Marion Council close to signing deal to supply treated water to Tonsley homes and businesses
MARION Council is close to signing a 50-year deal to supply treated stormwater to businesses and homes in Tonsley, which would earn the district $50,000 per year.
MARION Council is close to signing a 50-year deal to supply treated stormwater to businesses and homes in Tonsley, which would earn the district $50,000 per year.
Elected members have supported a move to enter the deal with Enwave Energy, which the State Government has contracted to supply power and recycled water to the Tonsley Innovation Precinct.
Marion’s city services manager Tony Lines said the council’s earnings would be put back into extending its recycled water scheme, so it could water more parks with stormwater treated in the Oaklands Wetlands.
“It’s not huge profits, but it’s a nice annual revenue that we’ll put back into our water-reticulation scheme,” Mr Lines said.
“It’s pretty exciting for us to be able to sell our reclaimed stormwater to another organisation and see our community benefit from that.”
Under the agreement, the council would sell water to Enwave, which would supply it to businesses based at Tonsley, Flinders University’s Tonsley campus, and for use in toilets, gardens and airconditioning systems in the suburb’s 850-home housing development next door.
In future, it could also be used at the university’s Bedford Park campus, which is planning a major development featuring student accommodation, shops and other businesses, and sold to Mitcham Council to water its parks and gardens.
The deal means Marion will provide up to 250ML of water to Enwave — the equivalent to 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The council already waters more than 30 reserves through its recycled stormwater scheme, which involves water from the Sturt River being treated at Oaklands Wetlands, before being pumped into an aquifer for storage until the warmer months.
Mr Lines said the majority, though, were still watered using potable water, and the deal would allow the council to invest in new infrastructure to reduce its reliance on mains water.
Marion began discussing the project with the State Government about 18 months ago.
The outcome was a major win in the council’s plans to become more sustainable, Mr Lines said.
“That includes the solar panels we’re putting on our buildings and the conversion of our entire (district’s) street lights to LESS,” he said.
The council hopes to sign a deal with Enwave within a week. Enwave will also build one of the country’s largest rooftop solar arrays at the Tonsley Innovation District.
The scheme will draw on about 20,000 solar photovoltaic panels installed on 8ha of roofing over the main assembly building and the TAFE SA building. Enwave has operated similar district energy services at Sydney Central Park and Sydney Airport.