Dunoon Dam is out, groundwater is in for Northern Rivers’ future water strategy

Dunoon Dam is (still) off the table and plans to use groundwater are progressing. But this will only get us through the next 20 years.

Rous County Council will re-exhibit the revised draft Future Water Strategy.

After a “tense” debate at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, Rous County councillors have agreed to put the revised future water strategy on public exhibition.

There were two unsuccessful attempts to bring back plans for a mega-dam at Dunoon.

But the Future Water Project 2060 Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy, with the use of groundwater as the preferred option, was passed unanimously and will now go on public exhibition from April 1 for eight weeks.

The strategy includes using the Marom Creek Water Treatment Plant and revamping the existing Alstonville urban groundwater supply scheme.

A groundwater scheme would also be developed in the Tyagarah area.

Groundwater bores would be built and connected in the Woodburn aquifer for “drought preparedness”.

Rous chairman Keith Williams said councillors had made some “difficult” decisions in recent months.

“There were some tense moments at the meeting … but we got a really clear message from the community that they didn’t want the dam, so we had to listen to that,” he said.

The Dunoon Dam is not Rous County Council’s preferred strategy.

After the public exhibition period, the strategy will go back to Rous councillors to be formally adopted in July.

The first step would be to upgrade the Alstonville bores and connect them to Marom Creek treatment plant.

It’s expected to cost around $30 million.

It also hinges on Rous coming to an agreement with Ballina Shire Council for the use of the plant.

Cr Williams said those discussions were already under way.

“We know there are concerns from people on the Plateau, saying the aquifer is already stretched, but the point is that we want to move the bores so they’re in a different aquifer,” he said.

“We want to go 140m deeper, which is a completely separate aquifer and 180m below the surface.

“We want to stop competing with agriculture on the Plateau.”

The revised draft Future Water Project 2060 aims to ensure the regional water supply is “secure, resilient in the face of a changing climate, and can withstand the expected growth in water demands for at least the next 20 years”.

But what happens after 2040?

Rous staff are already investigating potential future water source options.

Cr Williams says his preferred option was recycled water, and hoped that by 2040, it would have “proven itself”.

“Having recycled water to the standard that you could put it straight in the pipe, that would be gold standard,” he said.

“But there’s a range of options in terms of recycled water, different levels, as such.

“There will be enough options available to us by 2040.

“And the worst case scenario is desalination. We live next to the ocean, we are never really at risk of running out of water.”

Cr Williams – who will also contest the position of Ballina Shire Mayor at the September elections – knows there is work to do to convince the community of the benefits of recycled water.

“If we took a glass of water from the purple pipe (recycled water) scheme that runs in the Ballina Shire, and a glass of water from the river, then I know I would definitely prefer to drink the purple pipe water,” he said.

“We’ll be able to access the best expertise, we’ll be doing a pilot for 20 years.

“It just make a lot of sense to me.”