Council secures SCA grant for Bowral
The local environment is set to receive a massive boost after Council secured a successful grant from the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) designed to improve the water quality in the Bowral area.
Council’s Water Asset Coordinator, Stace Lewer, explained the significance of the grant.
“Combined with Council’s own contribution, this grant from the SCA will allow us to repair and replace a significant part of Bowral’s aged or sub-standard sewer mains,” Mr Lewer said.
In total 5.4 kilometres of sewer main will be renewed across the Bowral catchment area.
The Bowral catchment area consists of 103 kilometres of gravity sewer main, 15 Sewer Pumping Stations, 2,911 manholes and 4,265 sewer connections.
By using smoke testing and CCTV footage taken from within the pipes and examining information such as the age and the material of the pipe, Council was able to identify the sewerage pipes that required replacing.
“As a result of this grant, we can expect infiltration into our sewerage pipes to be reduced and the load on our wastewater treatment plant to be minimised,” Mr Lewer said. “Ultimately, this means less treated wastewater is discharged into our local waterways.”
“And less wastewater means cleaner waterways.”
Infiltration is where water enters sewerage pipes through cracks, breaks and other defects. These cracks and breaks may occur as a result of ground movement, faulty joints or even tree roots in search of water.
“The SCA’s grant of $825,000 will help to further protect our local environment, as well as the drinking water supply for Wingecarribee and greater Sydney for generations to come.”
The SCA grant is part of the NSW State Government’s Healthy Catchments Strategy Priority Pollutants Program.
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