Council to commence expensive canal de-silting
Tue 03 June 2008
Renee Anderson, Journalism
The Sunshine Coast Regional Council is to commence stage one of de-silting works in Mooloolaba canals at an estimated cost of $A4 million for ratepayers.
The project, expected to start late 2008, will provide some relief to Mooloolaba residents who say they have pressured council for years to gain regular dredging to minimise silt build up.
Isaac Simon has been a canal resident for three years.
“Without regular dredging and sediment removal the waterways have become unusable," he said.
During his tenure, Mr Simon has seen dredging of the canal once and believes it is inadequate.
“The council is using a short term fix. When the dredging contractors arrive, all they do is remove muddy sand from the middle of the canal and dump it in front of our properties.”
Council’s Infrastructure Services shop front acting manager, Tim Letchford, says this type of dredging is part of the council’s beach replenishment program around the canal estates, used to protect revetment walls and maintain navigable access.
He said this costs the council about $A500,000 per year and is a requirement under the State’s Coastal Management and Protection Act.
Mr Letchford said the silt had built up over the past 25 to 30 years from the Mooloolah River and stormwater drainage pipelines that fed into the canals.
He said the delays in removing sediment build up were due to a lack of funding.
“Under the Local Government Act funding for this type of operation can only be sourced from revenue (rates) not borrowings.”
He said without increasing rates significantly, only a moderate amount of funding could be allocated each year.
“This has been happening for the past four years and there are now sufficient funds to commence stage one of the de-silting works, estimated at $4 million.”
Mr Letchford said the cost of canal maintenance affected all ratepayers and the current argument was to levy waterfront ratepayers to service their special needs.
“There are three other local authorities in Queensland that currently apply these levies in addition to rates.”
“Even though waterfront ratepayers do pay a higher general rate, they get specific benefits from the canals, such as boating access.”
Mr Simon said residents in Mooloolaba were paying top dollar rates for their waterfront properties without receiving basic canal maintenance.
“No one is at an advantage; at its current state the canal really is just a smelly, muddy mess.”
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Submitted Comments
There is a lot of really useful and interesting information in this article.
I am supprised such a problem exists and how expensive it is to fix.
Christine Hobba