The state government has awarded contracts for work on its $27 million interim solution to address groundwater in Bendigo resulting from historic mining activity.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Bendigo Groundwater Project is expected to be fully operational by June this year, with Lendlease taking charge of the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the new treatment plant and Rochester-based Ward Bros constructing the facility’s brine storage lagoon.
Veolia Water Network will build the pipeline that will transfer groundwater from the New Moon mine in Eaglehawk to the Epsom site.
Making the announcement in Epsom on Wednesday, Bendigo East MP Jacinta Allan said the project would create more than 30 jobs during the construction, operation and maintenance of the treatment plant.
While the new facility is only a temporary solution, Ms Allan said it was an issue that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later, following the mothballing of the Kangaroo Flat gold mine in 2011.
“When the mine ceased operating in 2011 that did see the groundwater levels start to rise, that had an impact on the Central Deborah tourist operations, it’s had an impact on other parts of the city,” she said.
“We’re now six years on and that situation hasn't changed and the issue was before us right now, we couldn’t just wait and see what might happen with the mine, we had to go ahead and put in place an outcome for the Bendigo community because of those broader impacts that were happening across the city – we couldn't just sit back and wait.”
Project director David Sheehan said the short term solution was necessary to prevent the water bubbling up throughout the city and was expected to finally put and end to the sulphur smell that has plagued the city’s central business district for years.
“If the solution isn’t put in place eventually the groundwater will come up to the surface and spill in an uncontrolled manner across Bendigo and that wouldn’t be a good outcome for the community,” he said.
“As the groundwater’s lowered that should take care of the sulphur smell and that should be removed over the short term.”
Bendigo Heritage Attractions chief executive Peter Abbott said the organisation was happy with the project’s progress, and its impact on the Central Deborah Gold Mine, where tourism operations have been suspended at level nine since September.
“We’ve been working with [the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning] to prepare the plan for this little bit of work that needs to happen to link to the groundwater project so we’re happy it’s been announced and we’ll be overseeing project delivery down here at the mine to get the pipe installed and the extra bit of infrastructure installed to help manage the water levels,” he said.