$4.3m for water supply and sewerage works

The major capital project in the 2011/12 Southern Downs Regional Council capital budget for water and sewerage is $1.67 million to investigate, design and construct an upgrade to Storm King Dam in Stanthorpe.
The council is required to start the upgrade this year under the Dam Safety guidelines of the Queensland Water Act 2000.
“This dam was built in 1954 and no longer meets the requirements for stability in times of huge flood events,” chief executive officer Rod Ferguson said.
“I want to emphasise that these guidelines say the dam has to be able to withstand the maximum probable flood the area may ever see,” Mr Ferguson said.
“This is estimated to only happen once every 30,000 years. It would be a very unlikely event, much higher than the recent 2011 floods – but the work must be done,” he said.
Works will include post tensioning of the concrete spillway by drilling down through the actual concrete vertically into the rock base. Steel rods will then be anchored into the rock and tensioned up through the concrete so that the spillway maintains its vertical stability should such an event occur.
“This extra upgrade work is designed to make sure this dam never fails, even in the maximum probable flood,” Mr Ferguson said.
“Connelly Dam also requires some upgrades under the legislation but, because the downstream population risk is deemed lower, it can be done later. It is also more minor, requiring only a simple bypass channel at the dam.”
A total of $3,162,000 will be spent on water supply capital works and $1,165,000 on sewerage and sewage treatment capital works.
This includes about $350,000 to be spent on reservoirs, with the roof of the main reservoir at the Warwick water treatment plant being replaced for $100,000; the steel reservoir at the Stanthorpe water treatment plant being replaced at a cost of $100,000; and $150,000 going towards recommissioning the water reservoir behind the Top of the Town caravan park in Stanthorpe. This reservoir has been not been operational for the past 12 months due to extensive rusting and leaks.
In the water supply area, the Glen Road pump station will be upgraded at a cost of $50,000; $100,000 each is to be spent on upgrades to the Killarney and Wallangarra water treatment plant switchboards; and $50,000 will go to upgrading the underdrain system at Stanthorpe’s water treatment plant.
Engineering Services Committee chair Cr Ross Bartley said the council was being proactive in replacing ageing sewer pipe networks.
“This year our engineers are developing a strategy to drive that replacement program,” Cr Bartley said.
“We’ll be doing some flow gauging through all the catchments in our sewerage network and picking those areas that are the worst, to do further investigation with cameras in the pipes.”
In the sewerage budget, works will include $100,000 for closed circuit television investigations into selected parts of the sewerage networks to determine where stormwater is entering the mains.
“The ingress of stormwater makes the sewage treatment process inefficient and, in peak weather times, can cause issues with the total amount of effluent treated,” Cr Bartley said.
There is also $200,000 allocated for sewer rehabilitation. Sewage pump stations at Percy Street, O’Leary Street and Golf Links Drive in Warwick will be upgraded at a cost of $480,000.
Five solar powered remote valves in the Stanthorpe effluent reuse scheme will be upgraded at a cost of $100,000. Overall operation of water and sewerage is budgeted at $9.641 million for 2011/12.