A $129.2 million sewerage upgrade designed to cut wet-weather overflows into the Kanamaluka/Tamar estuary by almost 60% in an average year has been completed in Launceston.
Representatives from the federal and state governments, the City of Launceston and TasWater gathered at the Ti Tree Bend Sewage Treatment Plant today to mark the end of five years of construction.
Delivered through the Launceston City Deal, the project includes a new 10-megalitre covered storage facility at the plant, upgrades to the Margaret Street Sewage Pump Station and a three-kilometre pipeline beneath the estuary.
TasWater said the work would stop around 387 megalitres of overflow from entering the estuary in an average rainfall year, including around 34 megalitres of “pure sewage”. The pipeline was drilled up to 45 metres below the estuary after other routes were ruled out.
TasWater General Manager Project Delivery Tony Willmott said managing overflows had been one of Launceston’s most complex environmental challenges for decades.
“The true measure of success won’t be the kilometres of pipe we installed or the size of the storage facilities we’ve built,” he said.
“It will be a cleaner, healthier waterway that future generations can enjoy.”
The system is being commissioned and TasWater is waiting for the next heavy downpour to see how it performs. The structures are designed to last 100 years.
Infrastructure Minister Kerry Vincent said the upgrade would allow for at least 10,000 new homes in greater Launceston.
“It will allow for a much cleaner river, but it’ll give developers and council confidence to keep developing greater Launceston,” he said.
Federal Member for Bass Jess Teesdale said: “This is exactly the kind of project governments should be backing.”
City of Launceston Mayor Matthew Garwood described the project as “positive generational change to the health and wellbeing of our river and estuary system”.
TasWater will monitor levels of enterococci bacteria in the river over the next few years to measure the project’s effect on the estuary.
