation in Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program involve? Can I join?
The Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program is specifically designed to meet the needs of a diverse range of community groups. Generally there are two levels of activity that we conduct with community groups:
- One-off presentation/activity: Healthy Waterways Waterwatch is available as a guest speaker for your community group, school or business to provide information on their local waterway and a demonstration of how to investigate its features and health
- On-going Healthy Waterways Waterwatch monitoring or a river health project: We can work in partnership with you or your group to develop a project to improve your local waterway or regularly monitor its health.
Anyone can join the Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program. Find out more by contacting us.
12. Is Healthy Waterways Waterwatch available in my area? Are there groups already monitoring our local river or creek?
Waterwatch is currently available in the following local government areas in the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchments:
- Banyule City Council
- Baw Baw Shire Council
- Boroondara City Council
- Brimbank City Council
- Cardinia Shire Council
- Casey City Council
- City of Greater Dandenong
- Darebin City Council
- Frankston City Council
- Hobsons Bay City Council
- Hume City Council
- Kingston City Council
- Knox City Council
- Macedon Ranges Shire Council
- Manningham City Council
- Maribyrnong City Council
- Maroondah City Council
- Melton City Council
- Melbourne City Council
- Mitchell Shire Council
- Monash City Council
- Moonee Valley City Council
- Moorabool Shire Council
- Moreland City Council
- Mornington Peninsula
- Nillumbik Shire Council
- Stonnington City Council
- Whitehorse City Council
- Whittlesea City Council
- Wyndam City Council
- Yarra City Council
- Yarra Ranges
The Your Local Waterway section of this website contains information about groups already monitoring in each region. To find out more about Waterwatch in your area, please contact us.
13. Where can I monitor?
You can monitor any water body, for example, rivers, creeks, drains, lakes, dams, and wetlands within the Port Phillip and Westernport catchment (see maps in Your Local Waterway section).
14. Can I get access to Healthy Waterways Waterwatch data?
Yes. To access a summary of specific Healthy Waterways Waterwatch data, please fill out this data request form or contact us.
15. What does Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program test?
How and what we monitor depends on the issues affecting the waterway. Monitoring can be low-key and relatively simple, such as taking photographs, or more ambitious for example testing temperature, turbidity, pH, Electrical Conductivity EC (indication of salinity), dissolved oxygen and phosphorous. If you would like to be involved in the Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program, we can help you to determine what to monitor for your local waterway. For more information, please visit the Volunteer Monitoring section of this website.
16. Can I drink the river / creek water?
No. It's not advised to drink water from your local waterways as they might contain microorganisms that can cause disease. Most of our drinking water comes from uninhabited mountain ash forests high up in the Yarra Ranges east of Melbourne. Melbourne Water undertakes a comprehensive program of drinking water quality testing and treatment including disinfection to ensure the water is free from microorganisms that can cause disease.
17. Is it good to have bugs living in the river / creek?
Yes. Water bugs (aquatic macroinvertebrates), are creatures such as snails, mites, bugs, beetles, dragonflies, freshwater crayfish and worms that live in rivers and streams. Bugs are very useful in telling us how healthy or unhealthy a waterway is. Some water bugs are very sensitive to pollution in the water, so lots of different types of bugs in the water generally means that the water is healthy.
18. Does Healthy Waterways Waterwatch work with anyone other than schools and monitoring groups?
Yes. Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Program can cater for all audiences and tailor an experience to your needs. To find out more, contact us.
