Unitywater sewerage projects raise water prices
Wed 02 November 2011
Clancy Hurst, Bachelor of Communication
Unitywater officially launched the Burpengary East Sewerage Treatment Plant in October, 2011, as part of several capital works projects throughout South East Queensland worth $A700 million.
The project began in January, 2009, as part of an overhaul of the sewerage systems across the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay regions.
Unitywater invested $A58 million into the upgrade.
Speaking at the launch, Unitywater chief executive officer Jon Black said the upgrade was a "landmark project".
"Unitywater is addressing the most serious and immediate needs around ageing infrastructure and technology across the Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast regions,” Mr Black said.
"Over the next three years we will undertake a capital works program projected at around $A700 million, of which $A480 million is designated to major projects such as the Burpengary East Sewage Treatment Plant.
"This extensive capital works program will ensure our water supply and sewerage infrastructure services are able to cope with the region’s future population growth everywhere from Burpengary to Cooroy.”
Other major projects scheduled over the next three years include upgrades to sewerage treatment plants in Coolum, Cooroy, Murrumba Downs, Maleny, Nambour, South Caboolture, Bli Bli, and Woodford.
Mr Black said these projects would benefit the community in a number of ways, including improved odour management, improved quality of treatment, less impact on the environment, increased capacity to cater for growth, and substantial cost savings through a reduction in energy use.
Unitywater is one of three water supply and sewerage service businesses that have been established in response to the State Government’s South East Queensland (SEQ) Water Reform agenda.
The first stage of the institutional restructure was implemented in 2008, reducing the number of organisations involved in managing SEQ’s water supply through the formation of state owned bulk water entities.
Ownership of water sources such as dams, weirs and aquifers was combined into a single bulk supply authority, SEQWater, owned by the State since July, 2008.
A second State-owned bulk entity, WaterSecure, gained control of the SEQ Desalination Plant and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project.
WaterSecure was responsible for supplying new sources of pure water to the region through desalination and water recycling, but SEQWater started managing these assets in July 1, 2011.
Ownership of all major water transport infrastructure was merged into a single bulk transportation authority, trading as LinkWater.
A Water Grid Manager was established by the State to manage the flow of water around the SEQ Water Grid from July, 2008.
The Water Grid Manager buys the services of the other authorities and sells the treated water to distributor-retailers and power stations.
The second stage of reform, in July, 2010, established three distributor-retailers, which reduced the number of organisations involved in managing and distributing water.
The distributor-retailers are Queensland Urban Utilities (servicing Brisbane, Ipswich, Scenic Rim, Somerset and Lockyer Valley), Allconnex Water (Gold Coast, Logan and Redlands) and UnityWater (Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay).
Since beginning operation on July 1, 2010, UnityWater has received significant negative feedback from residents as a result of skyrocketing prices.
However, UnityWater chairman and former Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley said the increase in price was because council had allowed sewerage treatment plants to run longer than they should have.
"(The council) runs the cleanest and greenest tourist region,” Mr Soorley said.
"We can’t tolerate raw sewage on Dicky Beach or in the waters of the Sunshine Coast.
"In recent rains, there were instances of raw sewage in villages and communities on the Sunshine Coast.
"The councils (here) did nothing for many years.
"If you're a Sunshine Coast resident, you should celebrate that we are fixing these issues."
Queensland Shadow Minister for Energy and Water Utilities Steve Dixon said he saw no other alternative to raising prices, since the State Government took the authority to manage water away from local governments.
Mr Dixon spent six years as a councilor for the Maroochy Shire Council, and was also a board member of Aquagen, the previous water authority of the Maroochydore and Caloundra regions.
Mr Dixon agreed that the councils did need to accept some of the blame for outdated infrastructure.
"The previous Caloundra and Noosa Shire Councils are definitely responsible for not upgrading,” Mr Dixon said.
"At Maroochy Shire Council, we did upgrade systems at substantial cost to ratepayers.
"[Although] We did receive a 40 per cent subsidy from the State Government.”
Sunshine Coast mayor Bob Abbot said he fought the water reforms every inch of the way.
"Do I think the reform was good? No, not for the Sunshine Coast," Cr Abbot said.
"They installed the grid, which was supposed to provide net benefit to all the regions in SEQ and at this very moment if our dams all burst and ran out of water we have no capacity to get water back on the Sunshine Coast.
"There is nil return from that investment."
Image(s) designed by Mike Curtain