Stormwater system: Behind the scenes

In the Wimmera, rain is nearly always a good thing.  
 
When the heavens open over a rural landscape, much of the rainwater sinks into the ground, making our farmers smile (mostly).  

In urban Horsham, though, when it rains, it pours. City streets, rooftops and carparks convert huge amounts of rainwater directly into stormwater runoff that is put to good use.  
 
Horsham Rural City Council's stormwater harvesting system is connected to 32 wetlands in the municipality. 

HRCC’s Chris Vincent, Team Leader Trees and Environment, spoke about the benefits of the system and how it worked. 

“The main parts of the stormwater (system) would be all your gutters, your roads, all that water then goes into the stormwater drains, which then end up into these wetlands. From the wetlands, we then either deliver (the stormwater) to tanks, via pipes under the ground, to then water other areas,” Mr Vincent said. 

“So, all the city centre for instance, that (stormwater) all runs into this wetland here [Wotonga Basin].” 

The stormwater is then used to water parks and gardens such as City Oval, Sawyer Park, and the Botanical Gardens. 

“If we didn’t have this stormwater (system) in place, a lot of them probably would not get watered, because it wouldn’t be viable, because then you’d have to buy town water, which is your drinking water. So, the amount of water that they actually use, it probably wouldn’t be viable to keep a lot of these things alive. So, by harvesting this water, we’re able to… keep our parks and gardens green.” 

HRCC’s Timothy Winfield, Leading Hand, spoke about the cleaning of the litter traps, which occurs regularly to keep debris and rubbish out of the wetlands.  

“The litter traps probably, the main ones like are through here, we’d get done… every month to six weeks, but depending on if there’s a rainfall, increase flow, so everything will be get swept through it, so it’ll get done more regularly. Could be weekly to fortnightly,” Mr Winfield said. 

Chris also highlights the environmental benefits of the stormwater system. “It keeps the waterways cleaner, keeps the debris out, so the aquatic life’s a lot healthier. It just makes for a nice environment, a healthy environment.”