Progress

Significant achievements to date include:

• Following a twelve-month comprehensive water quality monitoring program, a “Management Options Report” for the remediation of the lakes was prepared for the City of Bayswater in September 2016, by an independent environmental consulting group, ‘Essential Environmental’.
• Following a deputation to the City of Bayswater in March 2017, $404k was allocated to phase one the remediation program for the 2017/18 financial year and a further $1.25m was allocated for the 2018/19 financial year.  The work funded by the $404k, which was fully expended in 2017/18, included:
• Installation of 2 ‘Gross Pollutant Traps’ to filter out some of the nutrients entering the lakes via stormwater drains (1 on Bungana Lake and the other on Lake Brearley)
• Planting of sedges in the Lake Bungana inlet near the junction of Kittyhawk View and De Havilland View.  These are now thriving and will assist in absorbing the nutrients polluting the lake.
• A bathymetric survey of the lakes to determine their depth, and the depth of the nutrient laden sediment on the floor of the lakes
• The application of Phoslock to all 3 lakes to bind the phosphorous in the water column so that is unavailable to the formation of algae
• Installation of ‘floating wetlands’ on all 3 lakes.  These are more effective in nutrient removal than sedges.  Moreover, the sedges can only be planted in the shallows, whereas the floating wetlands are anchored in deeper sections of the lakes.
• Replacement of the defunct aerators on all 3 lakes with more effective fountains.