North East Water (NEW) is progressing plans for a multi-million dollar upgrade of its Bright-Porepunkah Wastewater Treatment Plant which will help accommodate future residential growth in both towns.
Updating the project on its website on Friday, NEW indicated it was planning to submit a Development License Application to the EPA for the works later this year.
It expected the project, with an estimated cost upwards of $20 million, to be completed and commissioned in 2028/29.
The works will help increase the number of new waste water connections in both towns, easing current restrictions which only allow NEW to support small-scale housing developments of up to five lots in both towns, with larger developments on a case by case basis.
NEW’s website said the works will involve a new mechanical treatment plant to significantly improve wastewater treatment performance including nutrient removal; as well as a treated water pipeline to the Ovens River downstream of Porepunkah enabling greater use of recycled water.
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Sewage from Bright and Porepunkah is currently treated in a lagoon-based wastewater treatment plant that was constructed in 1982.
The treated water output is currently released via an infiltration basin which indirectly flows to the Ovens River system upstream of Porepunkah - but this arrangement does not meet contemporary standards, and a new treated water release method is required.
NEW last year shortlisted three pipeline options and chose to pursue a pipeline downstream of Feathertop Winery’s offtake, with an indicative project cost of $17-22 million.
It said option three was preferable to a pipeline upstream of Porepunkah and one at the confluence of the Buckland River because there is a lower risk to the Ovens River environment based on an ecological risk assessment.
NEW said option three also saw treated water released further downstream from key recreational river use at Porepunkah weir pool and caravan parks and there was clear community preference based on survey responses and verbal feedback from stakeholders.
Friday’s project update said engineering designs and further site assessments on the pipeline were currently in progress.
