By JESSE GRAHAM
A RECYCLED water pipeline for the valley is one step closer to reality, with Casey MP Tony Smith announcing $300,000 towards a feasibility study on Wednesday 8 June.
Mr Smith announced the funding with Yarra Valley fruit and wine growers at the Yarra Ranges Council’s office on Wednesday, as part of the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund.
The study will investigate the possibility of a recycled water pipeline to take one billion litres of recycled water from Lilydale’s Yarra Valley Water treatment plant to agricultural land in Coldstream and Gruyere.
Yarra Ranges Council’s economic development officer Lou Zarro said the pipeline discussions had first taken place during the 13-year drought, which broke in 2012.
He said the pipeline, when completed, would provide water security to agricultural businesses in the valley that currently had to truck in extra water when their storage was empty.
“There are growers who say to us, ‘I can’t chase export contracts in the US’, because they don’t have the certainty of water to put down new vineyards, to put down new orchards,” Mr Zarro said.
President of the national and Victorian strawberry growers associations and Coldstream strawberry grower Sam Violi said that he had been involved in the pipeline project for the last 10 years and that using recycled water would stop farmers using “good drinking water” for irrigation.
Giant Steps winemaker Steve Flamsteed said his winery relied on a catchment dam and rains to fill it, and that a water pipeline was needed.
“We’ve had a couple of drought years, and we’ve been lucky for a few, but, at the moment, the dam’s empty,” Mr Flamsteed said.
“We don’t really know what’s in store for us and our vineyards next year.
“I think all of us, in what we do, water’s the basis of what we do – without water, there’s no future for us.”
The Mail reported in February that the pipeline, known as CROPS, was a priority for the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and that some farmers were forced to buy expensive mains water just to get their crops to market.
Mr Smith said the funding for the feasibility study was secured regardless of the outcome of the 2 July election, and that an additional $91,500 would be used to develop a water plan for south-east Melbourne.
The plan will assess the water supply over the coming 20 years and investigate recycled water uses for intensive horticulture.
Mr Smith said the pipeline would be “shovel-ready” in 2017, once the study was completed.
“It’s been selected on its merit,” he said.
“Water security will lead to not just more certainty, but greater growth in the business, more jobs, more export opportunities, because of the certainty and everything that flows from it.”
Yarra Ranges councillor Jim Child said the funding was a “great gesture” from the government, and would give security to farmers in Coldstream and its surrounds once completed.
“When you look at the biodiversity and the environmentally significant gains that we get, as far as what’s going into the Yarra and what we can actually take out through this project, it has a tremendous, tremendous benefit,” he said.
