Yass Water Treatment Plant Upgrade
The project to prepare a Design and Business Case for the upgrade of the Yass Water Treatment Plant (WTP) commenced in November 2019. The Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF) funded this project at a cost of $1.2million. During the course of this project DPE (Water), the HAF, INSW/Treasury and NSW Health required that Stage 1 of Works be carried-out in advance. These early works included installation of bubble plume aeration at Yass Dam, upgrade of the raw water pump station, and urgent works at the Yass Water Treatment Plant. These works were completed at the end of February 2023.
Work to develop a Business Case to confirm the preferred upgrade option for additional investment at the Yass Water Treatment Plant commenced in April 2023.
Timeline for major deliverables relating to the business case are as follows:
1) Options Selection Briefing Paper - August 2023
2) High-level Concept Design and Site Layout - September 2023
3) Draft Business Case - October 2023
4) Final Business Case - December 2023
The Final Business Case is required to go through a HAF Assurance process prior to the funding being made available to Council.
Within the business case, the three options being assessed are as follows:
Option 1 - Base Case: This provides minimal improvements (filter media and backwashing and soda ash dosing etc.)
Option 2 - Risk Mitigation Upgrade: This would include new chemical storage facilities, handling and dosing assets, the replacement of ageing electrical assets and power supply and standby generator, inlet outlet modification of existing reservoirs, UV treatment to address cryptosporidium risk from the catchment, filter improvements, amenities and additional clear water storage that requires demolition of old WTP
Option 3 - WTP Augmentation: This includes new treatment processes including inclined plate settling tanks, DAF/Filters, and softening.
These options are being developed further with high-level concept design, site layout, and cost estimation.
Council has already purchased the land for the upgrade.
Council acknowledges that funding has not been pursued for the upgrades to the pipe network between the treatment plant and households in Yass. The reason for this is our focus has been on improving the source of water to the treatment plant and the water treatment processes at the plant. Any works on the pipe network without dealing with the water source problems will simply see the problem return. However, council is considering a program to upgrade the pipe network to control discolouration in due time.
Councillors and staff continue to work with DPE (Water), the HAF, NSW Health and the INSW/Treasury to deliver this important infrastructure upgrade for the community.