Molong water supply future to be reviewed

Cabonne Council is to engage professional consultants to prepare a Sub-Regional Water Strategy to address concerns with Molong’s ageing water supply infrastructure and future operational needs. The study will even address whether Molong should continue to operate what is a relatively small (or “boutique”) water supply with limited users and a growing demand.

In papers presented to Council it was stated:
The past 10 years have seen significant progress in the region in the area of water security. This progress has been created through a strong collaboration between Central Tablelands Water, Orange City Council and Cabonne Council, resulting in an increased resilience in the regions water supply.

Whilst significant progress has been made, further challenges and opportunities exist in ensuring the ongoing delivery of a safe and secure water supply to the towns within this regional water network. Key issues include:
• The financial cost of owning, operating and making provision to renew ageing critical water infrastructure
• The need to ensure rigorous compliance with water quality standards, regardless of the size or scale of the Local Water Utility
• The critical need to ensure leaks/losses are minimised across water supply networks, especially during times of water shortages, both for trunk supplies as well as urban reticulation networks
• Ongoing attraction and retention of skilled staff, both at an operational as well as strategic level, to ensure the day to day and long-term operations of the Local Water Utility are adequately addressed
• Ensuring adequate attention is given to both the day to day operation, as well as the long-term strategic management, of water supply systems within general purpose Councils, whilst also addressing the increasingly congested range of issues and requirements confronting Councils.

These issues are of particular concern to Cabonne Council, who operate a relatively small water supply network, supplying around 1700 residents in Molong, Cumnock and Yeoval. This network has aging infrastructure, in particular the Molong Water Treatment Plant which requires significant upgrades to meet current water quality standards and asset renewal needs.

Whilst these are challenges facing Cabonne, the opportunity exists to further explore future regional initiatives that could result in:
• significant rationalisation of key infrastructure across an expanded water supply network, particularly in relation to water treatment infrastructure as well as ageing water supply dam(s).
• an increased scale of operations for the expanded entity, providing additional financial capacity with a larger customer base as well as the capacity for a greater focus on strategic management, a larger and more diverse workforce to address skills shortages and an ability to focus on securing additional external funding for key capital projects
• identification of opportunities for the provision of key infrastructure which can enhance the effectiveness of the entire network. For example construction of a potable pipe connection between Manildra and Molong, as well as between Molong Creek Dam and Molong would create a continuous potable water supply connection between the three LWUs, allowing water to be pumped in either direction throughout the network from a range of water treatment plants.
• increased drought resilience across the network, through the development of additional secure water sources such as the proposed new groundwater system in Molong, with these sources able to be distributed to effectively all customers via the interconnected pipe network
Leveraging the current collaboration and the opportunities that exist for the region, it is proposed that Council develop an options report setting out a high-level strategy for the management of water in the sub-region area. This high-level report will:
1. Identify all existing key town water supply and treatment infrastructure, (including type, size/operational capacity, asset age)
2. Identify future water demand and key water security risks
3. Identify potential future water sources and the associated infrastructure required to
a. Create a fully integrated and connected regional water grid
b. Improve the water security and promote economic growth opportunities across the network
c. Provide for potential expansion/interconnection of the network with other Local Water Utilities
4. Identify opportunities for potential rationalisation or targeted re-use of existing key water infrastructure
5. Develop high level order-of-cost estimates based generally on published information
6. Recommend scenarios/project for future investigation