The overall aim of the Botany Area Plan Project was to prepare
an integrated strategy for the provision and management of water,
wastewater, recycled water and stormwater infrastructure in order
to provide safe, reliable and sustainable water services.
These services will meet the needs of urban
growth in the Botany area, while complying with the requirements of
Sydney Water Corporation’s (SWC) Operating and Environmental
Projection Licences (EPL).
The Botany area is an area close to the Sydney
CBD, which is in the midst of plans for major redevelopment
(some have already been initiated). The Botany area includes
the in-fill growth areas (those covered within this area plan) of
Redfern/Waterloo, Green Square, Wolli Creek, Cooks Cove and Sydney
Airport. The plan boundary also incorporates the areas of
Alexandria/Mascot, Botany Banksmeadow and North Arncliffe as they
include minor growth pockets that are not the focus of this area
plan, but have been considered.
The outcomes of the servicing strategy were
discussed in terms of SWC’s Corporate Sustainability Goals, which
provided the framework to fully address the economic, social and
environmental aspect of SWC’s sustainability performance. These
goals were:
- To provide clean safe drinking water
- To contribute to clean beaches, oceans, rivers
and harbours
- To help develop a water efficient city
- To provide effective customer service
- To optimise resource use
- To deliver an economically efficient and
viable business
The first step in the process was to agree upon
a set of objectives for the strategy with the input from
a number of key high-level stakeholders. This enabled
derivation of a set of 15 criteria that potential
servicing initiatives could be qualitatively and quantitatively
measured against.
Demands in each of the growth areas were
calculated by performing research into the future populations
(residential and commercial) and the volume of water that was
likely to be used for each end-use that could be potentially
replaced by non-potable water. These non-potable water demand
figures then allowed the determination of a broad set of
non-potable water servicing initiatives that would be able to meet
those demands.
From the set of non-potable water servicing
initiatives a long-list of options was devised, each consisting of
a water type, a water source and a treatment/distribution scale and
method.
A detailed assessment was then performed on
each short-listed option. This involved investigation into
potential social, environmental, planning, technical demands,
(water balance using GHD's Toolkit, hydraulics, required
infrastructure amplification and/or upgrading) and financial
constraints and risks.
These qualitative and quantitative inputs were
then utilised to perform a multi-criteria analysis to
determine the preferred option. Weighting of the criteria was first
performed to determine their relative importance against the other
criteria and then scoring of qualitative criteria was performed.
This process was performed internally (within SWC) and
externally (with a range of key stakeholders). The
Liverpool-Ashfield pipeline (LAP) network was the preferred option
for both groups.
The LAP network option involved the transfer of
secondary treated effluent from the LAP to a recycled water
treatment plant (to be potentially located at Potts Hill). The
tertiary treated water will be stored in a buffer tank and then
distributed to all future growth via new recycled water trunk mains
or reusable disused gas mains to meet the non-potable demands.
A further detailed investigation was performed
on the LAP network to determine specific risks, costs and
requirements (planning and infrastructure and/or upgrade) and to
develop a preliminary investment and implementation plan.