Qld’s Mount Morgan water treatment plant to be recommissioned

The water treatment plant is underway to be recommissioned while the first pipes of the $88 million pipeline have now been laid. 

Council have begun the process to get the Mount Morgan water treatment plant turned back on while the first pipes for the $88 million pipeline have been installed. 

The local Mount Morgan No. 7 Dam, the town’s water supply, fell to 9.5 per cent in March 2021 and Rockhampton Regional Council has been forced to spend millions trucking water to support the community of about 3000 people.

Water has now been trucked to Mount Morgan for the past 34 months, at an estimated cost of $15 million to the council, with the state government contributing $10.8 million to help with the costs.

With little rain over the past few years, the water trucking has continued every day and the community has had to adhere to level six water restrictions and all watering has had to be done by buckets and hand at certain times - no hoses, sprinklers, irrigation systems, car washing, pool top ups or filling unless recycled water, bores or rain water is used.

However this could be coming to a head as decent rainfall has finally fallen.

The township received 230mm of rain during December, with the highest fall on December 22 with 61mm, and 73mm during November.

Just before Christmas, the dam was at 50 per cent and now it is up to 90 per cent.

The water at the spill level at the Mount Morgan dam on January 7 2024.

It is 500mm under the spill level however a spill is not expected unless there is significant rainfall.

Council officers commencing the process to recommission the Mount Morgan Water Treatment Plant prior to Christmas in anticipation of high rainfall.

It’s not as simple as just turning the tap on, Rockhampton Regional Council Water and Environmental Sustainability portfolio holder and councillor Donna Kirkland explained.

As the water treatment plant has been offline for almost three years, it needs a bit of technical work to be recommissioned.

Rockhampton Regional Council water portfolio holder and councillor Donna Kirkland at the Mount Morgan dam.

Fitzroy River Water officers and external expert parties have begun work on recommissioning the plant and it is hoped water will be able to flow out of the dam through to the water treatment plant and into taps in homes “very soon”.

“That water volume has increased significantly in a short period of time which means there is a lot of vegetation and other things in the water that will most likely now rot because they are not in the sunlight,” Ms Kirkland said.

“We want to make sure we are testing the water continually, daily, making sure it’s ready to deliver through the water treatment plant.”

A leak on the dam wall has been criticised on social media however Ms Kirkland assured she has been advised this is a small leak and is quite normal for a dam wall that has been offline for some time and is not of concern.

The water now on the banks of the Mount Morgan dam, taken in January 2024.

“Rockhampton Regional Council is doing all due diligence and making certain there are no risks around that,” she said.

“We are making sure that the water we deliver to the Mount Morgan community is of a high water quality standard.”

The work to recommission the water treatment plant is estimated to be $500,000 and was budgeted for in the Mount Morgan pipeline works. 

In the meantime, water will continue to be trucked to Mount Morgan and the level six water restrictions still remain in place.

This costs between $10,000 to $17,000 a day.

The water trucks have lessened in recent weeks as rainwater tanks have filled on private residences and residents have been able to use it.

“We will absolutely be looking at lessening those water restrictions once we do make the transition back to using the treated dam water,” Ms Kirkland said.

There is a potential that once the dam water is back, water could still be trucked, using a mix of dam and trucked water.

“That is still to be determined, once we know exactly what we are looking at, then we will be able to reassess what that restriction will look like,” Ms Kirkland said.

The Mount Morgan No.7 Dam has reached 90 per cent capacity. Photo taken on January 7 2024.

Works for the $88.2 million 28km long potable water Mount Morgan Pipeline are on track with no delays anticipated.

Politicians, including Rockhampton MP Barry O'Rourke, Assistant Minister Bruce Saunders and Rockhampton Mayor Tony Williams, met at the Kabra site on January 24 to witness the first pipes being laid. 

Mount Morgan locals can expect to use water from the pipeline after it is completed in September 2025. 

“Up until that time, we will either be using the day treated water or continuing with our trucking, depending on where we are at with the quality of water,” Ms Kirkland said.