What’s up?! Yamba Sewerage Project

The Yamba Sewerage Augmentation Project ensures all our raw sewage produced now and in the future is adequately treated to a standard suitable for reuse or, in periods when reuse is not possible, for release into the environment.

Environmentally, the upgrade will treat sewage to a higher quality of recycled water, maximise its re-use, and improve the method of its release into the environment.

The upgrade will protect our local natural environment from pollution by excessive nutrients, and from damage by excessive water being released into environments that can’t cope with it. It will also minimise the amount of drinking water used for purposes such as irrigation, thereby increasing our water efficiency and drought-proofing.

Facts & Figures: Currently, only 15% of recycled water produced at the Yamba Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) is reused by irrigation on the Yamba Golf Course. The remainder is released to the environment. The upgraded Yamba STP will produce recycled water to a standard known as Accepted Modern Technology (AMT).

Socially and economically, the upgrade will serve a greater population. The existing Yamba Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) needs increased capacity to handle the amount of sewage produced during peak holiday periods and with future population growth in the Yamba area.

Facts & Figures: The existing sewerage catchment includes Yamba, the villages of Angourie and Wooloweyah, and surrounding areas. The permanent population is about 7000 people, but during peak holiday periods, the population reaches over 12,000 people. The design capacity of the existing STP is 7800 EP, which is insufficient to serve the predicted future population in Yamba of 11,000 EP (permanent) and 17,200 EP (holiday).

This section of Clarence Conversations explains the Yamba Sewerage Augmentation Project. It is a new online version of the community newsletter, The Water Cycle, which has been printed and distributed to local residents since 2000.

Regular and technical updates are available every fortnight at www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/yambasewer.

Why is Yamba Sewerage Project important? The existing sewerage system for Yamba and surrounding areas needs to be upgraded to service an increasing population (including visitors) and protect our precious natural environment.

Community decision-making process. Our local community has been actively involved in this project since 1999, when Council set up the Yamba Water Recycling Management Committee and adopted the award-winning Dealing With Our Own Situation community engagement strategy.

About the Yamba Sewerage Project. The project is upgrading the Sewage Treatment Plant to treat more sewage and improve the quality of recycled water; maximizing re-use of recycled water; and releasing excess recycled water into the river on an ebb-tide.

How to ask questions and make comments. If you have a question that is not answered by the information in Clarence Conversations or on the Council’s website, then ask your question here and it will be answered by technical staff from Council.

What’s up?! About the banner on the shipping containers. The giant billboard down at the drilling site is an important part of our community engagement strategy. Perhaps it’s what got you to this website to find out more about the Yamba Sewerage Project.