Former Boorowa Mayor and outgoing Hilltops Administrator Wendy Tuckerman, pondering Boorowa’s water supply, or lack thereof.
The Times wrote months ago that the Boorowa township would have Goldenfields water connected by July. We don’t think we are too far off.
No one would begrudge Australians in modern society from having access to clean and drinkable water, especially in a first world country such as ours.
A report titled Safe and Secure Water Program and Water and Sewerage Services commenced on page 15 of the July (final) ordinary business paper released by Hilltops Council. If those reading the paper went no further they would have missed 3 very interesting parts of Council’s recommendation at the end of the report.
Administrator Tuckerman had the following 3 options before her at last night’s meeting. They are; 1. Endorse staff working with Goldenfields Water County Council to review current service arrangements as part of Integrated Water Cycle Management Plans being developed with a view to deliver optimised outcomes to customers and the community within Hilltops. 2. Write to Goldenfields Water County Council requesting they consider owning and operating a bulk water pipeline to service the Galong and Boorowa communities and authorise the General Manager to undertake negotiations on behalf of Council around potential arrangements with a view to bring a further report to Council pending negotiation outcomes; and 3. Request a joint meeting with Goldenfields Water County Council and the Honourable Niall Blair to demonstrate to the Minister a mutual commitment to addressing Boorowa’s Water Security issue and delivering a safe and secure water supply across the Hilltops area.
The translation is…. Boorowa is getting set to be connected to Goldenfields Water. What this means for Boorowa and every resident of Hilltops Council is unclear other than, it is going to cost a lot of money. Who is going to pay for it?
To access and be connected to water from Goldenfields Water, owners of property within Harden must pay what is called a water tenement. The cost of a residential equivalent water tenement for 2016/2017 is currently set at at $7,800.
Does this mean every current water connection within Boorowa will have to pay this fee?
Goldenfields will be out to recoup the cost of servicing the townships of Boorowa and Galong who has also been thrown into the mix. Goldenfields will have to fund the project somehow. If they don’t fund the ownership and maintenance of the system via the water tenement option it will be left to Government grants or the rate payers of Hilltops Shire to foot the bill.
Council’s report stated, “There has been limited community consultation to date in relation to the content of this project. During development of the Integrated Water Cycle Management (IWCM) community consultation will be undertaken. As detailed, Council’s Administrator and General Manger have consulted with the GWCC Chair and General Manager on parts of the content of this report. Similarly, the former Boorowa Council had consulted with GWCC board on their interest in providing bulk water supply to Boorowa which received support (however discussion never progressed to ownership of pipelines).”
The current Chair of Goldenfields is Chris Manchester who along with Cootamundra board member Dennis Palmer lost their positions under the forced merger, only to be reinstated.
Manchester then went on to be elected in March this year to the position of Chair of Goldenfields. The Goldenfields June 2017 business paper fails to list who attended the most recent meeting in the first few pages of the business paper.
The Hilltops Council business paper went on to say, “In addition to the above the former Boorowa Council and subsequently Hilltops Council have made several representations to the Minister for Regional Water and it is proposed that GWCC and Council jointly meet with the Minister to demonstrate a strong mutual willingness to reach a solution to Boorowa’s ongoing Water security issues.”
The paper states, “As part of proposed reviews to servicing arrangements between GWCC and Hilltops Council there will be statutory implications, particularly relating to provisions in place around GWCC current permissible operational footprint. It is also anticipated there may be statutary implications into urban water licensing allocations given Boorowa is currently allocated out of the Lachlan Valley Catchment whilst GWCC would propose to service Boorowa from the Murrumbidgee Catchment.
As the service review process progresses as proposed in these statutory considerations will be included in informing detailed decision making.” The paper also lists finanacial implications which include, “It is anticipated that there will be financial implications associated with the content of this report, however further detailed assessment and negotiations need to be undertaken before the impacts can be reported to Council for consideration.
Factors likely to impact the financial implications are level of capital contribution required to meet grant requirements, availability of complimentary grant programs, capital contribution provided by GWCC for the proposed water project and final water and sewer projects to be submitted for grant funding.”
The project has already attracted funding from Minister Niall Blair who has confirmed the NSW State Government will allocate $130,932 to the the (IWCM) strategy, however, this funding only assists with the strategy not any physical work and has been costed at over $214,000. Basically money spent on staff or consultants coming up with a plan.
Mr Blair came under scrutiny this week from several groups including Shadow Minister for Water Chris Mimis, after the ABC’s Four Corners program aired details of the Murray Darling Basin plan. Mimis told the Sydney Morning Herald,”Last night’s revelations on Four Corners were truly harrowing, It’s not good enough for the NSW government to announce an internal inquiry. We can’t trust them. The farmers, communities and municipal governments up and down those water networks need to know what happened and whether the minister knew.”
The state government said it would refer the allegations to the secretary of the Primary Industries department and also approach the NSW ombudsman following the program, something green groups had already slammed as inadequate.
The timing of the inclusion of the possible connection of the township of Boorowa in the business paper comes just 6 and a half weeks out from the Hilltops election. Timely.
