Phillip Birtles (Photo: Belle Butler)
Story by Belle Butler
Springwood resident Phillip Birtles believes that there is an essential connection between people and water. Through his work at Sydney Water, he taps into that connection, strengthening it and contributing to healthier, happier communities while simultaneously improving waterway health.
Key Points:
- How we use and manage water is crucial to healthy waterways and happy communities, especially in the face of challenges like climate change and urbanisation.
- Built form can have negative impacts on the natural water cycle, leading to stormwater runoff, pollution, erosion, and sedimentation of waterways.
- Integrated Water Cycle Management takes a holistic approach to managing water for healthier environments, minimal waste, and better public amenity.
Available at the turn of a tap, mindlessly consumed, flushed and forgotten. Water is essential to life, and yet so often taken for granted. Springwood resident and Integrated Water Cycle Manager at Sydney Water, Phillip Birtles, is working hard to change how people understand the water cycle and to create better systems of water management.
“How we use water is so important because there’s only so much of it,” he said. “Truth is, there is enough water in Sydney, but we have to work harder to set up better systems in urban areas. We need to have a more mature view of water and the water cycle. So much water is being flushed and so much storm water is running off because of all the hard surfaces – we need to get better at capturing that, especially with climate change and urbanisation. But that’s exciting. It requires different thinking. My job is to move the dial on those things.”
Happy kids enjoying Blue Mountains waterways. (Photo: Belle Butler)
Phillip became interested in rivers and waterway health while studying environmental science at university. He developed a particular interest in urban waterway restoration and later worked at the Department of Land and Water Conservation, promoting Water Sensitive Urban Design concepts and best practice around managing stormwater. “I was trying to protect tiny little streams from development, and I realised the biggest impact was stormwater.”
Water Sensitive Urban Design accepts that conventional urban development can have negative impacts on the natural water cycle. Built-form is full of impervious surfaces that prevent water from doing its natural thing and soaking into the soil. Instead, the water runs off into stormwater drains and watercourses, causing erosion of natural waterways, sedimentation of creeks and rivers, and carrying pollutants with it along the way. Not only is this causing damage to the environment, but it is also enabling the large-scale wasting of water.
Water Sensitive Urban Design aims to integrate the water cycle into urban design, thereby minimising the damage to natural waterways while harnessing, treating and re-using stormwater.
Rock-lined flow paths as part of the Glenbrook Raingardens Project (Photo: Julie Nance)
Sydney Water and Blue Mountains City Council’s jointly funded ‘Glenbrook Raingardens Project’ is an example of this approach. The project involves constructing raingardens and a naturalised stormwater channel with embedded biofilters to remove nutrients from stormwater flows that enter the Hawkesbury Nepean River via Knapsack Creek, thus improving waterway health, creating habitat and improving biodiversity.
At Sydney Water, Phillip’s job has two major focal points: Setting up Integrated Water Cycle Systems in the new development areas around the Western Sydney Airport; and improving water management systems in Parramatta as part of the Make Parramatta River Swimmable Again project.
Integrated Water Cycle Management of Western Sydney Parkland City. (Click to enlarge. Image supplied by Sydney Water)
“Integrated Water Cycle Management is about considering the balance of water sources and sinks in the urban contexts at the same time to provide efficiencies and reduce waste. In this way extra benefits can also be identified and considered,” Phillip said.
He explained that Wianamatta (‘The Mother Place’ in Dharug), or South Creek as it’s commonly known, is the most significant waterway that runs through Western Sydney. Already degraded from past and present land-use practices since European settlement, it is also a catchment area that is experiencing rapid urban development. Phillip’s aim is to set up Integrated Water Cycle Systems that improve and protect the health of the natural waterways, manage and utilise water efficiently, and vastly improve the liveability of the area.
“The biggest risk to freshwater streams like Wianamatta is stormwater, causing erosion and then sedimentation,” he said. “One solution is to hold stormwater, harvest as much as possible and put it into a distribution system as a recycled product, mainly used for irrigation and by industry. This reduces the draw down on the dam and protects the system, creating almost unlimited water supply in the urbanised areas of Western Sydney, which are getting hotter and hotter.”
Artist impression of treatment wetlands and trunk drainage channels and creeks (Photo supplied by Sydney Water)
While the science and tech are all there to create and implement these systems, the task is not so simple. “A truly integrated approach to something as complex as the water system is really difficult,” Phillip said. “It requires a holistic approach, and change, which can be hard because people resist change, even when we can see the benefits of it. A lot of what I do is getting different people to talk about it – connecting people and helping them understand. So it’s a people game.”
Connecting people with water is a driving force of Phillip’s work. “Human connection to water is really important,” he said. “It seems that people are drawn to it – real estate value near water is an indicator of that. There are lots of studies that show significant mental health improvements from connection with water, so it’s really important communities have access to clean waterways that aren’t sanitised.”
1938 swimmers at Lake Parramatta. (Photo State Library of NSW)
In line with his passion for bringing water and people together, one of the highlights of Phillip’s career has been his involvement in the Parramatta River Masterplan and Make Parramatta River Swimmable Again. “This was the first time we really connected catchment management with a swimming outcome,” he said, “and it was an example of effective community engagement.”
The process involved engaging a PR firm that asked the local community what resonated with them and the Parramatta River. The answer was swimming, and so ensued the Parramatta River Catchment Group’s project, Make Parramatta River Swimmable Again. “We started by asking the people a question, then looked at the data to see if it was possible. We were able to create a management program focussing on an outcome that the community wanted – rather than the usual way of looking at data first, then moving the dial on it to loosely match community outcomes last.”
The project involves rigorous modelling to find out which sites on the Parramatta River are possible to improve and make safe for swimming, the implementation of stronger requirements on stormwater management and sewer system upgrades, auditing major construction sites, and water quality testing as well as real time monitoring at the designated swim sites. “This changed the conversation in Sydney around waterway management,” Phillip said. “It legitimised that you can have a stormwater management outcome and swimming in urban areas.”
Concept impression of a potential future swimming site. (Image Studio Octopi, supplied by Sydney Water)
In this project, and at the heart of Phillip’s work, is the simple equation that a positive outcome for waterways equals a positive outcome for people. “Improving water quality for swimming means improving waterway health in general. It creates a positive feedback loop – if people care about swimming in water, then people care about clean waterways.”
Take Action:
Individuals can make changes at home to better manage water. Some small actions can make a difference, including:
- Installing a rain water tank.
- Building a raingarden. Find tips on how to do it yourself here: Building a raingarden
- When embarking on building work, being conscious of sediment runoff and install a temporary silt fence.
- Learning how to keep waterways healthier here: https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/environment/waterways
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“Everyone has a system on some scale,” said Phillip. “Reconnecting with the natural water cycle at home changes people’s perspective.”
Further reading:
Design Concept_Urban-Plunge-Report (sydneywater.com.au)
Parramatta-River-Masterplan_lores_spreads.pdf (ourlivingriver.com.au)
Our Water Sensitive City | bmcc.nsw.gov.au
Water Sensitive Blue Mountains Strategic Plan
This story has been produced as part of a Bioregional Collaboration for Planetary Health and is supported by the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (DRRF). The DRRF is jointly funded by the Australian and New South Wales governments.
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