Caboolture River gets $8m boost

Unitywater will spend $8 million on the Caboolture River Nutrient Offset Project to rehabilitate 2.4 kms of eroding river shoreline.

The project, with Healthy Land and Water as construction partner, will repair nine riverbank sites to offset nutrients from Unitywater’s nearby Burpengary East Sewage Treatment Plant (STP).

Unitywater Executive Manager Sustainable Infrastructure Services Daniel Lambert said the project would increase biodiversity and fish habitat while stabilising sections of riverbank.

“We’re planting 30,000 seedlings and the project will provide an estimated carbon sequestration of 34 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year,” he said.

Mr Lambert said the works would reduce the amount of nutrients entering waterways, which offset the nutrients discharged following sewage treatment.

Pressure point

“The population growth in this area will place a lot of extra pressure on both the environment and on our sewerage infrastructure and this project will provide offsets for the equivalent of an additional load on our Burpengary East STP of 5500 people,” he said.

“Nutrient offsetting here is a more cost-effective option that provides flexibility in upgrading STPs. It enables us to make a positive contribution to our environment and community spaces by doing what we can to preserve the health of local waterways.

“Apart from being the right thing to do, this is also a condition of our licence to operate and it helps us meet the challenges of population growth and climate change.”

Mr Lambert said the project would help Unitywater achieve its sustainability goals of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, net zero biosolid waste to landfill and net zero nutrients to waterways by 2050.

Unitywater has carried out other nutrient offsetting projects at its Yandina Creek Wetland and the Caboolture River at Bellmere.