New wastewater treatment plant opened

The plant was officially opened on Friday by Assistant Minister for Regional Development Sussan Ley   and Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor.

It is one of the biggest projects that the Goulburn Mulwaree Council has undertaken in the last decade, rivaling the building of the Highlands Source Pipeline. 

The old plant was built during WWI and was coming to the end of its life. 

The new plant will provide modern sewage treatment facilities to the highest environmental standard, as well as treated effluent for sustainable re-use on the city’s parks and sporting fields. 

Ms Ley said the construction of the new WWTP, pump station and rising main would help distribute re-used water to Goulburn and the Southern Tablelands region, and even as far north as the Sydney catchment.

“This was a huge project, constructing a new concrete flow-receiving structure, an in-ground concrete raw sewage lift pump station and the refurbishment of an existing grit tank,” Ms Ley said. 

“The construction of new effluent discharge infrastructure and improvements to an existing effluent pump station will help process the recycled wastewater for a more productive use down the line.” 

Ms Ley said regional development is not always about the sexy projects that the community sees that give a community amenity.

“Angus Taylor also worked hard for the Wollondilly River Walkway and that means a lot to everyone on their weekends,” she said. 

“But it is also the enabling infrastructure, facilities such as this that assist a region to grow. 

“Not every community gets $10m from the Federal Government – your local member has worked hard for this. It was also great work from your council to get the extra money to put this facility in place.

“Goulburn has a strong role to play in this exciting corridor between Canberra and Sydney, particularly when we get the Western Sydney Airport up and running and improve inland rail 

“I have been impressed at how this city is looking to the future.”

Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor said the plant would connect to 10,500 properties in Goulburn.

“The project, supported with a $10m Federal funding grant, has also created 500 jobs during construction, which is another enormous investment in the local community”, Mr Taylor said.

Goulburn Mulwaree Mayor Bob Kirk said the completion of the new plant upgrade meant the city was now able to treat sewage to modern standards and can accommodate the significant population growth expected in the coming decades.

“The upgrade also provides a re-use product for irrigation on sporting fields and parkland and  will also be available to potential customers in the future”, Cr Kirk said.

The $32m project was jointly funded by the council ($22m) and the Federal Government ($10m) through the National Stronger Regions Fund.

Goulburn Mulwaree Utilities Director Marina Hollands said currently the council irrigates at the (council) farm but that land is overloaded.

“The new treatment plant will alleviate those impacts but also allow for a product that can be re-used through the community, via the re-use scheme and potential industrial use,” she said. 

“It’s not on time but is on budget. It was originally meant to be finished in December but that was always going to be ambitious so it really was meant to be finished by June 30.”

Mrs Hollands said although Haslin had not met its contractual obligations in reagrd to time, the council had reserved its right to apply financial penalties and would not be doing so at this stage.

“We’re still completing the project. We still have another six weeks to completion and then we move into pre-commissioning (seven-day tests before we put sewage into it) followed by commissioning, hopefully at the end of October,” she said. 

In late October, early November, tankers of effluent from the ACT will be transported to Goulburn to enable commissioning.

She mentioned some of the challenges in the project.

“In taking over from Grant Moller I was very lucky that the process was in hand and going well,” she said.

“We set up a team - Adam Kiss ran the project but we were all part of a team and we all knew what was going on. A lot of forethought saved a lot of heartache down the track.”