Candelo, Cobargo, Kalaru and Wolumla are newer Sewerage Treatment Plants and were built close to facilities that could take the treated effluent.

Fourteen years later, in 2017, the current BVSC have the foresight to continue to support the recycling of the shires effluent. Sewerage is a core function of the local council, unlike some other projects we have seen them undertake in recent years. We should be applauding the mayor and other councillors who voted to contribute approximately 10 per cent of the cost of renewing the irrigation system at PMGC, so that they can continue to recycle a percentage of the shire’s effluent. Remembering also that PMGC funded the installation of their own irrigation system 30 years ago.

The EPA has advised that the current Merimbula beach face ocean outfall does not meet EPA standards. We are faced with either a $30 million project to create a deepwater offshore ocean fallout and in the process pollute our ocean, or finding ways to recycle human effluent by re-using the treated effluent and thereby limit the use of portable water being “wasted” on playing fields in the shire both public and private.  

Am I concerned that Pambula sporting ground and other facilities will now expect support to bring an effluent system to their grounds? No.

If we have a strategic plan for recycling our effluent so that 100 per cent of treated is recycled then that’s a brilliant idea. We would then be a shining example for other shires. Let’s all look towards the future and realise this is a really good way to deal with our ever growing population.

Your recent lead article forecast a surge in community sporting groups seeking financial assistance following council’s decision to award a grant to assist with upgrade and replacement of the treated effluent irrigation system at Pambula Merimbula Golf Club (PMGC). On behalf of PMGC, I sincerely thank council for their decision.

PMGC’s irrigation replacement project was many years in preparation. A little over three years ago the club convened a management advisory group of six experts (coincidentally including now-councillor Bain) to advise it on strategies for raising the necessary million-plus dollars to pay for the system. Prominent among the recommendations of that group was the need to restructure PMGC’s business model and the need to pursue supplementary grant funding from government sources. Starting with a substantial contribution from club cash reserves, implementing a range of the group’s recommendations enabled PMGC to accumulate some 80 per cent of the overall funding needed for the project. The much appreciated BVSC grant goes a long way towards closing the remaining gap and I am confident that club initiatives underway at present will raise the rest.

I sympathise with community sporting colleagues that may now be faced with a funding co-contribution mountain to climb.

We all operate on some expression of Crown/council land and, in an expression of solidarity with our community sporting colleagues, I would like to extend a hand of friendship and offer to share our experiences at fund-raising and grant application levels.

Grant applications these days are a complex procedure, extremely demanding of both time and analytical expertise, and you can confidently expect many knockbacks. If you are a community sporting club contemplating such an endeavour, then pick up the phone and give us a call. Our offer is genuine and we are prepared to assist you to the best of our abilities. 

The Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association (BVSRRA) shares community concerns with Council’s recent decision to give the Pambula-Merimbula Golf Club, a private business, $150,000 of ratepayers’ funds towards the replacement of its course irrigation system.

The BVSRRA recognises that the club irrigates its golf course using treated effluent from the sewerage treatment works and has performed this service for many, many years. 

At the same time, it should be recognised that access to the effluent has helped underwrite the successful expansion of the golf course from a small 9 hole sandscrape green course to what it is today, a 27 hole top quality course, as well as underwriting the larger commercial success of the club to the benefit of its members. Without the reuse water, the improvements to the golf course & the club would have been significantly harder for the club to achieve.

Council is keen to find ways of increasing the volume of effluent that can be reused, thereby further reducing the volume of effluent currently disposed of on or behind the beach in the dunes (currently 70% of the total volume generated each year). While the ultimate solution is currently expected to involve the construction of an ocean outfall out along the bottom of the bay beyond Haycock Point, the estimated $30m + cost of that infrastructure remains prohibitive & out of reach.

Meanwhile, there is already a pipeline in-place in Pambula, used to move effluent down through the back of the cemetery towards Oaklands Farm, where 10% of the current effluent volume is reused. This pipeline is only a couple of kilometres from the Pambula Sporting Complex, which is now designated as a regional facility with an adopted Masterplan & proposals to build two additional full sized soccer fields, plus that amount of space again already allocated to the Pony club for its use; essentially doubling the size of the complex.

Currently the Pambula sporting fields are irrigated with potable town water, the cost of which in the past three months alone amounted to $23K. In addition, the BVSRRA understands that the complex owes Council $50K in accumulated water costs from previous years.

Taking account of the planned development of the complex, it is expected that the cost of water for irrigation could rise to as much as $100K a year, an extraordinary cost for the community or Council too bear, in particular when that precious potable water resource could be substituted with treated effluent accessed via the nearby pipeline.

The BVSRRA believes that such an arrangement would strengthen the viability of important community sporting activities, as well as add to the amount of effluent being reused away from our beaches.

Rather than gifting $150K in ratepayers’ funds to the commercial benefit of a private golf club, with no additional benefit accruing to the community, the BVSRRA believes it would be much smarter for Council to apply the $150K toward the extension of the effluent reuse scheme to the Pambula Sporting Complex, creating multiple benefits to the entire community, including reducing the volume of effluent being reused on our beaches to 60%-65% of the annual volume: a proposal that surely satisfies the “public interest test”.

Needless to say, given that the motion in favour of granting the $150,000 to Merimbula-Pambula Golf Club was only passed on the vote of five Councillors, with four Councillors opposed, the BVSRRA believes that there would be little difficulty in gaining support for a rescission motion & moving the alternate proposal.

While the BVSRRA did consider tabling this proposal with Councillors as a submission, its recent experience strongly suggests that to do so would be a pointless exercise.

In their letter outlining opposition to Council's decision to provide financial support for the upgrading of Pambula-Merimbula Golf Club's irrigation system, councillors Bain, Allan and Fitzpatrick stressed the need to see their opposition to the provision of funds for this purpose " in context." Unfortunately, from my reading of their letter, they provided no context for their opposition, apart from an apparent resentment of providing " free " water to PMGC and other sporting clubs in the shire. From what they say would be the financial and environmental costs of constructing an offshore outfall for recycled effluent, I would have thought the councillors would be grateful to any organisation that would take this product off Council's hands.

I am a former resident of Pambula Beach who now lives in the NSW Southern Highlands. I visit Merimbula regularly and play golf at PMGC on most visits. A quick straw poll among acquaintances in the Southern Highlands soon established that the main attraction of the Far South Coast, apart from its natural beauty, is golf. 

PMGC is very much the jewel in the crown of golf in the area and the majority of councillors ought to be commended for their decision to invest in the future of a major asset to the all important tourist industry.  PMGC members will obviously be major beneficiaries of Council's decision to provide a substantial financial contribution to the upgrading of the irrigation system. The main beneficiary, however, will be me and people like me who appreciate the world-class standard of golf available at PMGC and other courses in he area. Golfers and tourists in general have plenty of destinations from which to choose. Those destinations which do not maintain and improve their infrastructure will be swamped in the race for the tourism dollar. 

Most Bega Valley Shire councillors have shown an awareness of the importance of Pambula-Merimbula Golf Club to the tourism infrastructure of the area. I doubt that the lock will be broken on Pandora's mythical box but, in the event of further requests for financial assistance in maintaining or improving infrastructure, I would hope these requests would judged on their value to the community. To see strategic investment as doling out something for nothing reflects a very narrow mindset.