Water Security for Wangaratta
Phase Two Summary
In 2013, the Victorian Government announced the $1 million Water Security for
Wangaratta project to assess water demand in Wangaratta and consider the most costeffective way to improve water security for the regional city and Glenrowan.
The Minister for Water appointed a Project Steering Committee with an independent chair to
guide the progress of the Water Security for Wangaratta Project. The project has three phases:

Phase One – Investigate the region’s current and future water requirements. (Completed
December 2013).

Phase Two – Identify and assess options to improve urban and industrial water security.
(Completed July 2014).

Phase Three – Final report with recommendations. (Completion due August 2014).
Phase One and Phase Two of the Water Security for Wangaratta project are complete and the
reports are available on the Department of Environment and Primary Industries website - Water
Security for Wangaratta1.
A summary of the Phase Two is report below.
Options Evaluation and Indicative Costing report by Jacobs
The first phase of the project recommended three options to improve Wangaratta’s reliability of
supply:

The use of groundwater as a regular supplement to surface water supplies

The enlargement of Lake Buffalo by 10 gigalitres (from 24 gigalitres to 34 gigalitres)

The use of alternative water sources, such as those identified in North East Water’s (NEW)
Alternative Water Atlas (NEW, 2012)
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www.depi.vic.gov.au/water-security-for-wangaratta
Objective
The objective of Phase Two was to undertake a more detailed analysis of the three options
listed, and recommend which of them would provide the most benefit, with the least negative
impact and the best value for money.
To do this, concept designs were completed for the three options and their costs, benefits and
impacts were compared using a triple bottom line (TBL) assessment.
The options were designed with the aim of providing 90% reliability of supply to Wangaratta
under a “return to dry climate” and future (2060) demand scenarios. The “return to dry climate”
represents a repeat of climate conditions that were experienced from 1997/1998 to 2008/2009.
The results of this analysis are detailed in the table below.
Indicative costs
Option
Estimated
Estimated
Net present
capital cost
additional
value
operating cost
Additional ground-water use
$15 million
$260,000*1
$17 million
Enlarge Lake Buffalo
$80 million
$0*2
$54 million*3
Alternative water use
$95 million
$1 million
$86 million*4
Notes
1 for “return to dry climate” scenario
2 relative to current operating costs
3 accounts for avoided future dam safety upgrades
4 accounts for avoided costs in developing additional agricultural re-use schemes
Options
Groundwater use
Existing
North East Water (NEW) currently operates three groundwater bores on two sites - two bores at
Kerr St and one bore at Faithfull St near the Wangaratta Water Treatment Plant.
The bores operate with two main constraints:

The water must be treated to meet Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and

Daily and annual pumping limits (Goulburn-Murray Water licence conditions).
Concept designs
The concept design to increase groundwater supply factored in the following:

Groundwater bores would be used whenever surface water extraction was restricted,
therefore the bores would need to operate daily for long periods of time (up to 40 weeks per
year during extreme droughts).

Pumping could take place for 16 hours and recover for 8 hours to remain within available
drawdown limits.
The concept design showed that with two additional bores, NEW could deliver 90% reliability of
supply under historic “return to dry” and 2060 median climate conditions.
The design included an upgrade to the water treatment infrastructure at Kerr St and a new
groundwater bore and water treatment infrastructure at Phillipson St.
The report considered multiple options for the second new groundwater bore but further
investigation is needed to determine the final site for the second bore.
Lake Buffalo
Existing
Lake Buffalo was built in 1965 and holds 24 gigalitres at full supply level. Safety upgrade works
were undertaken at the dam in 2003.
Concept design
The concept design for enlarging Lake Buffalo was based on recommendations and concepts
from the URS (2003) report from the 2003 safety upgrade works.
In order to enlarge the dam’s capacity by 10 gigalitres, significant infrastructure works and
embankment changes would be required.
These include raising the main and secondary embankments by 3.8 metres, raising the primary
spillway crest by 6.5 metres, widening the secondary spillway from 100 metres to 150 metres,
installing a fuse plug embankment, creating a 160 metres wide tertiary spillway through an
overflow portion in the secondary embankment and raising the two-lane road and bridge along
the embankments.
The expansion would result in the inundation of the current recreational facilities so these would
need to be relocated.
The expansion would also require the buyback of a volume of High Reliability Water Shares to
comply with the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement’s Sustainable Diversion Limits for the Ovens
catchment.
The concept design raises the full supply level (FSL) of Lake Buffalo by 2.9 metres, thus
increasing its storage capacity from 24 gigalitres to 34 gigalitres.
For more detail, please read the full report at the Department of Environment and Primary
Industries website - Water Security for Wangaratta2.
Alternative water use
Options considered
The study considered the following options:
1. Store treated trade waste via managed aquifer recharge (MAR) – this is unlikely to be
approved by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
2. Store treated trade waste in a new storage at Sandford Rd, Wangaratta – would provide only
200 megalitres to 400 megalitres per year.
3. Capture storm water at Sandford Rd, store with MAR – requires MAR and additional
groundwater infrastructure.
4. Capture storm water in new storage at Sandford Rd – provides less water than the recycled
water option.
5. Use water recycled from the Wangaratta Wastewater Treatment Plant – this was considered
the most feasible option because recycled water is a reliable, climate independent source of
water.
Alternative water use options will only increase Wangaratta’s reliability of supply if these options
reduce the demand for potable water. The reduction in potable water demand required to
achieve 90% reliability in the “return to dry climate” and future (2060) demand scenarios was
estimated as 944 megalitres per year.
Concept design
The study found that only the recycled water option could provide the necessary reduction in
potable water usage to increase the reliability of Wangaratta’s water supply.
The supply of recycled water to potential industrial, commercial customers and the Rural City of
Wangaratta could reduce their demand for potable water by 700 megalitres (90%). This change
would be sufficient to increase the reliability of supply to 90% in the historic and median climate
change scenarios but not in the “return to dry climate” change scenario.
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To achieve 90% reliability of supply under all scenarios, a further 250 megalitres per year of
residential demand would need to be met using recycled water, estimated as being equivalent
to providing recycled water to about 3,100 Wangaratta households for outdoor use.
The concept design for this option comprised:

Upgrade of Wangaratta Wastewater Treatment Plant to produce approximately 8
megalitres/day of Class A recycled water.

A new recycled water storage tank and pump stations

A pipe reticulation network to supply industrial, commercial, council and residential
customers.
Indicative costings
Indicative costings for all three concepts included:
Capital costs based on estimated:

Direct construction costs,

Indirect costs as a percentage of direct costs,

50% contingency based on direct and indirect costs,

Offsets required (i.e. vegetation; water entitlement buyback), and
Operating costs based on estimated:

Treatment and pumping costs and

Maintenance costs.
Triple Bottom Line assessment
Triple Bottom Line (TBL) assessment criteria were developed through consultation with the
Project Steering Committee and included the following categories:
Financial
 Net cost

Third party impacts

Environmental impacts

Flora and fauna

Surface water
Social
 Reliability for downstream users

Cultural heritage

Amenity and recreation

Community acceptance

Pricing impact
Technical
 Resilience

Timing and complexity of implementation
These were weighted in accordance with the Department of Treasury and Finance’s
recommendations.
Findings
Additional groundwater use is the highest ranked option and is not sensitive to the criteria
weighting.
Enlarging Lake Buffalo scored lower on environmental and technical criteria due to complexity
of the works as well as the price impact on irrigators.
The alternative water use option scored lower because of high capital and operating costs.
Additional groundwater use scores highest on technical criteria because it:

Can be implemented in stages to minimise cost pressure on customers.

Is a climate independent source of water which is unaffected by surface water events e.g.
bushfires.

Requires less time for implementation and is less complex.

Additional groundwater also has fewer environmental and social (primarily pricing) impacts.
You can read the Executive Summary or the full Options Evaluation and Indicative Costing
report at the Department of Environment and Primary Industries website - Water Security for
Wangaratta3.
What happens next?
The Project Steering Committee will consider this report and its findings before making a
recommendation to the Minister for Water in August 2014.
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www.depi.vic.gov.au/water-security-for-wangaratta
How do I get involved?
Further information is available at the Department of Environment and Primary Industries
website - Water Security for Wangaratta4.
To contact the Project Steering Committee, please email
watersecurity.wangaratta@depi.vic.gov.au.
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