The estimated $220,000 cost of replacing Taralga's water treatment plant will be money well spent if it relieves residents of 'stringent restrictions.'
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That's the view of Upper Lachlan Shire Mayor John Stafford who told a council meeting on Thursday that the community was "beside itself" and "outraged" over the six-year-old water treatment plant's recent destruction by fire and implementation of level three restrictions.
Councillors voted unanimously to give general manager Colleen Worthy delegated authority to buy a replacement water filtration plant for the facility off Martyn Street. They also want the Department of Planning, Infrastructure and Environment to "confirm" the purchase.
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A near two-week search has identified a plant from South Australia, estimated to cost $220,000. It's not yet known if the state government will assist but the GM says the council is regularly meeting with departments on this point and financial assistance with water carting from Crookwell in the interim.
Thursday's meeting sparked questions from councillors, including one from Cr James Wheelwright on whether the plant was "cheap," would provide for the future and if DPIE would help if it didn't do the job.
Mrs Worthy replied that any suggestion it was of low quality was "wrong." She said the plant had a five to 10-year life and could be sold if the council built a larger dam in future and needed a bigger filtration system.
"This is a plant for this time," she said.
The council wants it operating by February to save paying over $100,000/month in water cartage costs.
Under questioning from Cr Brian McCormack about the blaze and why it happened, Mrs Worthy said fire authorities, police and the insurance company had all agreed it was an electrical fault.
Asked by The Post about the maintenance regime, Mrs Worthy said the council employed "a highly experienced and a highly skilled group of plant operators that monitored and maintained all of its water treatment plant assets expertly and diligently."
"The water treatment plant at Taralga was no exception, being cared for by staff with decades of experience in plant operations and maintenance," she said.
After the meeting, Cr Stafford said councillors naturally had questions after only receiving the council report that morning but were largely assured it was the right course of action.
"There is no question it will meet our needs," he told The Post.
"...It's not an extraordinary amount of money and in the event we need something further in the future, we'll look at that.
"The important thing is to get water to the people and get them off level three restrictions."
The mayor said the council was "going full bore" to meet community needs and praised management and staff for identifying the plant so soon after the December 8 fire.
He acknowledged "a degree of frustration" by residents about being on tight restrictions amid one of the best agricultural seasons. Taralga was on the same limits last summer amid drought.
"Some people, unreasonably so, want an instant fix, which is not possible but at the same time we, as a council, have to apply ourselves to do this as quickly as we can," he said.
Mrs Worthy hoped the council would only foot a small portion of the bill once state assistance was known and an insurance claim assessed.
Meantime, talks are underway with three landowners about possible acquisition for a new dam, replacing the current one which has leaks.
Cr Stafford said the council was exploring a 50 megalitre storage near to the existing 20Ml dam, to cater for the growing village into the future.
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