Yass Wins IPWEA Excellence Awards

At the recent IPWEA (NSW Division) Gala Dinner held in Coffs Harbour, the winners of the IPWEA Excellence Award for Innovation in Water Supply and Wastewater were announced. Yass Valley Council was the winner for the Yass Dam Upgrade and Shoalhaven Water received the highly commended award for the Kangaroo Valley Sewerage Scheme.

Due to the experiences of prolonged drought during 2002-2008, Yass Valley Council decided that the height of the existing concrete gravity dam needed to be raised by 3 metres. This decision effectively tripled the existing dam's capacity. The construction of the dam wall included the use of 2,490 cubic metres of concrete and around 150 tonnes of steel reinforcement. All the requirements of the NSW Dams Safety Committee needed to be met during the upgrade process.

Notwithstanding the challenges faced by the contractor, the project was completed to a very high standard and within the allocated budget of $23 Million. The project was by far the largest and most complex project ever undertaken by Yass Valley Council and a huge achievement for a small country council with limited physical and financial resources.

The highly commended award in this category was awarded to Shoalhaven Water for the Kangaroo Valley Sewerage Scheme. Historically the Kangaroo Valley had no reticulated sewerage collection system. During this project, Shoalhaven Water arranged pressure systems for 250 homes and businesses and a 530kL/Day water reclamation facility comprising of a dual biological and membrane bioreactor process configuration with UV disinfection and a reclaimed water management system for a crop irrigation.

Congratulations to both award winners and to all the nominees in Category 3 this year. We look forward to continuing our sponsorship of this award next year. These awards are proudly sponsored each year by the Water Directorate and the Water Directorate was very impressed with the high standard of nominations in this category.