PHOTO: Council’s Tim Wark in front of the site for the new pump station.
Households in Coonamble south of Barton Street (Reid St, Quonmoona St, south end of Wilga St, south end of Railway St) will soon be able to connect to the town’s sewerage network, as Council officials expect construction of the newest pump station to be complete by Christmas.
Contractors have installed a sewage rising main along Yarran Street between Barton and Reid streets, which will service the new sewage pump station soon to be installed on the corner of Yarran and Reid Streets.
It means households within 250 metres of the station will no longer have to rely on individual septic systems, but can choose to connect to the town system.
“There’s a level of maintenance that homeowners are required to do on their own septic system over the lifecycle of the asset and connection to town sewage would alleviate that need for the homeowner and give peace of mind that their sewage will always disposed of effectively and efficiently,” Coonamble Shire Manager Utilities Tim Wark said.
“Their septic systems have a useful life, so they will ultimately fail at some point in time.
“This basically lets them come onto the system and save the large capital outlay to replace the failed asset.”
The new sewage pump station and sewer rising main will also serve the planned new housing lots on Yarran Street announced in August 2024.
Council staff removed vegetation before the new sewer rising main was installed.
Staff also took the opportunity to assist and learn from the construction contractors whilst working on the project.
“I don’t want the staff to just have to come to work every day and fix the existing system faults,” Mr Wark said.
“I want them to be able to learn new skills, find the job more interesting, to construct stuff and to be challenged.
“They deal with the asset throughout the assets full life cycle and if they can have a bit of buy-in and say, ‘I created that, I know how it was constructed, I know its location’ it should improve service levels.”
The Yarran Street development, the product of a deal between Council and developer Simmons Global, will see a subdivision of 19 lots.
The first homes are expected to be delivered by mid-next year.
Residents on Reid Street who spoke to The Coonamble Times weren’t completely sold on switching over to the sewage system.
Resident and Coonamble Shire councillor Paul Wheelhouse said his household will stick with their septic system, which has been in use for 28 years.
“It’s going to cost money to hook up to the sewer,” Cr Wheelhouse said.
“I can’t see many people changing over unless Council puts an incentive there. I think everybody’s happy with what they’ve got.”