The Stormwater Management Plan 2000 has been revised by Lismore City Council, Environmental Health Services. A review and evaluation of the plan was overdue and the impetuous came in the form of the recently introduced Stormwater Management Services Charge. In order to appropriately manage the urban stormwater issues, the Lismore urban area has been divided into subcatchments, based on the stormwater flow. A number of subcatchments that were previously not named have been identified through this process. The development of the Stormwater Management Plan 2007 takes a similar form to the 2000 plan but is distinct in a number of ways.

The Stormwater Management Plan 2007 determines the stormwater infrastructure and treatment devices that are owned both by Council and private organisations within each subcatchment. An outline of what has been achieved by Council since the 2000 plan has been included in the revised plan. The Stormwater Management Plan 2007 outlines community values as identified in the 2000 plan, the threats to stormwater quality and quantity in Lismore, the management objectives for each threat and lists a number of strategies to achieve these objectives. The strategies aim to improve the quality and quantity of urban stormwater flow and reduce the environmental impact of urbanisation. Ultimately the plan should provide a path in which to achieve the community identified values for our waterways.

The overall aim of urban stormwater management in Lismore is to ‘improve and maintain the quality of urban runoff in order to protect the natural, ecological and aesthetic values of Lismore’s waterways while enhancing the recreational and economic opportunities for our community’. The primary goal in preparing the SMP 2007 was to assist Council to improve its management activities and to respond to priority threats. To achieve this goal, the following objectives were developed:

• Identification of specific stormwater threats which could impact on the receiving environment,
• Provision of strategic recommendations/strategies to respond to identified threats,
• Provision of an Implementation Plan,
• Provision of a document to provide specific actions and to guide how the stormwater levy funds will be committed.