Yerrabi Pond will soon be home to Canberra’s second floating wetland, in a government scheme to clean up the lake.
Community consultation in May revealed that Gungahlin residents were concerned about the Pond’s water quality, and requested improvements. Locals complained that the water was smelly, and was full of weeds. Some worried the water would affect native fish, while others were concerned about the levels of carp.
One thousand square metres of floating wetland will be deployed in the Pond over the next 12 months, Shane Rattenbury, ACT Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction, announced in Estimates Hearings this week. It is envisaged the floating wetlands will stop algae from blooming by competing with them for nutrients and light.
The first floating wetlands were launched in Lake Tuggeranong in March to clean up blue-green algae in a two-year trial.
“The people of Gungahlin have shown great interest in improving the water quality of Yerrabi Pond, so I am looking forward to seeing how the floating wetland will improve this popular pond,” Mr Rattenbury said.
The Minister said the Yerrabi Pond wetlands would be launched as the ACT Government expanded its Healthy Waterways program, which aims to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution in lakes and waterways, and the problems that the pollution causes, like algal blooms.
The ACT Government allocated $5 million in the 2021–22 ACT Budget to expand the program ($1.6 million in capital works and $3.4 million in expenses).
The capital works funds will also be used to build bioretention swales to replace grass swales draining the Kambah Playing Fields, which have been detected leaking nutrients into stormwater.
‘Stage One’ of ACT Healthy Waterways began in 2014 as a $94 million joint initiative of the Australian and ACT Governments to protect and improve long-term water quality in the ACT and the Murrumbidgee River system by reducing the level of sediment and nutrients entering ACT lakes and waterways. Stage One ended in June 2021.
In February’s Budget, the ACT Government committed $1.5 million to plan for a broader program of work in Stage Two of ACT Healthy Waterways, aligned to the Expanding Healthy Waterways ($30 million over four years) commitment in the Parliamentary & Governing Agreement for the Tenth Legislative Assembly.
Expanding Healthy Waterways focuses on preventing stormwater pollution from occurring in the first place, using street-scale water sensitive urban design infrastructure and new approaches to managing green space within suburbs, Mr Rattenbury said.
Six ‘treatment trains’ – series of assets in a drainage line that reduce pollution below a target level – are being investigated in the following catchments:
- Village Creek
- Fadden Pond and downstream drainage
- Tuggeranong Creek
- Yerrabi Pond
- Kippax Creek
- Emu Creek, Belconnen
These catchments were chosen on the basis of feasibility to explore innovative options, and strong community demand, while extending Healthy Waterways activities across Canberra.
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