Mayor Amanda Findley turned the first sod on the Shoalhaven Water project which also incorporates the next stage (1B) of the Shoalhaven Reclaimed Water Management Scheme (REMS).

The project includes the $110 million construction of new facilities at Bomaderry and Nowra sewage treatment plants and the design and construction of a transfer main under the Shoalhaven River to connect the two plants.

The project will replace aged and inferior infrastructure, providing for future growth of the area, increase the volume of reclaimed water available for beneficial reuse and  significantly reduce future discharges from Nowra and Bomaderry sewerage treatment plants to the Shoalhaven River.

Contract for the construction of the treatment plants, which is expected to take two years, has been awarded to UGL.

The completion of stage 1B of the scheme will double the reclaimed water available for beneficial reuse.

Approximately 20,000 ML of reclaimed water has been beneficially reused since stage 1A of the scheme was commissioned in 2002.

Director of Shoalhaven Water, Carmel Krogh said the scheme is one of the largest of its kind in regional Australia.

“It will allow for further capacity for our growing community as well as include modern technology to meet new environmental standards and compliance with the NSW Environmental Protection Authority,” Mr Krogh said.

“This project has a number of complex engineering challenges and has been in the planning stage for a number of years with significant consultation between council, the State Government, members of the dairy industry, regulatory authorities, the Shoalhaven community and other key stakeholders.

“I’m looking forward to working with UGL to deliver positive outcomes for the community.”

While constructing both treatment plants, UGL has also been commissioned to design the pipeline under the Shoalhaven River, connecting both operations, which will also interconnect into the network grid of the existing REMS scheme.

“We do have a hold point within the contract. At the moment we only have a preliminary concept design for the river pipeline and UGL is required to prove that concept and develop it up. We have a hold point to see if it’s technically feasible.

“Getting a pipeline under the Shoalhaven River is a huge job and that is why we have quite sensibly broken the components of the contract up to construct the two treatment plants and then have this major hold point to look at detailed designs of the river crossing.”

Mrs Krogh said years of work had gone into the project.

“There has been years and years of planning to get to this point, the Shoalhaven Water team has been working with the designers and contract base, it’s been hard slog over a number of years,” she said.

More than two dozen farmers are connected to the REMS scheme which was commissioned in the year 2000.

“It’s been a very successful scheme and this is the natural progression for the next stage. It’s been great for the area and this will allow extra farmers to also join the scheme. There will also be opportunity for additional water allocations.

“In dry times that extra water will be crucial for the farmers.

“People probably don’t appreciate in the early years of the scheme it really kept the farmers going through that earlier millennium drought. In the last few years we probably haven’t been reusing as much, but that’s mother nature and the scheme is designed to take those ups and downs.”

Although hesitant to say it would completely drought proof the floodplain it supplies, Mrs Krogh said the water supply provides a greater level of security for the farmers.

She said the question of whether the farmers would eventually have to pay for the supply of the water was an issue for the new council.

“The new council will have to deliberate that,” she said.

“We will be putting a report to council in coming months to consider its options. The original agreement for the free water expires very soon and we are looking at what we will put up to council as the new options.

“You have to be careful of being an economic rationalist in this as well. The original purpose of the scheme was to make sure the environment was protected and to make sure the effluent came out of Jervis Bay and it’s a beneficial use for the dairy farmers.

“It is also a beneficial use for the whole city because it keeps Jervis Bay pristine and makes good use of a recycle product.

“This scheme is not only for delivering recycled water to farmers and other playing fields but it also improves discharge to the river from the two plants and allows for the future economic growth of the Nowra Bomaderry development areas.

“Without this upgrade further development of the city in the northern area couldn’t be undertaken.”

Cr Findley said the environment is the big winner from the project.

“This facility is an amazing and very important project. Long gone are the days when we pump effluent out into the ocean and have ocean outfalls. This is just part of an ongoing scheme council had in its planning for many years,” she said.

“This is the incredible beginning of a two year journey.”

She also praised the work of Shoalhaven Water.

“Staff of Shoalhaven Water have worked on the project and preparing the tender for the past three years and have always kept councillors informed.

“The work they have done has been enormous and needs to be acknowledged for its quality and the effort put into it.”

UGL executive general manager for engineering and construction John Greaves said the company had 30 such projects underway.

“We are pleased to win the bid and have the opportunity to build these two plants,” he said.

“It’s an important project for UGL, a strategic project we’ve been targeting and working on this project for a number of years.”

He said building a pipeline under the Shoalhaven River to connect both plants was a challenging project.

“We already have a number of concepts and have to go through a number of feasibility studies and designs to understand how do it it and if it is feasible,” he said.

“We have an amazing group of engineers working on both sides and will take a collaborative approach and look at any issues we encounter and work through them.

“We have some unknown conditions like working under a live waterway, the size of the pipe etc. There are a lot of factors.”