Work is progressing on the construction of a holding tank adjacent to the Warwick Saleyards off McEvoy Street as part of the extension of Warwick’s recycled water network.
The project extends the recycled water network from its current end point at Slade Park into the industrial estates.
The recycled water is produced at the Warwick Water Treatment Plant (sewage) at the western end of Victoria Street and currently supplies sporting fields in Warwick including Queens Park, along with Warwick State High School.
The water is treated to ‘Class A’ recycled standard which means it is not of the same ‘potable’ standard as Warwick’s town water and not suitable for drinking, but is suitable for a range of industrial purposes.
To be used in food-related industries recycled water must be treated to ‘Class A+’ standard.
The extension to the recycled water network is currently being undertaken through two contracts let by the Southern Downs Regional Council.
The first, worth $3,772,729, was awarded in September 2019 to Toowoomba-based engineering and construction firm Newlands Civil Construction, while the second was for $602,208 and awarded in July of this year to Offaly Civil Engineering based at Yatala.
As well as supplying recycled water to the ‘old’ industrial estate off McEvoy Street the project will also supply water to the newer industrial areas in the vicinity of Kenilworth Street, and to the truck wash at the Warwick Saleyards.
The network will also extend to rural areas in the vicinity of Canningvale Road.
Other than the council-owned saleyards no commercial users in the industrial estates have yet signed formal contracts to purchase recycled water from the extended network.
A council spokeswoman this week told the Free Times the SDRC has “received several expressions of interest from businesses within the Warwick Industrial Estate regarding potential use of recycled water”.
“Council will hold discussions with those businesses who have already expressed an interest and will also undertake an expression of interest process for all industrial and agriculture users within the vicinity of the pipeline, once the works are complete,” the spokeswoman said.
Around 50 per cent of the funding for the extension is through the Queensland Government’s ‘Building Our Regions’ program.
