Beechworth sewer improvement

North East Water is continuing to work towards changing parts of Beechworth’s sewer system to prevent the sewer overflowing into the Historic Park during heavy rain events.

Beechworth’s unique granite base limits the soil absorption of rainfall, and during heavy rain events this results in major stormwater flows into the sewer. These heavy flows then cause the sewer system to spill over at an outlet structure on Church Street, resulting in an unacceptable impact on the Beechworth Historic Park. It has been determined that increasing the capacity of the pipe that transfers the sewage to the treatment plant will both protect the environment and allow for future growth of the town.

Since late 2016, we have investigated and considered several options. Following a thorough assessment process and extensive community engagement, it has been determined that a larger sewer transfer pipe will be constructed and will run from the existing outlet in Church Street, along Last Street, Sydney Road and Old Chiltern Road then through to the wastewater treatment plant near Woolshed.

View confirmed route

In addition to the new pipeline, North East Water is also upgrading the Beechworth Wastewater Treatment Plant, located on McFeeters Road. This upgrade will increase both the capacity and treatment efficiency of the plant. The total investment of the pipeline and wastewater treatment plant projects is $6 million.

We have now finalised the detailed design and specifications for the pipeline and are preparing a Planning Permit application for Indigo Shire Council.

We have engaged a consultant to develop a preliminary design for the wastewater treatment plant and expect to submit a Works Approval application to the EPA in November 2019.

We held a community meeting on 7 October 2019 to present the final detailed designs for the pipeline and the preliminary design for the wastewater treatment plant. Each attendee received a copy of the Detailed Designs Plans. North East Water gave an overview of the design, and highlighted where the pipe would be under bored or open trenched. The attendees were able to review the designs and keep a copy (if preferred). The presentation and notes from this meeting are in the Project Documents below.

We will continue to engage with, and inform the community as the project progresses.

For further information on the community engagement for this project, including presentations, newsletters and meeting notes, please click on the “Project documents” button below.