Sugarloaf Pipeline route approved by Victorian Government
The route for the $750 million Sugarloaf Pipeline that will pump a share of water savings generated from the Food Bowl Modernisation Project to Melbourne has been approved.
Victorian Planning Minister, Justin Madden, has given approval to the preferred corridor for the 70km pipeline, which will connect the Goulburn River north of Yea to the Sugarloaf Reservoir.
Mr Madden says the pipeline corridor he has approved is “generally in line” with the alignment recommended by Melbourne Water and the independent Advisory Committee.
The minister says he has set a number of conditions for the project to ensure it is developed with minimal environmental impact. The conditions include:
- The submission of an overarching Environmental Management Framework and individual Environmental Management Plans for the various route sections approved by the Planning Minister in consultation with the Environment and Climate Change Minister;
- Payment of a bond for the re-instatement of environments affected by the construction works, to be determined by the Environment and Climate Change Minister; and
- The appointment of an external EPA accredited environmental auditor to facilitate procedures around environmental monitoring, auditing and reporting.
Construction of the pipeline cannot commence until the Federal Government has made a decision on matters of national environmental significance potentially impacted by the project under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conversation Act 1999.
The $2 billion Food Bowl Modernisation Project is intended to recover 425 billion litres of water currently lost through evaporation, seepage and system inefficiencies. It is expected Melbourne will receive about 75 billion litres of the water savings through the Sugarloaf Pipeline.
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