Tamar Estuary
River Health Action Plan
16
A proportion of these initial funds have been utilised to support the Taskforce’s Working Groups, with the
Australian Government funding expected to largely be utilised for ongoing programs recommended by the
Catchment Action working group.
Given any major infrastructure solutions would likely cost significantly above the initial funding allocations, the
City Deal also required the Taskforce to explore funding and financing options for upgrades to the Launceston’s
combined sewerage and stormwater system, including through bodies such as the Clean Energy Finance
Corporation.
Tamar Estuary
River Health Action Plan
17
3.
Process
and consultation
3.1
Tamar Facts paper and public consultation
In acknowledging that the Taskforce had narrowed its scope for the delivery of this initial Plan, it was felt that
broader community should still be consulted regarding the aspects of Estuary health important to them. The
Taskforce was of the view that as there has been such a history of diverse views on the problems, causes and
solutions for Tamar health, these should be consolidated as part of this process to ensure all parties were given a
voice.
The consultation period opened on 16 September 2017, with an advertisement placed in The Examiner, and
concluded on 20 October 2017.
To assist this process, a short paper, Tamar Facts, was prepared by the Taskforce and released on the
Infrastructure Tasmania website (see Appendix 1). The intent of the paper was to present some of what the
Taskforce considered to be the key agreed facts relating to the Estuary, but to also prompt respondents into
answering key questions like “what expectations does the community have for use of the Estuary?” and “what
level of service do they desire?”. Feedback was also sought on which form of Estuary health was seen as most
important and what priority actions, informed by a sound scientific evidence base, should be implemented.
The Taskforce was of the view that if there was strong feedback on issues of Estuary health outside of public
health, it would either encompass these into the existing working group efforts, or set up additional work
streams.
3.2
Specialist input
Through the course of the Taskforce’s meetings, specialist input was sought from a number of organisations.
TasWater and LSIP
TasWater was invited to present on its Launceston Sewerage Improvement Program (LSIP), which provided the
Taskforce with an understanding of the expected benefits of LSIP and the timing of the key works.
LSIP is a two stage program, with the first being a rationalisation of the six wastewater treatment plants around
Greater Launceston to a new treatment facility at Ti Tree Bend, with a second phase that would upgrade the
existing treatment plant at Ti Tree Bend (which receives the flows from the combined system). Collectively this
program totals around $370 million and, while it will have benefits for public health measures, it will primarily
reduce nutrients loads from wastewater treatment plant outfalls.
The first phase of the program is nominally scheduled for TasWater’s fourth regulatory pricing period (2021 -
2024), but requires regulatory approval for the spending, which wouldn’t be considered by the Tasmanian
Economic Regulator until 2020. In anticipation of this, TasWater is currently reviewing the LSIP Strategy to
ensure that it meets the prudency and efficiency tests required by the Regulator. As a result the scope and timing
of “Stage 1” and “Stage 2” may change.
Tamar Estuary
River Health Action Plan
18
With this program largely aiming to reduce nutrient loads and thereby assisting to improve ecological health in
the Estuary, the Taskforce was comforted that its initial focus on public health was sensible. This said, only 20 per
cent of nitrogen loads are a result of poorly performing wastewater treatment plants, while this figure is
approximately 35 per cent for phosphorous. As such it was noted that the issue of ecological health may still need
further action and would be influenced by consultation feedback.
Hydro Tasmania and impact of flow in the South Esk
The CEO of Hydro Tasmania attended the October 2017 meeting of the Taskforce and presented on Hydro’s
understanding of the impact of environmental flows through the Cataract Gorge on siltation in the Tamar and, in
turn, public health measures.
Currently, a constant flow of 2.5 cumecs (2.5 cubic metres of water per second) is released to flow through
Cataract Gorge for amenity reasons. It was noted that silt raking at 2.5 cumecs is barely effective in dispersing
sediment and much greater releases are required to have a tangible impact. For example there was an early 2017
release for white-water kayaking of 18 cumecs for three days and this was combined with silt raking, which had
significant short term impact. This is the reason that raking activities are currently coordinated with large rainfall
events.
While it is Hydro’s view that significant environmental flow release has little impact on improving public health
measures, it was agreed that the Taskforce would work with Hydro Tasmania during its summer releases of
2017-18 for kayaking to establish the effects of large intermittent flows.
There has previously been discussion about recommissioning Duck Reach power station downstream of the
Trevallyn Dam to offset potentially greater flow releases to the Gorge by Hydro, it was noted that the Trevallyn
power station produces electricity 3 to 4 times more efficiently than Duck Reach could and as such the
generation capacity of Duck Reach would not be sufficient to offset the loss of electricity production. The
Trevallyn power station produces enough energy to power 80,000-90,000 homes and therefore any foregone
production has an opportunity cost in terms of domestic supply or revenue generation into the National
Electricity Market. In addition, the levels in the Dam, particularly over the summer are generally not sufficient to
support the level and frequency of release required to have a material impact on sedimentation if electricity
production is to be unaffected.
The Taskforce formed the view that there appears little benefit at this time in pursuing greater Hydro releases to
aid the improvement of public health measures in the upper reaches, but will seek evidence through the summer
period, noting the case would need to be compelling given the importance of the Trevallyn Power Station to
electricity generation. However, there are demonstrable benefits to greater flows from a sedimentation removal
viewpoint.
3.3
Submissions received and key themes
Eight submissions were received through the public consultation process and each of these is available on the
Infrastructure Tasmania website
(https://www.stategrowth.tas.gov.au/infrastructure_tasmania/tamar_estuary_management_taskforce).
While many of those received agreed with the Taskforce’s initial assessment that improving the public health
measures in upper Estuary is a priority, in almost every submission the issue of sedimentation was raised.