Burns protect Sydney’s drinking water catchment

WaterNSW works closely with the Rural Fire Service and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to conduct each hazard reduction burn after months of planning.

“Once all the plans are in place and environmental conditions are right, we can commence the hazard reduction burn,” Mary said. “We light up the boundaries of the block to make sure we have adequate control lines. For larger areas, we seed the internal part of the block with aerial incendiaries.

“When undertaking burns, we use techniques that mimic how a wildfire would naturally burn.  This means that we introduce fire on the ridgetops and let it naturally burn.

“We don’t light up along the lake edge or in our creek lines to protect water quality and these riparian ecosystems.”

WaterNSW has a five-year forward fire plan that assesses fire risk across the Greater Sydney drinking water catchment and prioritises where to reduce fuels.

“The fire risk is modelled by our Spatial Science team,” Mary said. “The modelling takes into account natural site characteristics – such as fuel load, vegetation type and slope, as well as what we are trying to protect – our dams, water quality, water monitoring sites, neighbouring houses and property.

“From those five-year plans, we identify which prescribed fire blocks we need to burn each year and develop a detailed burn plan for each site.

“These plans include safeguards we put in place to protect public and worker safety, threatened species and cultural heritage sites.

“We work with the RFS, Transport for NSW and mining companies to manage smoke impacts on nearby properties, traffic and mine ventilation systems.

“After each burn, we do a post-burn assessment to ensure that we have achieved our goal of fuel reductions.”