What I Learned at the Stormwater NZ Conference

On 1-3 May, I attended the Stormwater Conference in Auckland. 

The conference theme of Stormwater – The Next Generation provided a platform to introduce, explore, address and challenge the environmental impacts of communities, growth and tourism on our waterways. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the attendance and the content.  I estimated 350 delegates with presentations and having a good mix of specific and very valuable content.

International and keynote speakers included:

Dwane Jones from the Center for Sustainable Development and Resilience at the University of the District of Columbia and Chris Digman Technical director at Stantec. Both were thought-provoking.

Dwane Jones asked delegates where were you 5, 10, 20 years ago, how has your world changed and apply that to your future thinking and solutions.

Another keynote speaker, Rich Batiuk shared his experiences on the world-renowned US Chesapeake Bay Program where he led a team collaborating across communities to reduce pollution and improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay estuary. 

Craig McIlroy (Healthy Waters, Auckland Council) shared a very inspirational and aspirational presentation on how they changed the Auckland stormwater unit to Healthy Waters and their aspirational future vision.

Very interesting papers included:

• Adaptive Planning Using a Data-rich, Interactive and Accessible Tools  (Young) introduced a story map for the Tasman DC – Draft Richmond Catchment Management Plan a very innovative way of communicating a consultation document. 
  
  If you want to see how it works in more depth, please read the related article that one of our staff wrote, “Asset Management Plan Story Maps – Innovative Consulting with the Community”

• Dry Weather Discharges from a Monitored Stormwater Catchment (Clayton & Hopley) 

• And paper of the year – WSUD can be cost-effective and low maintenance, not to mention all the other benefits (Moores, Ira, Simcock, Batstone).

There were many more presentations of high value and unfortunately, I cannot name them all. 

There were varied and interesting innovations with the Storminator – a retrofit and sustainable stormwater treatment solution (O’Sullivan – UC) walking away with the laurels.

I found the standalone stormwater conference ensured that the message is not diluted. 

Everything is focussed on stormWATER – from dry weather discharges in a stormwater network to streams, rivers and the ocean. 

All with one purpose in mind – restoring and maintaining healthy natural waters.

The main messages I got out of it was:

• Communication is key to
  • getting political buy-in
  • community engagement
  • building a big enough tent for all stakeholders
    
• Interdisciplinary communication is important
  • Agriculture, transport, public housing, utilities, health, parks and others all have a role to play
    
• Move the focus from STORMwater to stormWATER
  
• Be aspirational
  
• Drive all projects through your Asset Management Plan

The Stormwater Conference was great value and although stormwater is commonly referred to as the poor cousin of the three Waters, I tend to agree with the remark that stormwater is the “Cinderella” and we all know how that story ended.