May 1, 2009.
The final part of the biggest ever capital works project by Tamworth Regional Council is ready to start and will provide a trade waste and sewer system that will provide for the city for the next 20 years.
The wastewater project will pump $80million into the regional economy and will provide for industrial, commercial and residential growth past 2020 for nearly 60,000 people in Tamworth.
It will effectively double the capacity of the treatment plant.
General Manager of Tamworth Regional Council Glenn Inglis says the project will also give the city a new environmental standard in effluent treatment and recycling, will handle projected population growth, will stop the discharge of treated waste into river systems, and will allow for a daily effluent discharge of 11.7megalitres (currently) to be used to irrigate farmland and grow fodder.
Mr Inglis says the Westdale treatment plant upgrade and augmentation and the construction and operation of a new 100% re-use farm at New Winton is the city’s own significant economic stimulus package that will be a cornerstone of a new era in wastewater for the city.
“This is the single biggest project ever undertaken by the council and is a huge building block for key infrastructure for growth and development,” Mr Inglis said.
The upgrade will give the city one of the most sophisticated sewerage systems in regional Australia and enhance its appeal for major industry trade waste users and particularly food processing industries.
The city is unique for the existing number of large food processors operating here but the upgrade is seen as a new age added attraction for others looking to relocate.
Residential property connections make up about 90% of the city sewer grid but about 40% of the waste water generated in the city’s system comes from about 10 big industrial users. There are something like 320 trade waste customers from hairdressers and corner shops, to butchers, to restaurants and abattoirs who pour high strength waste into the system – but there are about another 1,000 non-residential connections to the network too.
As part of the $80million project, Westdale will get new aeration ponds and inlet works and will effectively become the city’s single sewer plant. It will take over the operations of the associated Swan St plant from next year. Swan St is being shut down, a victim of encroaching residential development around it and its outdated equipment and technology.
As part of the new works, a 1,500 Megalitre storage dam will be built on the farm. The dam is basically one-quarter the size of Dungowan Dam. As well, a 7.5kilometre pipeline will be built to take effluent from Westdale to the farm.
The Westdale upgrade is being undertaken by the Westdale Alliance group, a joint partnership between TRC, global design firm MWH and specialist construction company United Group Infrastructure. They won the $56million contract in December 2007. The latest farm contract is also in the millions of dollars and was decided last week. TRC is now waiting on ministerial approval for the preferred tenderer for the reuse farm.
The council decided the preferred tenderer from a list of four to design, build and operate the scheme on the 1400ha Winton property that will be the focus of the effluent re-use. Estimates suggest it could produce 14,000 tonnes of crop and fodder a year from that. There are also major ecological wins from the project, with rehabilitated woodland and conservation works to restore some remnant areas on the property.
Work on the Westdale plant is underway and expected to be finished next year. The concepts and planning for the project began 12 years ago, and the project saga has seen concept and design changes, environmental upgrades, planning appeals, subsidy losses, government policy changes and legal challenges.