Gracemere Mount Morgan pipeline a step closer as Rockhampton Regional Council adopts business case

The business case for the vital Mount Morgan pipeline has been completed, marking a major milestone toward water security in the long term for the town. See what the next step will be.

It’s been dubbed the infrastructure that “you can’t afford not to build” and now it is a step closer to construction.

The detailed business case for the Gracemere to Mount Morgan pipeline has been completed and adopted by Rockhampton Regional Council at its Infrastructure Committee meeting this week.

Council also endorsed to start the design and construction of a new 3.75 megalitre reservoir and pump station at Lucas Street in Gracemere which will be fully funded by council.

The pipeline project overall will have a price tag of $48 million and council will now start to seek funding from both levels of government to fund the pipeline.

So far with the cost of the business case and the reservoir, as well as the ongoing carting of water, council has contributed almost $10 million for the long-term solution.

Council voted in March to proceed with the business case for the major project, which would mark the end of continuous carting of water.

Trucking of water to the Mount Morgan community began in March last year after the No.7 Dam dropped to 9.9 per cent, leaving the community with only six to nine months of drinking water.

But despite recent rain, the dam still remains low at just 16.1 per cent, still too low to maintain the Mount Morgan community.

Carting water to Mount Morgan has cost about $5 million to date, with 0.6ML supplied to the town per day.

The town’s community uses about 1ML per day.

Mayor of the Rockhampton region Tony Williams said the completion of the business case was a “major step” in water security for Mount Morgan residents.

Mr Williams said the pipeline would take about two years to construct, and council was wasting no time getting the wheels rolling with tenders for the construction of the reservoir to go out soon.

“Council is taking the first steps now and really getting towards making that project come to fruition,” he said.

“The pipeline project is the highest priority in the business case that was adopted by council and once a pipeline’s established the Mount Morgan community won’t have to worry about living on level six water restrictions.

“It (the reservoir) will also supplement the Gracemere community, there’s room at the Lucas St site for three reservoirs this current one will be able to cater for the growth of Gracemere as well as accommodating the pipeline project Mount Morgan needs.”

Council spokeswoman for Water and Environmental Sustainability Donna Kirkland said the pipeline project was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for the Mount Morgan community.

“All we need is for the state and federal (governments) to see that this is their opportunity to help a great community, our ratepayers can’t continue to foot the cost for this,” she said.

“I think what council have done is we’ve put a stake in the ground and said ‘we’re committed and we’d like for you to come side with us and support our entire community’.

“Regardless of whether pipeline happens this is a great thing for the Gracemere community as well, so doubling their capacity of water there and will set us up for the future of a pipeline to Mount Morgan.”

Ms Kirkland said the dam level would need to be significantly higher than 16.1 per cent before council even looked at bringing the use of it back online.

The current water treatment at Mount Morgan, which has been turned off for some time and is near the end of its life, was looked at by Aecom for the business case.

“We are having another deep look at that to determine whether it is a facility that we can bring back online, we have some other plans alternate plans in the case we can’t,” she said.

“That being said, the end goal of a pipeline doesn’t require a water treatment plant out there, all it will require is a reservoir and another pump so I’m hopeful we won’t need to bring that water treatment plant back online.”

Council will continue lobbying both levels of government for funding for the pipeline project, however will have to wait until Saturday’s federal election to see what kind of commitment they will get federally.

The project has received commitments from both major party candidates for Flynn.

In April, Labor candidate for Flynn Matt Burnett committed $3.5 million for the detailed design, approval and construction support services for a pipeline.

LNP Candidate for Flynn Colin Boyce said if he was elected, he would fight for the project to be fully funded.

What’s in the business case?

The detailed business case for the Mount Morgan pipeline project provides a full break down of all the options that were considered and put on the table by Aecom.

According to the report, the preliminary evaluation concluded a potable water supply pipeline was the most appropriate solution for long-term water security for Mount Morgan.

The project would include the construction of a new 3.75ML reservoir at Lucas St in Gracemere with a transfer pump station.

It would also include the pipeline connecting to the Rockhampton Supply system at Gracemere, delivering water to Mount Morgan at South Reservoir.

The pipeline would have a duty flow of 31.3L/s, to deliver the design mean day maximum month demand to the Mount Morgan community over a 20 hour period, an equivalent of 1.6ML/d over the 30 year design horizon.

There will also be chlorine boosting at both the Lucas St and Mount Morgan South reservoirs to ensure the necessary chlorine residual in accordance with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

A booster pump station and break tank at Moonmerra and connection works at both the Lucas St and South reservoirs are also part of the project.

The business case states there project would bring a number of benefits other than just a meeting the water supply demand for the Mount Morgan community.

The report says road safety would also be improved because water carting would no longer be required.

It also says the Mount Morgan community would become stable for growing businesses and tourism opportunities and QFES would be able to respond to fire events since local storage reservoirs can be sustained with sufficient emergency storage volumes.