Future planning to include irrigation of Taree Recreation Grounds

MidCoast Council is committed to exploring a range of options to ensure the Taree Recreation Grounds doesn’t go without water during the next drought.

Historically, the popular sporting complex has been irrigated by town water. This has proven problematic during times of water restrictions and impacted on the quality of the playing surfaces, leading to the cancellation of important events.

At the 27 April 2022 Council meeting, Council resolved to put all options on the table during the review of its Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy, Our Water Our Future.

Our Water Our Future is Council’s 30-year strategy for managing water supplies in the region. The next version of the strategy is in the early stages of development, and Council will be seeking input from the community in the coming months.

Council’s Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services, Rob Scott, said the strategy would consider a range of options for providing water across the MidCoast, including recycling water to the region’s sports grounds and other community areas.

“Our Water Our Future will take an all options approach to finding the best water supply solutions for our region,” said Mr Scott.

“We’ll be considering the viability of recycled water, desalination, new dams and other supply options.”

A report was presented to Council at the 27 April 2022 meeting that considered several options for irrigating the Taree Recreation Grounds with recycled water.

These included building a small containerised treatment plant at the sporting complex and installing a subsurface irrigation system under the fields.

The third option proposed building a large-scale treatment plant in the Taree area to provide recycled water to a range of public spaces.

Mr Scott said it made sense to explore this option as it could potentially lead to recycled water being used widely across the Taree area, not just at the recreation grounds.

“We’ve already got water recycling schemes at Tuncurry and Hawks Nest that help us provide top quality recreation facilities and we’ll be considering similar options for other areas, including Taree, during the preparation of Our Water Our Future,” he said.