Mount Morgan closer to water certainty as business case tenders come to close

Rockhampton Regional Council is expected to announce the successful tender in coming weeks, which will analyse five possibilities for improving water infrastructure to the Central Queensland town.

Mount Morgan will move a step closer to a permanent water solution when tenders for a business case close this Friday.

Rockhampton Regional Council is expected to announce the successful tender in coming weeks.

The business case will analyse five possibilities for improving water infrastructure to the Central Queensland town, which are the following:

1. Building a new dam on Nine Mile Creek
2. Increasing the capacity of Mount Morgan’s No. 7 Dam
3. Increasing the capacity of the Fletcher Creek Weir
4. Building a treated water pipeline from Gracemere to Mount Morgan
5. Building a raw water pipeline from the Stanwell Water Supply Dam to Mount Morgan

Mayor Tony Williams said the fourth and fifth options – a pipeline from either Gracemere or Stanwell – were the main ones.

The business case will also determine the construction, operational, and maintenance costs of the preferred option.

“Council’s put money in our budget for this year to do the investigation into the pipeline options, and part of that is going to tender and getting that information, detailed information, from that tender process to be able to lobby other levels of government to look at a long term possible water supply for Mount Morgan,” Mr Williams said.

“We’re looking at all the options because part of the State Government requiring the tender process was to look at all the other options that we provided to the community.

“We’re reassuring the Mount Morgan community that they have got a viable water supply in the interim, and that’s the transfer of water to the town at the moment.”

A water truck arriving at the Mount Morgan Water Treatment Plant.

For the past six months, water has been trucked to Mount Morgan because of the low level of the No. 7 Dam, which is now below 5 per cent of its capacity.

Councillor Donna Kirkland said the council had spent nearly $2.5 million delivering the water, and the figure could reach $4 million at the one-year mark.

She said up to 40 trucks a day drove from Gracemere to Mount Morgan under the scheme, which will continue for as long as it is needed.

“We know that trucking is not a viable long-term solution and we are eagerly waiting on a decision from Water Minister Glenn Butcher after we put in a formal request for financial assistance.

“In the meantime, I want to assure the Mount Morgan community we will keep the trucks going.

“No time soon will we see that level six restriction lifted. The levels of the Number 7 dam will be the dictator on that, and at the moment, we would need up to 600ml of water to go into that dam to bring it back to a point where we’ll be looking at reducing those restrictions.

Councillor Cherie Rutherford thanked Mount Morgan residents for their efforts to reduce their water consumption.

“We do it tough up there, and it has been a tough time and I think it’s timely to get back to the comm and say, ‘We haven’t forgotten you while we’re trucking the water up there’,” she said.

“They’ve been absolutely fantastic, and they’re on level six water restrictions, which is no easy task at the best of times, and coming into summer that becomes more difficult.

“We still need them to be really, really wise with their water usage. We need that community to be water wise all the time and continue with their great efforts that they’ve had not just in the last six months, mind you, for the last few years.”

Water Minister Glen Butcher said the council’s request was still being assessed.

He did not offer his opinion on whether the State Government should help the council financially once it was presented with a viable infrastructure business case.

“While urban water supply is the responsibility of local councils, our government is working with council to explore solutions to water supply issues for Mount Morgan,” Mr Butcher said.

“I am advised that a request for financial assistance from Rockhampton Regional Council for ongoing water carting to Mt Morgan is being assessed by Queensland Treasury Corporation.”