Coomera Shores refuse to be hooked up to water and sewerage despite health concerns from council
A Gold Coast township is refusing to be hooked up to water and sewerage despite council having concerns about potential public health risks.
Gold Coast
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RESIDENTS at a northern Gold Coast township refuse to be hooked up to water and sewerage despite council having concerns about potential public health risks.
A report to council reveals about 2000 properties in the city are not connected to reticulated water and about 13,000 properties not hooked up to council’s sewer system.
Council officers surveyed residents at Coomera Shores where about 184 properties could be retrofitted with water and sewer services.
A council’s officer’s report said the area originally called Tooraneedin was zoned as a “township” under the City Plan having been developed in the late 1980s on the understanding it was outside the city’s water and sewerage service area.
“Since that time substantial development has occurred in the Coomera area. The original Tooraneedin is now surrounded by development which is connected to the city’s water and sewerage networks,” the report said.
“Council has been approached by residents in the Coomera Shores area regarding an extension of the city’s water and sewerage networks to enable their properties to be connected.”
The survey asked residents if they were supportive of their property being connected to council’s drinking water and sewerage networks and “would you be willing to connect at a personal cost of approximately $60,000 plus ongoing quarterly water usage and access charges”.
About 44% of property owners responded, and of those 85 per cent were not in favour of their properties being connected to the drinking water and sewerage networks.
Councillors at a waste committee meeting on Monday backed a recommendation that connecting to the council networks should not be progressed and another report be prepared within the next 12 months on the environmental impact of unserviced sewerage areas.
A council officer in a report said: “There is a risk that poor operation of on-site sewage services can result in local public health or environmental impacts, such as those associated with nutrient and pathogen releases to adjacent waterways. The city will continue to monitor for indication of such impacts via routine environmental sampling and on-site system compliance management processes.”
Other “backlog” areas for servicing include Jacobs Well, Helensvale, Oxenford, Parkwood, Molendinar, Mudgeeraba and Carrara.
Deputy Mayor Donna Gates, the area councillor, said she had given an undertaking after being approached by residents during last year’s election campaign for council to conduct a survey.
Councillor Gates said the normal process was for developers to provide reticulated water and sewerage facilities and pay council charges to contribute to the provision of trunk infrastructure.
But this had not occurred at the original rural township which was now surrounded by new suburbs in the city’s fast growing area.
“The cost needed to be borne by the current owners. I believe that was unpalatable to most,” she said.
Cr Gates said many of the residents had invested huge amounts of money on modern septic systems on their properties.
“They didn’t want to see that investment wasted. I can see their point,” she said.
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