Council plans for coastal growth

THE first step in handling the predicted growth in the region’s coastal area has been put in place by the Bundaberg Regional Council.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the council awarded a tender for preparing documentation and lodging a development application for a major wastewater treatment plant to the east of the city.

The $224,780 tender was awarded to AECOM/Hunter Water Australia.

Council water and wastewater portfolio spokesman Alan Bush said the new plant would handle needs of the coastal and adjacent areas for the next 50 years.

Cr Bush said the new plant would be in the Rubyanna area, and would take over from the present treatment plant.

“We will basically phase out the old treatment plant,” he said.

Cr Bush said the plant would be designed to handle the sewage from a projected 90,000 people.

The timing of the construction of the plant would be driven by development and population growth in the area.

“It would be sooner rather than later if we didn’t have to fund it all ourselves,” he said.

“We are going to have to put in place major infrastructure upgrades for water and sewerage in the area, and we have got to start planning for that now.”

He said it was too early to put a cost on the construction of the new plant.

“It’s going to be big dollars when we start going forward,” he said.