Water, Waste and
Sewer Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 9 April 2020
Minutes of the Water,
Waste and Sewer Advisory Committee Meeting held on Thursday, 9
April 2020
File No: I2020/533
PRESENT: Cr
Richardson, Cr C Coorey, Cr M Lyon and Cr S Ndiaye
Staff: Phillip
Holloway (Director Infrastructure Services)
Cameron
Clark (Manager Utilities)
Dean
Baulch (Principal Engineer system Planning)
Bryan
Green (Water and Sewer system Environment Officer)
Jason
Stanley (System Planning Officer)
Julian
Vivoli (Consultant IS)
Michael
Matthews (Manager Open Spaces and Resource Recovery)
Dominika
Tomanek (Minute Taker)
Community: Duncan
Dey (online) and Ben Fawcett (online)
Cr Ndiaye
(Chair) opened the meeting at 11:36 am and acknowledged that the
meeting was being held on Bundjalung Country.
Apologies:
Col Draper
Mary Gardner
David Fligelman,
Madeleine Green
Declarations of Interest – Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary
There were no declarations of
interest.
Adoption of
Minutes from Previous Meetings
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Committee
Recommendation:
That the minutes of the Water, Waste and Sewer Advisory
Committee Meeting held on 30 January 2020 be confirmed.
(Fawcett/Coorey)
The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.
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Note: The
minutes of the meeting held on 30 January 2020 were noted, and the Committee
Recommendations adopted by Council, at the Ordinary Meeting held on 27 February
2020.
Business Arising from Previous Minutes
There was no business arising
from previous minutes.
Staff Reports -
Infrastructure Services
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Report No. 4.1 Minutes
of previous Water, Waste and Sewer Advisory Committee Meeting
File No: I2020/498
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Note:
Duncan congratulated staff on enabling this Committee
meeting to go ahead, on keeping our business moving as much as is being
achieved, and on continuing to operate under difficult COVID-19
conditions.
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Procedural
Motion
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Change
the order of business:
That Committee change the order of business to deal with
Reports 4.5 first on the Agenda.
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Report No. 4.5 Inflow
and Infiltration - quarterly update
File No: I2020/504
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Committee Recommendation:
That Council note the report.
(Dey/Ndiaye)
The recommendation was put to
the vote and declared carried.
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Report No. 4.2 Nutrient
Loading in the Belongil
File No: I2020/297
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Committee Recommendation:
1. That Council
note that:
a)
for the twelve-month period 27 April 2017 to 26 April 2018 Total Nitrogen
(TN; monitored as required in Condition 11 of Council’s approval under
its Resolution 02-1329 of December 2002) released to Belongil Creek was 1564
kg and that this exceeds (a) the allowable discharge of 1500kg TN, and (b)
the 80% threshold under which an investigation is triggered.
b)
the Condition requires this monitoring be done on a rolling two-month
window, based on weekly sampling.
c)
the Condition requires Council to investigate feasible management
strategies to reduce loads below 80%.
d)
the Condition further requires Council to discuss appropriate courses
of action to prevent further exceedances.
2. That Council
sample nutrient loads weekly or better, as required by Consent Condition
11.
3. That Council
investigate all feasible management strategies to reduce loads below 80%,
including strategies already under way such as:
a)
Biostem pellets for removing sludge and therefore possibly nutrients,
and
b)
vetiver grass [increase sampling downstream of the trial planting to
assess the grass’s ability to reduce nutrients].
4. That Council
continue testing its flow meter newly installed at EPA location #4 to assess
accuracy and reliability of flow results and, once performance is confirmed
or by the end of June 2020 (whichever is sooner) these results be reported to
the next meeting (scheduled for 30 July) of the WWS Advisory Committee and
published on Council’s Water & Sewer information website.
5. That Council
recognise:
a)
that it is impossible to mitigate against increased nutrient loads
during high rainfall events and
b)
that rainfall periods longer than a month may cause breaches of
Consent Conditions 11.
(Dey/Coorey)
The recommendation was put to
the vote and declared carried.
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Report No. 4.3 Effects
of water mining in Byron and surrounding shires on groundwater resources
File No: I2020/298
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Committee Recommendation:
That Council:
1. note
that the October 2019 Independent review of the impacts of the bottled
water industry on groundwater resources in the Northern Rivers region of NSW
(Final Report - NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer - 31 October 2019;
E2019/91097) fails to consider cumulative impacts of this expanding industry
on groundwater and does not adequately consider non-water impacts such as
traffic in local communities and proliferation of plastic bottles.
2. receive
confirmation from staff to the committee that the current status of
water mining for bottled water is that it is prohibited in the Byron shire.
(Dey/Coorey)
The recommendation was put to
the vote and declared carried.
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Report No. 4.4 Condition
9. Additional Load at Byron STP
File No: I2020/497
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Committee Recommendation:
That Council receive reports twice yearly on the
performance of BBSTP against its Consent Condition 9 via reports to its Water,
Waste and Sewer Advisory Committee.
(Dey/Fawcett)
The recommendation was put to
the vote and declared carried.
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Report No. 4.6 Rous
County Council - Service Level Agreements 1st July - 31st December 2019
File No: I2020/520
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Committee Recommendation:
That the Council note the report..
(Lyon/Fawcett)
The recommendation was put to
the vote and declared carried.
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There being no further business the meeting concluded at 1:06
pm.
