Stormwater Quality Offsets Forum

When:

November 26, 2015 @ 12:30 pm – 4:30 pm

2015-11-26T12:30:00+10:00

2015-11-26T16:30:00+10:00

Where:

Gambaro Function Centre
33 Caxton St
Brisbane QLD 4000
Australia

Stormwater Queensland is committed to provide industry leadership on flexible and innovative pathways for stormwater quality management permitted by the State Planning Policy. These pathways include (but are not limited to) stormwater quality offsets. To ensure that we represent the interests of our members in our activities, we will facilitate a forum to discuss this topic.

Presenters include:

Dr Andrew O’Neill, Healthy Waterways
Elissa McConaghy, Moreton Bay Regional Council
Josie Raftery, Toowoomba Regional Council
Kym Whiteoack, RMCG
Tony Costantini, Planfuture (representing Port of Brisbane)

The Forum will be facilitated by Belinda Chapman from Working Wheel.

Speaker Biographies:

Dr Andrew O’Neill, Healthy Waterways

Andrew O’Neill is the Principal Scientist for Healthy Waterways’ Water by Design team. After completing his thesis on the
biogeochemistry of constructed wetlands treating acid mine drainage, Andrew conducted research into the disposal of high level nuclear waste in deep rock aquifers in Sweden, degraded river and lake systems in Indonesia, Canada and the USA and natural wetlands and hot springs in Yellowstone and Kamchatka. Andrew has been responsible for the design and delivery of high profile integrated water policy and water sensitive urban design projects in both the public and private realm, and supports uptake of sustainable urban water management with both Australian and international professionals and students.

Elissa McConaghy, Moreton Bay Regional Council

Elissa McConaghy is a Senior Strategic Planner at Moreton Bay Regional Council with over 10 years’ experience in strategic land use and infrastructure planning. Elissa graduated from Griffith University with a Bachelor of Environment Planning in 2003 and has experience in the fields of development assessment, park and open space planning and design, planning scheme and policy development and infrastructure network planning and charging. Elissa currently manages Moreton Bay Regional Council’s strategic water program covering total water cycle management, floodplain management, and coastal management.

Josie Raftery Photo_sml

Josie Raftery, Toowoomba Regional Council

Josie is a Principal Planner of Toowoomba Regional Council’s Strategic Policy and Environment/Infrastructure Charges Coordination team. She has tertiary qualifications in land use planning, ecological sciences, social sciences, cultural studies and applied (geological) sciences. Josie’s experience includes str ategic infrastructure network and land use planning, open space planning, environmental planning and development of sustainable infrastructure programs.

She is passionate about the future, understanding the bigger picture and planning based on good evidence. Her approach to planning is aims to build communities by breaking down silos and finding better ways to communicate expertise.

In her current role, Josie is focussed on the planning and design of public infrastructure for multiple uses to deliver efficiency and better urban design. This includes her focus on the integration of stormwater management with public open space considering the range of values and expectations placed on Toowoomba’s local creeks.

Kym Whiteoak, RMCG

Kym Whiteoak is a Senior Economist with RMCG with expertise in the economic assessment of water quality offsets and the cost-effectiveness of water quality improvement actions. Kym is currently assisting a Victorian water business design, assess and implement a water quality offset, and has assisted many councils and water businesses compare the cost-effectiveness of different stormwater management options as part of integrated water management plans.

Tony Costantini, Planfuture (Representing Port of Brisbane)

Tony is a natural resource management specialist with expertise in delivery of regional natural resource management programmes, landscape restoration, engagement, forest ecology, geomorphology, soil conservation and intensive agricultural production systems. He has specialist training in business governance, economics, procurement and project management. As Principal of Planfuture, Tony works with clients to integrate natural asset solutions into business strategic and operational plans. Examples include use of nutrient offsets in the planning and delivery of sewage treatment plant upgrades, trialling offsite stormwater management treatment, designing and delivering marine and terrestrial offsets and designing and delivering landscape restoration works.

Emma O’Neill, Ipswich City Council

Emma O’Neill is the Coordinator (Integrated Water Management) at Ipswich City Council.

Emma has a background in environmental management and planning and in 2015 completed the International Water Centre’s Water Leadership Program as a recipient of the Healthy Waterways Erosion and Sediment Control Leadership scholarship.

Recently Emma project managed (in conjunction with consultants BMTWBM) the development of a robust and transparent framework to guide the use of funds collected under Council’s stormwater quality offsets scheme.

Prior to her role at ICC Emma worked in the Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand dealing with complex water management challenges including assessment of impacts of oil exploration on receiving environments, review of urban stormwater management programs, and highly contentious water allocation projects.

Sally Boer, Stormwater Queensland

Sally is a Director of E2Desinglab with 15 years of experience as an urban water management practitioner spanning both research and consultancy. She is well-versed in water sensitive urban design and aquatic ecosystem remediation and with a background in freshwater ecology her passion is in collaborative and integrated planning and design processes which deliver healthy built and natural environments. In her role as Vice President,Sally will be representing the members of Stormwater Queensland in presenting a summation of the draft position statement for discussion and feed back.

This forum will provide the opportunity to develop a common appreciation of associated issues, complexities and future planned activities.

A draft position statement is to be prepared by Stormwater Queensland to stimulate the discussion (to be distributed to our members in a later email). The draft position statement will be finalised based on outcomes of the forum and then used as a platform to represent our members in collaboratively working with State and Local governments and Healthy Waterways Pty Ltd, towards the development of an appropriate regulatory framework and guidelines.

Forum Objectives:

To improve understanding of innovative pathways for stormwater quality management including but not limited to offsets.
To improve understanding of current and future planned activities to innovate pathways for stormwater quality management including by not limited to offsets.
To augment the development of the Stormwater Queensland position statement on innovative pathways for stormwater quality management including but not limited to offsets.

An expert panel from a broad cross section of the industry has been convened for this event to provide different perspectives on the policy. The panellists will be announced shortly.

To register your place for the Stormwater Quality Offsets Forum, visit https://www.secureregistrations.com/SQNOV2015/.

Online registration will close on Monday, 23rd November, 2015.

REGISTRATION FEES

Member	$190.00
Non Member	$230.00
Student	$120.00

Registration Fees include afternoon tea for all delegates, as well as a ticket to attend the Stormwater Queensland End of Year Drinks. For catering purposes, if you are attending the End of Year Drinks, please ensure you RSVP for this social function on your online registration form.

Should you have any questions regarding registration, please email registration@gemspl.com.au.