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• State of the Environment Report 2010/2011 homepage
• Introduction
• Summary of Muswellbrook Shire
• Council's role
• Towards sustainability
• Human settlements
• Water resources
• Land
• Atmosphere
• Biodiversity

Discussion

Community Event Participation

Considerable effort has gone into encouraging the community to participate in local events, with council staff endeavouring to involve the community through making contact with local service groups and industry.  This contact has resulted in an increase in community involvement in events such as National Tree Day and Clean Up Australia Day.  

Community participation numbers in Muswellbrook Shire Council over the past five years are detailed in Figure 1.

National Tree Day

National Tree Day is a Planet Ark initiative that has seen over 20 million trees planted Australia wide since its inception.  It is an opportunity for schools, community groups and local residents to come together to make a positive difference to our environment. Growing local native trees, shrubs and ground covers helps to provide food and shelter for Australia's wildlife, increase native biodiversity and combat the habitat loss that threatens much of our wildlife.

A total of 98 community members participated in National Tree Day in the Muswellbrook Shire at two sites; Highbrook Park, Muswellbrook and the Denman Wetlands with 1000 trees and shrubs planted at Highbrook Park and 300 trees and shrubs planted at the Denman Wetlands.  Free barbecues manned by local service groups were provided at both sites at the completion of planting for all volunteers.

• Visit the National Tree Day website

Clean Up Australia Day

Clean-Up Australia Day celebrated its 21st birthday in 2011.  It was held on Sunday 6 March 2011 at a number of sites across the Shire. The day was well attended by community members, with over 5200 kg of rubbish and recyclables removed from our local parks, waterways and roadsides by 101 volunteers.  Free barbecues manned by local service groups were provided at both Muswellbrook and Denman for all volunteers.

Table 1 details sites and participants for Clean Up Australia Day 2011.

Several of the local schools also participated in Schools Clean Up Day in Muswellbrook Shire. These were

• Muswellbrook South Public School,
• Muswellbrook High School,
• St James Muswellbrook,
• Denman Public School,
• St Josephs Denman and
• St Josephs Aberdeen.

The following sites were cleaned up on the day:

Table 1: Sites and Participants on Clean Up Australia Day

Site	Volunteers
Karoola Park	Muswellbrook Girl Guides
Karoola Wetlands	Community volunteers
Brennan Park and Muswellbrook Indoor Sports Centre	Mt Arthur Coal
Fitzgerald Park	Community volunteers
Highbrook Park	Mt Arthur Coal
Olympic Park	Community volunteers
Simpson Park	Community volunteers
Wollombi Park	Community volunteers
Muswellbrook Township	Muswellbrook Chamber of Commerce, Coal and Allied, Mt Arthur Coal and Stan Ray.
Muswellbrook South	Community volunteers
Coal Road Muswellbrook	St Heliers Correctional Centre Work Crew
Denman Wetlands and Parks	Denman Scout Group and Mt Arthur Coal
Denman Recreation Area	Denman Little Athletics Centre

• Visit the Clean Up Australia Day website

Upper Hunter Show

Council participated in the Upper Hunter Show. On display was the Sustainability Trailer, along with a large amount of material highlighting services that Council can provide and information on how to live in a more sustainable fashion.

Council also launched a program called “Let’s Get Your Water Use Sorted” at the show aiming to reduce household water consumption across the shire.  Approximately 100 families signed up to this initiative at the show.  Council will continue to offer this program to residents throughout the year.
A large number of school students and the community attended the display.

School Environmental Education

In 2011 Council has continued using a proactive approach towards School Environment Education by providing schools with opportunities to implement environmental programs. To assist with this Council has developed a program called “Eco-Cational Schools”.

• This program makes a number of free activities available to schools
• Environment Days
• Environmental Audits
• School Environmental Management Plans
• Assignment Information

During the 10/11 reporting period two schools across the shire participated in environmental education. Muswellbrook Christian School held an Environment Day where all students at the school participated in a range of environmental education activities such as constructing worm farms, composting, waste audits and getting a school vegetable garden started.  Sandy Hollow Public School held an environmental audit, where students from years 4, 5 and 6 audited the schools electricity consumption through studying electricity bills and counting lights, air conditioning, heaters and other electrical appliances and estimating their usage.  Students then explored ways to reduce consumption of electricity and presented this information to their school.  53 school students participated in the program during the reporting period.

Council also engaged “Waste Watchers” from Keep Australia Beautiful with assistance from Macquarie Generation to run environmental education sessions at schools.  In 2010 Waste Watchers visited four schools running a session called “Wide World of Waste” with 249 students participating in the program and learning more about reducing the waste that ends up in landfill by using the 3 bin system effectively, composting and using worm farms.

Solar Boat Challenge

In conjunction with local primary schools, high schools and local industry Council coordinates an annual Solar Boat Challenge, where teams of students design, build and race solar boats.  The teams must also give a short presentation about solar power and their experiences building their boats.  This initiative not only encourages school students to learn more about the uses of solar power, alternative energy, design and manufacturing skills and in turn apply this acquired knowledge but also focuses on team work and presentation skills.  The Solar Boat Challenge also gives schools and industry the chance to work together on building the solar boat fostering good relations between schools and industry. Twenty seven teams comprising of 116 students took part in the solar boat challenge during the reporting period.

Solar Boat Challenge

Waterwatch

Waterwatch is a national community network of volunteers that monitor their local waterways.  Waterwatch encourages all people to become active in monitoring and protecting their local waterways.  Volunteers monitor their local water ways and undertake projects to improve the quality of the waterways.  There are eight groups currently registered with Waterwatch in the Muswellbrook area.

Waterwatch

Council’s Corporate Water Consumption

Water Campaign Local Action Plan

The Council adopted water conservation goals in 2009 to:

• Reduce Council’s corporate potable water consumption by 20% on 2004/05 base year levels by 2015. The base year consumption was 287,000 kL.
• Reduce the community’s potable water consumption by 16% on 2003/04 base year levels by 2015. The base year consumption was 2,022,000 kL.

In the 2010/2011 year Council’s corporate water use has reduced from last year. The total Council use of water is 192,999kL representing 33% reduction from the baseline value.

This has largely been attributed to the significant rainfall reducing the need to water playing fields. Also a significant leak at the Muswellbrook Aquatic Centre was repaired in the reporting period.

ICLEI Water Campaign Muswellbrook Local Action Plan

Council's water consumption

Figure 1: Council’s Corporate Water Use by Billing Year

Council’s Corporate Electricity Consumption

The majority of electricity in NSW is produced through coal fired power stations. More sustainable forms of energy are also available in some areas of the State such as natural gas, petroleum products, thermal, solar and wind energy. These forms of energy production are becoming more widely recognised and utilised as they become more efficient and cost effective however the combustion of coal to produce electricity remains the predominant energy source. 

Council’s electricity consumption for the reporting period has increased by 3% when compared to the previous reporting period. 

Council’s Administration Building has a demonstration photovoltaic array that supplements the electricity use of the building. The total energy contribution from the photovoltaic panels was 2.94 MWh for the year, with an average of 8.06 kWh per day. This is sufficient power for an energy efficient household without electric hot water, stove, and air-conditioning or heating. This has saved a total of 882 kg of CO₂ emissions over the reporting period.

Council’s Fuel Usage

Muswellbrook Shire Council is responsible for a large fleet of vehicles that are required to assist Council to carry out all its functions. The fleet varies from 4 cylinder cars, four wheel drives, light plant and heavy vehicles. Table 2 details fuel consumption of Council’s fleet for the past four years.

Table 2: Council Fuel usage across fleet

Type of Fuel	07/08 Consumption	08/09 Consumption	09/10 Consumption	10/11 Consumptions
Unleaded	32.77 kL	28.59 kL	33.95 kL	17.17 kL
Diesel	164.55 kL	186.98 kL	257.87 kL	245.60 kL
LPG	23.05 kL	18.84 kL	16.45 kL	16.35 kL
E10 Unleaded	56.92 kL	66.44 kl	38.6 kL	37.22 kL
TOTAL	277.30 kL	300.85 kL	346.87 kL	316.34 kL

Council fuel use has decreased by 9% since the last reporting period.

Consumption of both unleaded and diesel fuel has decreased. This is a positive trend after significant increases in past years. Council will continue to monitor this and seek further reduction through the selection of more economical vehicles.

National Greenhouse Emissions Reporting Scheme

The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (the NGER Act) came into effect on 29 September 2007. The NGER Act is administered by the Federal Government Department for Climate Change introduces a single national reporting framework for the reporting and dissemination of information about the greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gas projects, and energy use and production of corporations.
Under current legislation Council is not required to submit a report for the 2010/2011 reporting period because emissions from Council’s operations have not exceeded any of the relevant reporting thresholds this year. See Table 3 for an estimation of Council’s total CO₂ emissions.

Table 3: Council’s estimated CO₂emissions

Emission Category	kt CO2-e 08/09	kt CO2-e 09/10	kt CO2-e 10/11	Scope
Electricity	4.768	4.918	5.081	2
Diesel	0.504	0.696	0.663	1
Automotive gasoline (petrol)	0.210	0.164	0.121	1
Methane emissions - Waste management facility - Water and Waste TOTAL methane emissions	14.31 2.740 16.87	14.91 2.741 17.651	15.700 2.741 18.441	1 1 1
Total	22.384	23.455	24.333	1 and 2

Council’s emissions are anticipated to increase due to the nature of the emission calculations for the Waste Facility. Since methane emissions are calculated on the exponential decay of waste placed in the void in the past, emissions will therefore increase for every year waste is added to the void.
                 
It is pleasing to note that Council’s petroleum fuel use has decreased over 10/11 period and green house gas emissions from fuel have correspondingly decreased by 9%.

Council’s electricity use has increased over 10/11 period and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use have increased by 3%.

Council’s greenhouse gas emissions from waste have increased by 5%.

Overall council’s total greenhouse gas emissions for the 10/11 period have increased by 4% when compared to the previous reporting period.

Council is working on developing suitable indicators relevant to the size and activity of the Council. These indicators will better reflect energy consumption and emissions per head of population or number of staff. This will allow for comparison with other Councils to rate performance.

Next chapter: Human Settlements >

This page last updated 1 November, 2011 11:11 AM

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