Peninsula pipe to “pump 50b litres”

BY ANDREW MATHIESON
PLANS to build a pipeline stretching from Werribee to the Bellarine Peninsula could supply up to 50 billion litres of water a year from Melbourne’s sewage.
The ambitious local plan to tackle the ravages of the drought would pipe wastewater processed at the Western Treatment Plant to the peninsula west of Portarlington.
A 10-km pipeline would run under Corio Bay to transfer a portion of the supply now discharged into Port Phillip Bay.
Bellarine Infrastructure Group project spokesman Dan Kolomanski said his company was already in talks with Victorian Regional Channels Authority to gain approval.
“They’ve been very helpful in giving us basic geo-technical and hydrographic data, which confirms the feasibility of it in a technical sense,” he said.
The group would seek permission next from Melbourne Water.
“Once we’ve confirmed that we will take the approach to undertake a more comprehensive feasibility study so that we are able to confirm the viability of the venture,” Mr Kolomanski said.
Mr Kolomanski, a qualified civil engineer, hoped to supply 10 billion litres, or 10 gigalitres, a year to the peninsula in the first stage of the project.
He said the project had attracted “substantial interest” from agricultural, horticultural and viticultural industries on the peninsula, including at least two wineries, various olive growers and farmers.
The privately-funded project had approached governments at all levels for support.
Mr Kolomanski said the group had written to federal and state ministers for water, Malcolm Turnbull and John Thwaites and federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran.
The group had also sought the support of local federal and state MPs Stewart McArthur and Lisa Neville.
City of Greater Geelong environment and waste management portfolio-holder councillor Tom O’Connor threw council’s support behind the project.
Cr O’Connor said the initiative was about self-sufficiency, not independence.
“It’s about having a regular supply when we need it,” he said.
Cr O’Connor said the pipeline plan could be expanded to help Lara’s rural back lots.
“We need this, it’s desperate and tomorrow’s not soon enough,” he said.
“Environmentally, it just eradicates, not just eliminates, the effects of any drought.”