WCA rep on the Manningham Sewerage Stakeholder Project, Nick Robinson reports (23 Nov 2012) that he has had some quite lengthy discussions regarding the changes that the State Government is proposing to the planning laws and the implications for sewerage connections in Park Orchards and other areas coming up.

All this is very relevant to North Warrandyte and is something WCA needs to discuss more.

The issues are:

  • Possibly less hurdles for subdivision if sewerage connections in place.
  • EPA laws and restrictions regarding containment of discharge etc.
  • Comparison of risks between options to upgrade existing septic systems versus establishing new sewer connections as highlighted in a review done for YVW.
  • Survey of opinions and wishes of residents (as being done for Park Orchards) – The survey will be taken to EPA along with the report to see if the EPA is willing to change or be more flexible about the rules. This would set some precedents. The report shows that the risk to public health and environment would be low if all failing systems were upgraded/changed (as an alternative to sewerage connection). But the modelling was done for Park Orchards, and the same sort of modelling would need to be applied to North Warrandyte to show that the risk is also low in our environment.