Eurobodalla Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy

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Eurobodalla Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy
as it reduces the risk to supply of algal blooms as well as reducing the risk of loss of supply
in the South of the shire due to pipeline breaks (see section 8.3).
Opportunities for Reclaimed Water
Eurobodalla Shire Council reclaims the sewage effluent to achieve environmental and
social benefits where it is economically viable and socially acceptable. Currently about 5%
of the Shire’s effluent is reused at Batemans Bay and Moruya Golf Courses. An additional
5% of this is used in the sporting fields at Moruya Reclaimed water is also proposed to be
made available for agricultural and industrial reuse in conjunction with sewering the North
Moruya Industrial Estate. The IWCM strategy has identified a number of additional
reclaimed water opportunities within the Shire, and these are presented in Section 8.3. The
generally high rainfall and seasonal nature of the NSW south coast climate limits reuse
opportunities to mainly the dry season in late spring and early summer. Thus, practical
reuse strategies should aim to reuse a high percentage of dry weather flows. If all
opportunities listed below were to be implemented, it would result in excess of 60%
beneficial reuse of dry weather flows in the Shire. The proposed opportunities include:
A possible residential reuse system for the Rosedale development. The system
would feature a water reclamation plant at Tomakin and a reticulation system
specifically constructed for the delivery of reclaimed water for garden irrigation,
toilet flushing and potentially for washing machines use.
Supplying the dairy farm area around Moruya River with reclaimed water produced
from the STPs located north of Moruya (referred to as the Northern scheme).
Supplying the agricultural area near Bodalla with reclaimed water from both the
Bingie and Narooma STP’s (referred to as Southern Scheme).
Local reuse for irrigation for example on golf courses and parks.
There is potential to use reclaimed water from the northern reuse scheme to meet
environmental flow needs in the Moruya River. The reclaimed water used for
environmental flow substitution would be treated to a high standard to be
acceptable for this purpose. This would allow Council to extract additional water
during low flow periods to supply to the community. The viability and sustainability
of this opportunity needs further investigation.
Recharging the groundwater aquifer around Broulee and South Durras for
subsequent removal by residents for external and toilet use. The viability and
sustainability of this opportunity needs further investigation.
Integrated Options
Traditionally, water utilities have focused on developing greater supply sources to meet the
growing water needs and community expectations. With the emphasis on maintaining
reliable water supplies, little consideration has been given to the environment. Having
identified the various water resource opportunities, the next step involves bundling the
opportunities to form integrated options. The selected regional water supply option,
opportunity 2, was bundled together with the various reuse and recycling options to form
integrated options. These are discussed in Section 8.5. These integrated scenarios form
the basis of the Shire-wide scenarios (Section 10).
Local Water Strategies
IWCM options have been proposed for 15 towns and villages in the Eurobodalla Shire to
address the local landscape, water services and community issues. A summary of the
recommended integrated options for each town is given in the following table.