Wagga City Council provides Lake Albert pipeline update, reveals project cost after community petition

The eye-watering estimated price tag and lack of funding have been revealed as part of a response to questions raised via a community petition that will be discussed at Monday night's Wagga City Council meeting.

The petition, which asked a number of questions about the proposed lake pipeline project, was signed by 751 "concerned ratepayers" and lodged with the council last month.

As per the council's policy, the petition has been placed on the agenda for Monday night's meeting because it was signed by at least 10 people from more than 10 different addresses.

General manager Peter Thompson used an extensive report to councillors to respond to the questions and concerns, in which he revealed the specific purpose access licence required to pump water from the Murrumbidgee River to Lake Albert had only recently been granted.

Mr Thompson said the council received formal notification about the Lake Albert licence, for a volume of 1800 megalitres, on September 14 and has since had it added to the state's water licence register.

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The approval came more than two years after then NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey visited Wagga - on March 31, 2021 - to announce a deal allowing the council to top up the lake with thousands of megalitres a year via a new pipeline.

Ms Pavey signed a memorandum of understanding with then mayor Greg Conkey, which provided the council an interim licence to use up to 1800 megalitres per year to top up the lake in recognition of the treated effluent already pumped into the river.

At the time, the council had spent two months working with government bureaucrats on a proposed solution for the lake's long-term water issues.

The pipeline plan was devised by the council as a solution to the periodic drying of Lake Albert, which has occurred for at least 75 years.

Low water levels have caused blue-green algae blooms in recent years and also damaged the city's economy after the Barry Carne Interstate Challenge major water-skiing event was cancelled in 2019 and 2020.

In a response to a petition question asking what was "holding up" the pipeline and whether councillors were "aware of the time frame by which this project was meant to be finished", the general manager said the solution identified by the council was "not a project which has any firm timeframe".

"While the council has aspired to [get to] delivery in the shortest possible time frame, this ultimately depends on other levels of government both to perform administrative actions and assist with funding," Mr Thompson said.

"Success has been achieved in progressing the legal grant of the water licence and also the design solution for the pipeline itself."

Mr Thompson said the final delivery of the pipeline did not have a date because the absence of a final design and funding meant it was not possible to commit to one.

"The suggestion that the project has a completion date, or that any such date has been delayed, is incorrect," he said.

"No one in the community should have an understanding that there is an identified completion date at this time."

Mr Thompson said the council was working on the planning and design phases of the project, including identifying options for the pipeline's route and an access point to take water from the river.

"This work has narrowed the options to a preferred option of using the former Riverina Water offtake point which is no longer required by Riverina Water," he said.

"The pipeline route is now being designed from this offtake point along a preferred route to Lake Albert."

The route is yet to be confirmed and the council will be required to acquire easements for the pipeline and its associated infrastructure.

Mr Thompson said the pipeline build would also be subject to construction funding being allocated.

At this stage, the council has set aside $232,000 to complete required planning works.

The general manager said while it was not possible to provide an accurate cost for the total project until the designs were completed, initial estimates put the figure above $7 million.

The council has so far been unsuccessful in two applications for federal government funding under the Building Better Regions Fund.

An expression of interest has been submitted for a different Commonwealth funding program and Mr Thompson said the council was working with Riverina Water on a joint approach to the design, construction and long-term management of the pipeline.

In March, when the water licence application remained caught up in the "bureaucratic process", Councillor Rod Kendall warned the pipeline needed to be built before the next drought.

Wagga Airport recorded just seven per cent of its average September rainfall last month, with the Bureau of Meteorology also declaring an El Nino.

El Nino typically leads to lower spring and early summer rainfall for eastern Australia, and warmer days for the southern two-thirds of the country.

Also in March, Councillor Mick Henderson said the pipeline, which was first suggested back in 1967, needed to be up and running by April 2024.

"That's the start of our allocation licence, we only get to draw water from the river in the winter months, from April to October," Cr Henderson, who is also the Wagga Boat Club commodore, said at the time.

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