TAMWORTH City Council enters the New Year with the dreadful problem of having to convince several State Government departments that it must get the go ahead for its planned multi-million dollar effluent re-use farm.
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Linked with that is the vexed question of whether the city can continue to retain access to its existing water supplies from Chaffey Dam.
The two projects are intertwined and the farm, in the airport/Westdale area, has the potential to generate millions of dollars over the next 10 to 20 years as well as provide employment for scores of people.
But in the eyes of the council, the Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC), among others, has erected obstacles to a rapid start on establishing the farm and there are grave doubts that the city’s contracted long-term access to its annual water supplies will continue.
“It’s been difficult and it is difficult,” Wilton Boyd, the council’s Technical Services Department director said yesterday.
The total project is under the control of the city council and DLWC through regular meetings of a joint steering committee.
Mr Boyd says the two projects are complex to the average person but simple in essence.
He makes these points:
(1) Like all other responsible local government authorities, the city council has embarked on a hugely expensive program designed to clean up the Peel River by treating the city’s sewage and then using it (minus some “nasties”) as a nutrient product on its planned 1600ha Westdale farm.
The existing sewerage treatment works puts millions of litres of treated sewage water into the Peel but that is, to all appropriate State Government authorities, quite reasonably an unacceptable practice.
(2) Rather than continue the practice of polluting the Peel, the council wants to help it return to its pristine past (as far as possible) and use the treated effluent liquid on its Westdale farm property (an agglomeration of properties recently acquired) to grow both summer and winter crops, primarily wheat, lucerne and maize.
Mr Boyd and his key man in the dual project, water manager Michael Bryant, believe the State Government should be applauding and supporting the council, not putting obstacles in its way.
The Department of Urban Affairs and Planning for example has “advised” Parry Shire Council that it should “defer” any more dealings with the city council until certain procedures are completed, such as launching “river modelling” analyses to help determine the “socio-economic impact” on people in the Peel Valley.
“We’ve done everything possible to address their (Government departments’) concerns and we’ll continue to,” Mr Boyd says.
His final comment: “Yes, I believe commonsense will prevail . . . it may take time, but we’ll get there because we’ve got to.”