With no end in sight to the prolonged dry spell which has gripped the area for more than 12 months, MidCoast Council is fast-tracking the development of a temporary desalination plant at the Nabiac Aquifer water supply plant.
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"We've made the decision to ensure water security for the Manning-Great Lakes scheme, which supplies 90 per cent of our water users," MidCoast Council infrastructure and engineering services director, Rob Scott said.
"We are currently seeking approvals from the NSW Government to proceed with a desalination plant, accessing the $1 million grant to kick start the project," he said.
"There is an immense amount of work being undertaken in a short time frame.
"This amount of construction work would normally have taken 12 months or more to deliver.
"With the planning work we have already done and construction commencing on-site this week, we're on track to commission the temporary desalination plant by March 2020."
The proposal involves hiring mobile a desalination plant already mounted in multiple shipping containers.
"The overall treatment system is a two stage filtration process, with the second stage being reverse osmosis," Mr Scott said.
"This is the step that desalinates the water.
"Extensive support infrastructure needs to be built before the shipping containers arrive onsite.
"This includes inlet and outlet pipelines to the river, vehicular access, storage tanks and the footings for the containers as well as connections between all the container units."
Salt water will be taken from the Wallamba River, treated at the temporary desalination plant and provided to supplement the existing Manning and Great Lakes water supply.
The existing Nabiac Water Scheme has infrastructure that can transfer water concurrently north to the Taree area and to Forster/Tuncurry and surrounds.
Council will obtain the relevant licences to permit water extraction and discharge the concentrated salt water through a reverse osmosis process.
A review of environmental factors (REF) has been produced which outlines measures to ensure there is minimal adverse environmental impact as a result of the plant's temporary operations.
The plan includes discharging only for a short period of time and monitoring water quality throughout the operation of the plant.
It's estimated that a supply of around 17.5 million litres per day would provide emergency water supply for all users of the Manning-Great Lakes supply, with the desalination plant providing up to 5.5 million litres of water per day, added to an expected production of up to 12 million litres from the Nabiac Aquifer.
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