On April 24 1998, the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) issued a legal direction under Section 12 of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 to all local government's in New South Wales. The legal direction (copy contained in Appendix A) required Council's to prepare a Stormwater Management Plan (SMP) for all urban areas with a resident population exceeding 1,000 people. The aim of the legal direction is to reduce the impacts on the State's waterways from urban stormwater runoff.

This SMP concentrates on stormwater management for the entire Bathurst City Local Government Area. The approach of focusing on stormwater management for just the urban areas for Bathurst is inappropriate, considering Bathurst's sustained high growth rate and that approximately 65% of the Local Government Area can be considered non-urban. This approach will also address issues not typically encountered in an urban situation (i.e. erosion, agricultural land runoff, etc). This is the first SMP prepared for the Bathurst City Council Local Government Area. There are currently no other plans or reports that provide a framework for stormwater management on this scale. Section 94 Contribution Plans exist for some of the sub-catchments within the Council area. The information contained in these plans will be incorporated into this document.