Council Minutes - Town of Cambridge
Council Minutes - Town of Cambridge
Council Minutes - Town of Cambridge
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COUNCIL MINUTES<br />
TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2011<br />
This study has been completed and is subject <strong>of</strong> this report.<br />
Outcomes<br />
The study found that the following uses <strong>of</strong> the stormwater were feasible:<br />
Create an infiltration basin to allow gravity fed water to replenish the aquifer<br />
Create one or several injection bores to pump water into the aquifer<br />
Pump the stormwater to the main dam on Wembley Golf Course as an <strong>of</strong>fset to some<br />
bore usage<br />
Harvest the water and pump it into feature lakes near several key holes on Wembley<br />
Golf Course<br />
The benefits, depending on the scheme chose, were:<br />
Replenish the aquifer with more water than the <strong>Town</strong> currently extracts for all <strong>of</strong> its<br />
irrigation. The State would be less likely to reduce any future licensing volumes upon<br />
the <strong>Town</strong> in a drying climate whilst our irrigation standards can be maintained<br />
Develop a wetlands feature which would add interest to any potential walking trail<br />
through Wembley Golf Course<br />
Produce feature lakes with potential interest and thus attraction for Wembley Golf<br />
Course. It would be difficult to see how this would translate into increased revenue<br />
Recycle water that would normally go to ocean outfall<br />
It was evident that the most important issue was that by recharging the aquifer with more water<br />
than the <strong>Town</strong> currently takes, we are contributing positively to the overall water balance. In a<br />
drying climate, this matter will be <strong>of</strong> significant benefit to the <strong>Town</strong> in negotiations to maintain<br />
existing licences to extract bore water for irrigation, not only in Wembley Golf Course but for all<br />
<strong>Town</strong> areas.<br />
The Department <strong>of</strong> Water has not yet reviewed the allocation <strong>of</strong> ground water abstraction for<br />
<strong>Town</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Cambridge</strong> hence undertaking this work now is pre-emptive.<br />
The issue <strong>of</strong> preferring a gravity fed solution over pumped solutions was to minimise operating<br />
costs.<br />
Most Preferred Option<br />
The most preferred option was to divert stormwater from HMD via gravity into a 10,000 m 2<br />
infiltration basin at Wembley Golf Course and infiltrate ~ 2GL pa <strong>of</strong> water into the aquifer.<br />
This option had the lowest capital costs (~ $960,000) and lowest operational costs ($125,000<br />
pa). All other solutions required the use <strong>of</strong> pumps, which significantly increase the operating<br />
costs.<br />
Attachment 1 details an indicative plan <strong>of</strong> this option.<br />
It is important to note that this option only sees about 20% <strong>of</strong> HMD water being reclaimed, as<br />
volumes above this amount may not be able to be infiltrated into the aquifer successfully<br />
without parts <strong>of</strong> Wembley Golf Course becoming inundated through surface expression <strong>of</strong><br />
groundwater (ie flooding) and the necessary changes to HMD to create sufficient pressure<br />
would be problematic.<br />
Risk Assessment<br />
A Stage 1 entry level risk assessment was undertaken for the project. Attachment 2<br />
summarises the risk issues.<br />
H:\CEO\GOV\COUNCIL MINUTES\11 MINUTES\DECEMBER 2011\C CR.DOCX 196
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