Victoria’s health officials are blocking a revolutionary plan to funnel stormwater into the drinking supply on Melbourne’s northern fringe.
Despite more than $9 million in taxpayers’ money being spent on the Kalkallo stormwater project near Whittlesea, health officials are refusing to grant developers and water authorities permission to boost drinking supplies with water captured on the urban surfaces of the new development.
The impasse between the agencies could come to a head this week, with Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh poised to receive new expert advice on the suitability of stormwater as part of Melbourne’s drinking supply.
Located about 30 kilometres north of the city, the Kalkallo project would see water captured from the roofs and surfaces of a 160-hectare commercial precinct, then filtered through man-made wetlands, a storage dam and a water treatment plant.
On top of using the water for purposes such as gardens, it would be supplied to customers for drinking, under the plans that have been floated by Yarra Valley Water and developer Merrifield.
Proponents say the project will be environmentally better than relying on Melbourne’s traditional water network to pump water to the new suburb, which will be 175 metres higher than the nearest reservoir at Greenvale.
But Health Department officials insist that current drinking water standards do not allow stormwater to be used for drinking.
”The bottom line is there is a current policy - this sits outside that current policy,” said a source within the Health Department.
”Until that policy changes, that will remain our view, and if the policy does change there would need to be a fair bit of work done to ensure a scheme like this was safe.”
In a bid to inform any future decisions, health and water agencies have agreed for a pilot scheme to go ahead which will test the stormwater without adding it to the drinking supply.
The Kalkallo case will be an early test of Mr Walsh’s ambitions to increase the amount of stormwater harvested for productive use in Melbourne.
Despite being a strong advocate of stormwater, Mr Walsh has not clarified whether he will change Victoria’s water rules in order to allow the conversion of stormwater into drinking water.
”Options for stormwater usage are being considered by the Ministerial Advisory Council for Living Victoria and we will give careful consideration to those recommendations,” he said.
The advisory council is due to report to Mr Walsh today but it is unclear how long he will take to consider the advice.
Yarra Valley Water boss Tony Kelly said the Kalkallo project would still be worthwhile even if the ban on drinking stormwater remained in place long term.
”The project will still have served a very useful purpose by informing us of what works and what doesn’t work,” he said. ”If it doesn’t work well enough for the drinking water supply the water will be used in the non-drinking water supply.”
