Southern Downs Regional Council confident of Granite Belt’s future water supply

As Southern Downs Regional Council prepares to install a further 9000 smart water meters across the region, mayor Vic Pennisi has declared the region will never run dry again. See more here.

With the initial rollout of Southern Downs Regional Council’s smart water program in Stanthorpe now expanding to remainder of the region, further efforts by council have been put in place to ensure the region never runs dry again.

In addition to the smart water meter’s council has partnered with water utility group Unitywater and central event software provider TaKaDu to begin a 12-month leak detection pilot program in Stanthorpe.

The trial program aims to identify leaks before they turn into major breaks using their 24/7 water monitoring system and will see Unitywater’s partners TaKaDu and Detection Services stationed in Stanthorpe during the 12-month period.

Southern Downs Regional Council mayor Vic Pennisi said a review would be conducted in a year to identify the benefits of the trial program for the region and would determine whether council continued to outsource contractors or ultimately continues the program in-house.

“I’ve been a big supporter of smart meters for 20 years and I can’t wait to start to have a look at the benefits they record,” he said.

Historically, leaks were left to run undetected for any number of time and were usually identified and reported to council after excessive water consumption charges.

The benefits of the initial smart water meter rollout in Stanthorpe were evident from the start Mr Pennisi said with 77 leaks already detected by the program while it was still being installed in homes around the region.

Southern Downs mayor Vic Pennisi, Minister for Water the Hon Glenn Butcher and councillor Stephen Tancred during smart water meter consultation in Stanthorpe. Photo: Southern Downs Regional Council.

“We’ve been progressing through those leaks and correcting them, some are more complex but eventually we hope to minimise the leaks considerably and I’m sure we will,” he said.

Next up in council’s water security deck of cards is the Warwick to Toowoomba pipeline which begins construction this year.

Mr Pennisi said fears Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt’s residents hold of the region ‘missing out’ on the pipeline’s supply can be laid to rest, as supply to the greater Southern Downs region had been factored in during the planning stages.

“There’s enough capacity in the pipeline to service Warwick and Stanthorpe in the event that both water supplies ran dry,” he said.

The 2019 drought which saw Stanthorpe’s Storm King Dam run almost completely dry as well as Warwick’s Leslie Dam which fell to 4 per cent in 2020 saw the Palaszczuk government implement funding to the region for water pump upgrades as part of the state’s drought resilience program.

These upgrades have put the region in a much better position Mr Pennisi said, with the likelihood of the Southern Downs facing such critical water supply conditions in the future highly unlikely.

“If Stanthorpe were to run dry, we would be carting water again like we did last time,” he said.

Southern Downs Regional Council chief executive Dave Burges said in this instance the reserve supply for Warwick’s Connolly Dam would be carted to Stanthorpe.

Additionally Southern Downs Regional Council have engaged in a state government funded regional water assessment process which aims to identify future strategies for the water security of Stanthorpe.

“(The outcome of the assessment) could mean Emu Swamp Dam and it could mean another form of infrastructure to help secure that water supply,” Mr Pennisi said.

Public consultation of the water assessment process for Stanthorpe was requested by Water Minister Glenn Butcher be available for the community to put forward their submissions before Christmas during his visit to the Granite Belt last week.