The ACT government should consider imposing a stormwater levy on Canberra households to help combat severe and escalating problems with the city's urban water system, an expert says.
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But Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development Simon Corbell said he did not plan on inflicting the new tax on Canberrans, saying the ACT government was finalising negotiations with the Australian government to secure $85 million in funding to improve catchment management and infrastructure.
University of Canberra chair of water science Ross Thompson said the capital's water infrastructure was in remarkably bad condition, which was only set to worsen as the climate became hotter and drier.
Professor Thompson said mineral run-off from building sites and rubbish and chemicals from the city's stormwater drains were pouring into Canberra's wetlands, ponds and lakes, causing fish deaths, foul smells and blue-green algae blooms.
The capital's system of concrete stormwater drains offered no natural filter to pollutants, which were simply dumped in the ponds and lakes, he said.
Professor Thompson said the ACT government lacked the funds to first apply best practice to water infrastructure in new suburbs and then improve existing stormwater drains and waterways.
''What you can do very much depends on the site, in some locations it's most appropriate to remove concrete channelling and try to reinstate a natural channel, some places it's best to install a stormwater wetland,'' he said. Professor Thompson said Canberrans also needed to be made aware of the damage caused by allowing chemical and other pollutants to run down stormwater drains and run-off from building sites needed to be better policed.
Stormwater levies, which Sydneysiders paid, were the simplest way to fund the necessary catchment-wide solutions, he said.
''If you were to say what you get back from it is a lake or wetland that you can go for a walk with visitors around, it's healthy, you can swim in it where that's appropriate, it doesn't smell bad, those are pretty tangible benefits for the community,'' he said.
Oxygen levels in the water of Giralang Pond off William Slim Drive in the city's north dropped so low this week the water turned black and at least 10 large carp died, while a connecting stormwater drain became so choked with rubbish the smell forced nearby residents to stay indoors.
Shadow Minister for the Environment Nicole Lawder criticised the government over the incident, saying it claimed to have green credentials but could not even keep a suburban pond from becoming a ''poisonous waterway''.
Ecologist Bill Phillips of not-for-profit group RiverSmart Australia said the management of Canberra's waterways was so fragmented it represented a model for worst practice and he called on the government to take a strategic approach to the problem.
Mr Corbell said the government was undertaking a review of water-sensitive urban design in the ACT, driven by a desire to ensure that ACT stormwater management systems were designed to be fit for purpose and were economic to construct and maintain over their life.
The previous federal government had allocated $85 million to the ACT to clean up local waterways and Mr Corbell said he was finalising negotiations to secure the money.
He said the government could not have had an impact on the natural processes that caused the recent ''black water event'' at Giralang Pond.
The ACT Labor government had committed to cleaning Lake Burley Griffin as part of a parliamentary agreement with the ACT Greens after the 2012 election.
