We work to prevent pollution, keep waterways clean and care for natural habitats. Our role is to protect the environment and manage water services responsibility.
Protecting our creeks and rivers
Many people live near creeks and rivers, using them for swimming, boating, fishing and agriculture. Protecting our waterways is a key priority.
Some of our water resource recovery facilities release treated wastewater into creeks and rivers. We treat this water before it is released to remove nutrients and fine particles.
We monitor long-term waterway health through our Sydney Water Aquatic Monitoring (SWAM) program. This helps us understand how our work affects the aquatic environment. We do this in accordance with national guidelines. We report our results to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) each year and publish detailed reports on our website.
As the population grows, we upgrade facilities to handle more wastewater and reduce the risk of overflows.
We reduce stormwater pollution by removing litter, sediment, organic matter and nutrients from the stormwater network before it reaches our waterways.
We also work with councils and catchment groups to protect and improve rivers, creeks and coastal areas, including:
Supporting safe swimming and recreation
Our beaches, rivers, and harbours provide valuable places for people to swim and recreate.
We help keep these places safe by:
- treating wastewater before it goes out to sea
- releasing treated wastewater in the right places
- checking water quality and health risks.
We monitor our wastewater system to fix issues that could impact waterway users. For example, we're working to address the cause of the debris balls that have recently washed up on beaches.
Our Urban Plunge® program helps local councils and other partners activate new swimming sites in waterways across Greater Sydney.
We also partner with Beachwatch and run our RiverWatch® program to help people find safe places to swim in rivers, harbours and at ocean beaches.
Protecting our biodiversity
Our operations stretch across important bushland and waterways. We work to protect plants and animals while providing essential services.
We manage about 100 sites using Property Environmental Management Plans. These plans help protect sensitive habitats, meet environmental laws, and guide weeding and revegetation programs.
We also take part in the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme. This government program balances development with conservation.
Biodiversity Offsets Program
Email biodiversityoffsets@sydneywater.com.au for more information about our program.
Our Picton Water Resource Recovery Facility in southwestern Sydney was the first site in our Biodiversity Offset Program. The land around our Picton facility was registered in the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme in 2021.
Threatened species protected at this site include:
- Southern Myotis Bat
- Large-eared Pied Bat
- Cumberland Plain Land Snail.
Ecological communities protected at this site include:
- Grey Myrtle – Lilly Pilly dry rainforest in dry gullies of the Sydney Basin Bioregion and South East Corner Bioregion
- Cumberland Plain shale woodlands
- Sydney Turpentine – Ironbark forest
- Cumberland shale sandstone ironbark forest.
Our second site in the program was Winmalee Water Resource Recovery Facility, surrounded by the Blue Mountains National Park. The Winmalee site was registered in the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme in 2023. Ecological communities protected at Winmalee include:
- Red Bloodwood – Grey Gum woodland
- Red Bloodwood – Scribbly Gum woodland
- Smooth-barked Apple – Red Bloodwood
- Leucopogon fletcheri subsp. Fletcheri.
Red Bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera)
Monitoring our environmental performance
We monitor our environmental performance and share this information with the public.
Our wastewater systems operate under licence conditions set by the EPA. Environment Protection Licences (EPLs) tell us:
- how clean wastewater must be before it is released
- what tests we need to do
- how and when we report our results.
To show how we meet our responsibilities, we publish:
- EPA pollution monitoring summaries
- aquatic monitoring data reports
- an annual environmental performance report which includes our statement of implementation of our special objectives and our environmental performance indicators report.
Supporting long‑term sustainability
We want to provide a better life for customers today and meet the needs of future generations. We focus on long-term benefits for people, communities and the environment.
Our long-term management includes:
- caring for Country
- supporting social equity and community wellbeing
- providing affordable and reliable water services.
We participate in the United Nations Global Compact and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Some of our work includes:
- water recycling
- solids recycling
- lowering our energy use
- reducing carbon emissions
- waterway and habitat conservation.
Planning and managing our work
Setting policy and direction
Customers have made it clear they expect us to improve waterway health, reduce pollution, and enhance environmental performance.
Our strategy explains how we protect the environment in providing wastewater, recycled water and stormwater services. It sets clear objectives to:
- prevent pollution
- recover resources
- contribute to cool, green and natural places
- achieve net zero carbon emissions
- improve the climate resilience of our systems.
Our environmental policy explains our commitments and guides how we make decisions.
Managing environmental impacts
Our ISO 14001 certified Environmental Management System helps us manage and reduce environmental impacts to ensure we:
- protect the environment,
- meet our compliance obligations, and
- continually improve our environmental performance.
It’s part of our integrated management system, which includes Quality, Safety, and Asset Management.
Environmental assessment
We prepare environmental assessments when we plan, build and maintain our assets to consider the impact of our work. We invite feedback from communities and aim to reduce impacts on people and the environment.
Learn more about our projects in your area.