Australia’s beaches are a key component of its cultural identity, but this symbol is not as clean as could be. Beach pollution is – or should be – an issue of great concern to the beach going public. There are many reasons why beaches become polluted. Oil spills, industrial discharge of toxic waste, trash, and even unsafe levels of treated sewage are well-known and obvious sources of pollution. However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the most common cause of beach pollution is contaminated stormwater. The environmental movement’s concern about beach pollution has shifted from sewerage to stormwater. This change in focus is in large part due to increased water quality testing, which has revealed stormwater as the major culprit. In response, in 1997 the state government created the Waterways Package, a plan to improve the quality of the state’s waterways. The state mandated that every council have a stormwater management plan aimed at achieving clean, healthy waterways, and allocated $60 million as part of a stormwater trust fund to improve water quality.Stormwater causes beach pollution because it becomes contaminated with pollutants as it travels through the stormwater system. These pollutants can include dog droppings, automobile fluids, cigarette butts, litter, runoff from streets, and anything that is washed into the stormwater system. Stormwater is then piped into catchments (areas of land that drain to a common point) that empty unfiltered into the sea. This problem is exasperated by land development, which alters natural catchments, introduces unnatural pollutants, and results in the environment being unable to filter water as it previously could. Stormwater beach pollution has dramatically affected North Weston Beach (also known as North Beach), primarily through the overflow of stormwater from the Fairy Creek Lagoon. During heavy rain the lagoon discharges at the northern end of North Beach through Chatwin Park to the Tasman Sea. The Fairy Creek Lagoon has three majorcontributing waterways: the Fairy Creek, the Durras Arm, and the Cabbage Tree Creek. According to the Weston Coastal Stormwater Management Plan (WCSMP), the total areaof these catchments is 3,416.3 hectares. This chapter will focus on the Fairy Creek Catchment or sub catchment 3 as defined by the WCSMP. The Fairy Creek Catchment has been under heavy stress from development for over 150 years, with the majority of roads and developed land established more than 50 years ago. Little was known about flooding at the time, and development was allowed to expand into natural floodplains, creating hard surfaces that increased unchecked stormwater runoff. The problems are further compounded by the physical constraints of the area. The steep escarpment to the west, bounded by the Tasman Sea to the east, leaveslittle room for Weston to expand, putting extra development pressure on already over-developed land. This chapter looks at the problem of stormwater pollution in the Fairy Creek Catchment and addresses the following questions: What causes stormwater to become polluted and eventually contaminate North Beach? What are the possible health effects tosurfers, swimmers, and the wider community? And what is being done to manage this problem?Causes of stormwater pollution at North Weston BeachIn order to understand why stormwater becomes polluted and eventually ends up polluting North Beach, it is necessary to study the Fairy Creek Catchment. What entersthe catchment will most likely end up at the ocean discharge point when enough rain is washed through. This is as simple as water running downhill and finding the most direct path to the lowest point, in this case, the ocean.The physical characteristics of the Fairy Creek Catchment are a large contributor to the problem of stormwater pollution at North Beach. The Fairy Creek Catchment is characterized by a steep escarpment to the west, with heavy rainfalls averaging 1,100-1,600mm per year. This leads to many high velocity streams that have extremely limited discharge capacity and often cause severe flooding. The catchment rivers generally run west to east, while major roads and the railway run north to south, creating unnatural obstructions to the flow and exasperating problem flooding. Overdevelopment and an increase in non-porous surfaces, such as asphalt, further compound the drainage problem. The following list details some of the sources and effects of stormwater pollution:- Road surface pollutants such as oil, grease, and petroleum, and other industrial processes are toxic to aquatic life.- Fertilizers and detergents that contain phosphorus and nitrogen cause algae blooms that consume large amounts of oxygen from waterways, stifling their ability to naturally clean themselves through organic breakdown.- Excessive amounts of organic materials, such as leaves and sticks or rusting metal, remove large amounts of oxygen from the water and may kill fish (Biochemical oxygen demand).- Herbicides and pesticides from commercial and non-commercial properties are toxic and can enter the food chain.- Metal toxins, such as lead, mercury, zinc, and copper, can also enter the food chain when concentrated into the sediment. - Air-born pollutants from industry and motor vehicle emissions from leaded and non-leaded gasses are sources of road surface runoff.- Sewerage overflows can contain viruses and bacteria, including pathogens that can cause diseases in swimmers and shellfish. These can come from illegal connections to stormwater drains and defective sewerage systems. Animal waste also contributes.- Construction sites introduce sediments and suspended solids into the catchment. Together with the erosion resulting from construction, this clouds water and destroys habitat for aquatic life, causing adverse effects.- Non-biodegradable materials such as fast food packaging, plastic bags, aluminum cans, and Styrofoam can accumulate in the catchment, causing unsightly trash to become caught on vegetation. Wildlife can become entangled or ingest this trash, causing death and becoming another pollutant.- Organic waste, including garden and food scraps as well as leaves and twigs, can contaminate stormwater. Up to 60-80% of stormwater may contain natural litter, depending on the land use within a catchment.- Water acidity (pH units) that is altered by chemicals can kill native species of vegetation and cause opportunistic weed species and pests to take