Wagga Wagga City Council received $4,493,776 in Federal Government funding for the development of Lake Albert. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Plans for the much debated Lake Albert pipeline are one step closer to becoming a reality.
Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) announced during its 5 August ordinary meeting that it successfully applied for $4.493 million as part of the Federal Government’s Growing Region Program, allowing the council to begin implementing its plans for Lake Albert.
The $4.5 million fund will be matched by WWCC to kick off the $8.9 million pipeline project. The hotly discussed project will create a connection between the Murrumbidgee River and the lake and by doing so, raise the water levels of the lake during drier spells.
WWCC’s Manager City Growth and Regional Assets Ben Creighton said in addition to the pipeline, WWCC would also be looking to address ongoing erosion issues along the lake’s foreshore.
“We’ll have a $9 million project that would see the development of a pipeline from the river through to the lake,” he said.
“It will also see a bit over two kilometres of foreshore works completed to address some of the foreshore areas where there’s significant erosion at the moment, in addition to some weir upgrades, which will also allow us to better control the flow of the water from the lake.
“There’s a number of milestones that we’re currently working through at the moment and potential partnership opportunities for the delivery model of the plans, which we will come back with to the newly elected council early in their term later this year.”
Mr Creighton said WWCC had identified funds within council to pay for its part of the project but would continue to seek alternative funding opportunities.
Mr Creighton said that while once completed the pipeline would resolve water level issues for the lake, it might not resolve ongoing blue-green algae blooms plaguing the water source. He said the Waterzyme trial, which was in place for the past six months to eliminate the algae, hadn’t been as successful as originally hoped.
“We will continue to have a full lake, but we will still need to investigate and continue to look at options around the blue-green algae,” he said.
“The decision from last night from the councillors was for us as staff to continue to look at all the options that are available.”
Waterzyme has reportedly offered to extend its partnership with WWCC to trial its product again this summer before blooms become present. Mr Creighton said that while Waterzyme’s offer was still a viable option, WWCC staff would continue to look at other methods before presenting its report to newly elected councillors in October.
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