The first step to ultimately achieve a sustainable water supply for the City of Onkaparinga has been taken.
Onkaparinga turned on the tap to recycled stormwater irrigation for the first time in October.
City of Onkaparinga Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg was joined by Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water Senator Don Farrell for this special event.
The first recycled stormwater is now available for local reserves and sporting fields following the completion of the $15 million Christie Creek upgrade.
This award winning scheme, part of Water Proofing the South stage 1 has the capacity to supply up to 850 megalitres of stormwater for reuse.
In a sign of bigger things to come, up to 40 school ovals, sports fields and council reserves in the Christies Beach and Morphett Vale areas have been provided with connections.
This means stormwater will be available to meet their irrigation needs and reduce mains water demand. The project has also transformed Christie Creek into an appealing community destination and significantly improved the health of the waterway.
Delivered by the City of Onkaparinga, the Christie Creek upgrade project was supported by the Australian Government, Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board and the Department of Planning and Local Government.
Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg is excited that recycled stormwater will be available for Council and communities for the very first time.
“Local sporting clubs, schools and our own ovals and reserves can now be linked into the new infrastructure and reuse the equivalent of about 340 Olympic swimming pools of water that previously flowed out to sea.” she said.
Mayor Rosenberg said a pilot project was currently under development, which could eventually see this water available for local households for toilet flushing and garden irrigation.
The Christie Creek project is a key element in the first stage of Water Proofing the South, which was completed late last year and has seen council work closely with the Federal and State Governments and the private sector to deliver 3.8 gigalitres of water for reuse. This includes 2.95 gigalitres of reclaimed water and 850 megalitres of stormwater.
Stormwater will also be at the heart of stage 2 of Water Proofing the South, which will create the same types of outcomes for the rest of the city.
We have commenced this $30 million project, which will focus on the capture, storage, treatment and reuse of 2.8 billion litres of stormwater through the creation of an aquifer storage and recovery scheme at several locations.
The latest projects are a continuation of our extensive efforts in sustainable water management, which started back in the mid 1990s.
