A Review of the Status of Stormwater Quality Offset Collection and Implementation in Queensland

In Queensland, stormwater quality offsets provide a mechanism whereby local governments collect voluntary payments from developers in lieu of complying with legislated stormwater quality management objectives on site. These local governments are subsequently responsible for utilising these funds to implement stormwater solutions that achieve a better or equivalent outcome external to
the site.

To augment the appropriate collection and implementation of stormwater quality offsets within Queensland, the Department of Environment and Science (DES, formerly the Department of the Environment and Heritage Protection) prepared the “Draft Implementation Guidance for Off-site Urban Stormwater Management – Alternative locally appropriate solutions to support achieving the outcomes
of the State Planning Policy State Interest Water Quality 2017” (the Guideline).

As outlined in Section 7 of the Guideline, appropriate evaluation, monitoring and reporting should be undertaken for the collection and implementation of voluntary financial water quality contributions
(‘stormwater quality offsets’) collected in-lieu of complying with State Planning Policy stormwater management targets on-site. Stormwater Queensland (SQ) sent all Councils within Queensland collecting stormwater quality offsets a correspondence requesting responses to a range of questions related to stormwater quality offsets.

As part of the Stormwater 2018 National Conference recently held in Sydney, Stormwater Queensland, presented by Brad Dalrymple unveiled their key findings.

A Review of the Status of Stormwater Quality Offset Collection and Implementation in Queensland