Two sites considered for Mt Beauty water infrastructure
6 June 2022
A location for critical new water infrastructure in Mt Beauty has been narrowed down to two potential sites by a community and key stakeholder reference group.
The group, made up of 13 community members and seven representatives from key agencies, have been meeting regularly since March to provide advice to North East Water about potential locations of a raw water offtake.
Managing Director, Jo Murdoch, said the meetings have been led by an independent facilitator who has steered some very open and honest conversation.
“Not only has the group shared its expertise and knowledge of the area, members have discussed opportunities and learnt about the challenges of each site”, Ms Murdoch said.
“During the last few months, everyone has had an opportunity to have a comprehensive tour of each of the nine proposed offtake locations.
“We also set-up a working group made-up of five reference group members with specialised expertise to explore each site, and several other possibilities, in greater technical detail.
“The reference group has now decided that two sites be progressed for further consideration which include Embankment Drive near the outflow of the pondage and a site near the top of tail race pumping from the West Kiewa and the tail race.”
It is anticipated that the reference group and the technical sub-group will meet one more time to finalise their recommendations to the North East Water Board.
The Board will visit the preferred sites in Mt Beauty, as well as meet the reference group members, before making a final location decision in July.
Ms Murdoch added, “I want to thank all members of the group for their participation in this part of the engagement process.”
“The meetings have been extremely important in giving the community a voice in the location of this crucial piece of infrastructure.”
Project information including minutes of the reference group meetings, is located here.