Dispersed Urban-Stormwater Control Improved Stream Water Quality in a Catchment-Scale Experiment

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

The primary research activities of this project were funded by: the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Program (LP0883610 and LP130100295, to CJW and TDF) with partner organizations Melbourne Water (MW) and Yarra Ranges Council (YRC); and the ARC Future Fellowship Program (FT10010044, to TDF). MW also funded research activities through the Cooperative Research Centres for Freshwater Ecology and Catchment Hydrology, and the Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership. The Smart Water Fund of the Victorian Water Trust also funded research activities. Programs for planning, allocating, building and maintaining SCMs in the L4 catchment were funded by: a) the Victorian Government through the Smart Water Fund of the Victorian Water Trust, the Victorian Urban Stormwater and Recycling Fund, and through Melbourne Water as part of the Port Phillip and Westernport Threatened Catchments program and Living Rivers program; b) MW; c) the Australian Government through the Caring for Our Country Investment Fund, administered by the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority; d) YRC; e) Yarra Valley Water. Similar programs in the D8 catchment were funded and managed by MW in collaboration with Knox City Council and South East Water. MW is a corporation wholly owned by the Government of Victoria, with statutory responsibilities for the management of rivers and other waterways of the Melbourne region. They fund public-good research to further the environmental sustainability of their operations. The research and the University of Melbourne positions held by CJW, MJB, DGB, and SJI are all funded by the Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership, between the University of Melbourne and Melbourne Water (MW). In a previous role, TDF received payment as for his contribution to the engineering design of the Wicks Reserve Infiltration System, subsequently constructed by Knox City Council (KCC) and MW in the D8 catchment. Neither the authors'partnership with and funding by MW, nor past work with KCC, alter their adherence to AGU's ethical guidelines. We thank Graham Rooney, Rhys Coleman, Toby Prosser and Sharyn Rossrakesh from MW for their stead-fast support of this project. Belinda Hatt, Sally Boer, Monica Tewman, Ashley Macqueen, Tony Lovell, Mike Sammonds, Carleen Mitchell, Rob James, and Genevieve Hehir assisted with collection of samples. Belinda Hatt, Sandra Sdraulig, Ashley Liang and Tina Hines conducted the laboratory analyses. We thank Lee Hazel for guidance with modeling, Rhys Eddy for sewerage information and Vaughn Grey, Matt Potter, Rhys Coleman and Judy Blackbeard for comments on the manuscript. Sampling in reference streams was conducted with Parks Victoria research permits (10007079, 10007127, and 10008347). Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Melbourne, as part of the Wiley -The University of Melbourne agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.