Supplying over 5000 people with water when the dam runs dry - the Stanthorpe water supply story - IPWEAQ e-resources

Supplying over 5000 people with water
when the dam runs dry - the Stanthorpe
water supply story
Seren McKenzie
Southern Downs Regional Council

Abstract:

Stanthorpe is a town in southern Queensland in the local government area of Southern
Downs Regional Council. Stanthorpe has a stand alone water supply (ie, no connectivity to
any water grids) and the over 5000 residents are supplied by Storm King Dam. The capacity
of Storm King Dam is just over 2000 ML and the Dam has never run dry in over 60 years,
albeit it has come close. Stanthorpe itself does not have a high population growth however
is a tourist town and does accommodate a high transient population due to the nature of
the horticulture and agriculture businesses in the region. Following years of low to zero
rainfall and intense drought coupled with another failed wet season in 2018/19, it became
clear to Council that Storm King Dam was going to run dry before the next wet season and
actions needed to be taken to ensure ongoing water supply for Stanthorpe. It was too late
to plan and build a pipeline from Warwick, some 60 kms away, and Council was not
financially resourced for such a project. Working closely with the State Government and
consultants and contractors, Council was able to deliver a solution by trucking water from
Warwick to new water tanks at Storm King Dam. The total project value is valued at around
$15 million with $2.6 million in capital works and the remainder in the carting of the water
through to February 2021 (if required). This project is an example of a collaborative solution
for a large community, as well as the amazing things we can achieve in a short amount of
time when we set our minds to it.
Keywords:      Drought, Stanthorpe, Water Carting, Collaboration

Water Management
The Southern Downs Region, like many parts of Queensland, has been in drought for a
number of years.

Water restrictions were applied from 2018;

   •   June 2018 - Medium (200 l/p/d)
   •   November 2018 - High (170 l/p/d)
   •   March 2019 - Extreme (120 l/p/d)
   •   September 2019 - Critical (100 l/p/d)
   •   December 2019 – Emergency (80 l/p/d)
Council also engaged contractors to undertake leak detection works and were able to
identify a number of leaks in the network that did provide some minor savings of water.
Water education and water initiatives were important and had a large impact;

   •   shower head exchanges
   •   water tank rebates
   •   shower timers and bathroom stickers
   •   education campaigns through schools and online resources
   •   media and regular community updates
           o weekly video update on council’s facebook page from the Mayor
           o monthly water contingency plans presented at council meetings
           o face to face community Q and A sessions every few months, where water
              was a hot topic.
   •   Developing Water Efficiency Management Plans with businesses with high water
       use.
   •   Information packs and resources for all businesses.

   Whilst consumption dropped significantly (figure 1) and the Dam was used for as long as
   possible, it was clear to council that action needed to be taken to ensure Stanthorpe
   maintained a supply of water.

Stanthorpe WTP Monthly Water Production 13 months to Jan 2020
                         80

                         70
Monthly consumption ML

                         60
                                                                                                          Consumption

                         50
                                                                                                          Winter 5 years

                         40
                                                                                                          Summer 5
                         30                                                                               Years

                                                                                                          Annual Average
                         20
                               Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
                              2018 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2019 2020

Figure 1: Water consumption for Stanthorpe over time

Community wellbeing
During the drought, along with businesses being asked to use less water and residents being
restricted in their daily use, community morale has been greatly impacted. The region has
been given a high profile in the media with ‘day zero’ messaging (which council worked hard
to negate) and constant images and stories about the Dam running dry and the town of
Stanthorpe having no water. The economy suffered with crops not being planted resulting
in fewer backpackers, fruit trees reportedly being removed due to them dying, and the
tourism sector being impacted as people ‘didn’t want to use the water here’.
The incredible spirit of Australians and helping out a mate has been evident throughout this
experience. The amount of water being donated - from truckloads down to small bottled
water, was such that two large charity organisations were formed in Stanthorpe to receive
and distribute the water. At times there were up to 20 truckloads of pallets of water being
delivered through the fundraising efforts of various organisations. There is no doubting the
relief this brought to both rural residents having to purchase water due to their tanks being
empty, and to the amount of water being taken from the council standpipes – at times up to
20% of the monthly water used in the town.
Through the community drought funding program, council was able to use some of the
funds for residents to pay for carted water – over 300 truck loads of water were distributed

across the region under this program. Council also made free showers available to rural
residents at the fitness centre in Stanthorpe.
At the peak of the drought, just days after council had moved to Critical water restrictions,
the communities’ resilience was again tested with the Applethorpe and Stanthorpe fires.
These fires started in Applethorpe to the north of Stanthorpe, before moving south to
Stanthorpe where the fire jumped the highway and threatened the town. Council worked
closely with emergency services and most of the water used to fight the fires was not taken
from the town water supply, resulting in little impact on the already low level of water in
Storm King Dam. Stanthorpe was now in the media about not only drought and running out
of water, but also for the fires. The impact was felt again with visitors now staying away due
to fires and lack of water. However once again, donations for the town flooded in and the
region felt the compassion of others.

Determining the options for water supply
Although council had a number of options discussed at a strategic level, and some detailed
work being undertaken by consulting engineers, there was no definite answer to how to
supply the water after the 2018/19 wet season failed to deliver rainfall. Council had
previously submitted an unsuccessful funding application to build a pipeline some 65 kms
between council’s other dam near Warwick, Connolly Dam, which would provide
connectivity between the three main dams in the region (including Leslie Dam at Warwick
which has a much larger storage capacity).
As part of the process to determine the best option to provide water to Stanthorpe, council
realised we needed to better understand Storm King Dam and how it ‘behaved’. A
bathymetric survey was undertaken which determined there was approximately 115 ML
equivalent of silt in the Dam, resulting in an updated storage curve and more accurate ‘run
out’ dates. Department of Natural Resources Mines and Energy (DNRME) have been close
partners in this process and were able to run historical modelling for the Dam, as well as
produce a run out model based on historic evaporation and seepage, climatic conditions
and expected volumetric use over different scenarios. Early on, there was some thought
based on the historic modelling that the dam would not run out and there was no need to
move through to contingency planning, however council was not prepared to take that risk
and engaged GHD consulting engineers to assist with validation of options for council to
consider as well as a business case for funding of the preferred option.

GHD undertook a number of modelling cases, including storage predictions based on best
case (dam filling up overnight – which it has in the past) through to no inflow which resulted
in the dam reaching minimum operating level of 200 ML in January 2020. This work was
being undertaken in July 2019, meaning in the worst case scenario there was only a
maximum of 6 months to construct suitable infrastructure for water to be transported to
Stanthorpe.
Whilst GHD were working through the options report council officers were actively
determining the viability of options such as rail transportation of the water. It was
established quite early in the process that although a rail line exists between Stanthorpe
and Warwick, a number of logistical issues would accompany this option, with the major
issue of the lack of available rolling stock for the water transportation being enough to rule
out this option (along with issues such as having to pump the water uphill from unloading or
truck it to the WTP, nowhere for the trains to ‘turn around’ etc).
The preferred option identified was transporting raw water from Connolly Dam, by trucks,
to storage tanks and then into the raw water line through to the treatment plant (figure 4).
The additional benefit of this solution is that should Connolly Dam run out of water, Leslie
Dam can also be used by reversing the raw water line. Whilst this was the most logical and
economical way to get water to Stanthorpe, there were a number of elements to this
project to be quickly determined. Although it was known we had, on paper, until December
2019/January 2020 for water supply in the Dam, the unknown was the water quality and
how quickly it would deteriorate and remain at a treatable level as the Dam level dropped.

Figure 4: Preferred option for water supply to Stanthorpe (GHD options report, 2019).

Following council agreement to progress with this option, GHD were engaged to develop it
into a Drought Assistance Funding submission to the State government to assist in both the
capital works elements of the project and the water carting. During July 2019 council had
undertaken an initial request for suppliers to set up a water carting Preferred Supplier
Arrangement, even though at this time the fill points and the receival points were unknown.
This enabled council to have the PSA ready for use, and later it was refined with the same
suppliers once the route was determined.
Construction
Whilst GHD were preparing the funding submission in early August, Newlands Civil, who had
just completed the raw water pipeline replacement between Storm King Dam and the
Stanthorpe WTP, approached council with a proposal to design and construct 2 x 1ML tanks
at the Dam, receival pipework, and 1.5 km of raw water pipe alongside the Dam to join in
with the recently completed raw water pipe. This proposal was discussed and agreed to,
being the first (and most expensive) element of the project. A decision needed to be made
very quickly on this element due to the long lead time on the water tanks. As such,
agreement on the design was reached and the pipeline commenced, and completed, while
waiting for the tanks.

Installation of pipework alongside Storm King Dam for transfer of the carted raw water.

The tanks commence construction.

The tanks completed and in use.

Whilst the tanks and pipe project had commenced, the funding proposal was completed at
the end of August and submitted to the State Government; in mid-September, while visiting
the Stanthorpe region following the bushfires, the then Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk,
announced that the project would be funded by the State government, to the amount of
$2.4 million for the capital works, and $800,000 per month for water carting through until

February 2021. This was a welcome relief for council and the ratepayers of Southern
Downs, particularly as this matched the amounts that council and GHD had estimated in the
funding proposal – meaning 100% funding for the project. As this was the first project of
this nature in Queensland to this scale and to be funded, a deed had to be developed and
was not actually signed by all parties until early November 2019.
During this period there was intense media and public interest in the project. This was due
to the fact that we had started the pipeline and tank project but had not yet released details
on the project – largely as we were still working through the details ourselves as well as
waiting on a response regarding the funding submission. Council made a joint video with
Newlands representatives about the project under construction and invited the local media
to view the video and ask questions about the project.
With the receiving area determined, council needed to work out a number of other
elements, including;

   •   The safest route for the public and 40 -50 water trucks per day
   •   Upgrades to roads and traffic management changes required on this route
   •   Where the fill area would be and any associated infrastructure
   •   What upgrade would be required to the WTP to treat the different supply of raw
       water
   •   How to accurately determine how much water each truck was carrying without
       weighing them every load
The logical next element to determine was the fill point for the trucks, as this would
determine the route required for the trucks to travel. Initial thoughts were to use an
existing fill point in Warwick – however as pointed out by staff, this had limited space and
trucks would travelling through a residential area. Staff quickly came up with an alternative
site that was already on the road to Stanthorpe, required only a relatively short extension to
the existing raw water line from Connolly Dam, and had enough road reserve that it could
be made into a fill point for multiple trucks. The area had previously been used by TMR and
adjoined the New England Highway, so staff worked with TMR representatives to quickly
gain approval for the site and to come up with an agreed plan for both works to the site and
traffic management at the location, which included reducing the speed to 80 from 100
km/hr on the highway to allow trucks to safely turn in and out of the site. Thanks to
consulting engineers GenEng Solutions, the designs were quickly developed and approved
by TMR.
The filling area required widening of the local road that the trucks were turning into from
the highway, and full construction of the filling area. This was a priority job and was
completed by council crews in less than two weeks. Just prior to this, council crews were

extending the 300mm ductile raw water main to the site which was about 220 metres away.
The work on the ductile water main occurred in early-mid September – the same time the
Declaration of State of Fire Emergency for Queensland was active. Council WHS officers
liaised with QFES and determined suitable work methods which including travelling back to
council’s workshop to allow cutting of the ductile water main in a controlled environment
with no risk of fire. The daily pre-starts included discussion on the fire risk and extra
measures including additional fire extinguishers on site were taken. Council engaged
contract traffic controllers for the traffic management of this job, and although they were
involved in the pre-start meeting, unfortunately a fire on site was started when the traffic
controller parked in the dry grass, resulting in the car being destroyed, but council staff
managing to keep the fire contained and out by the time the fire brigade arrived. This was
also a reportable incident due to the nature of the event.
In order to accurately monitor the amount of water being carted by the different trucking
companies, each with different sized tanks, council decided to install three water fill
stations. These Abberfield style fill stations were supplied to council as a priority given the
current emergency situation, and although the last element of the project to be finalised,
were delivered quickly and have worked very well. The raw water main gravity feeds to the
fill site, and the three fill stations feed through to five filling points so multiple trucks are
able to fill at once, as well as B-doubles being able to quickly fill both tanks. The average fill
time is about 13 minutes due to the high pressure at the site of about 350 kPa. The fill
stations are set so that the key swipe is set to the volume of each tanker on the truck –
meaning auto shutoff when it is full as well as an accurate record of the volume of water
carted by each company. This results in fast and efficient payment of invoices as verification
of volume carted is quick and easy.

Traffic management of the fill site reduces traffic to 80 km/hr and the design allows trucks to gather some
speed prior to re-joining the highway.

The use of Connolly Dam water, which is known to have higher manganese levels in it than
Storm King Dam, meant council needed to add some further treatment options at the WTP
in Stanthorpe. Council engaged a treatment expert for trials prior to the water carting
commencing, when council began partial water carting (blending with the Dam) and when
full water carting commenced. This resulted in a smoother transition once the carting was
underway and gave the treatment plant operators confidence in the treatment of the water
from another source.

Roadworks and traffic management (speed reduction) were also undertaken at the receival
area for the water trucks to safely manoeuvre. This included widening of the road into the
dam area as well as full construction of the receival area. Again, these works were
undertaken in a very short timeframe in order to reach a target date for completion.

The receival area and tanks, in operation.

Once all the works were completed, council conducted a full water carting trial day in early
December. This was successful, and council moved to partial water carting at about half the
daily demand the following week. This water was blended with the remaining Dam water
(in the pipeline) and allowed the Dam water to continue to be used until mid-January, at
which point we moved to full water carting. Due to fluctuations in water use on certain
days, and dependant on weather, the tank levels have to be closely monitored and amounts
trucked in need to be varied as required.
On average, just over 1.2ML of water has been carted per day since full water carting
commenced, with seasonal variances increasing the amount closer to 1.3ML/day as the
weather warms up. This equates to about 42 truckloads per day, which are moved from
6am through to about 6pm at night. As the treatment plant does not operate 24 hours per
day, this allows the tanks to be kept topped up throughout the day and then the tanks are
full and ready for the treatment plant in the morning when it starts again. Although trucks
have to travel through some residential areas of Stanthorpe to reach the receival area, there
have been very few complaints about the truck movements. Council released media about
the route and did a letter box drop to advise of the route and people are generally accepting
as they realise this is the only way to get water to the town. Solar lighting has been set up
at both the filling and receival points to allow for emergency late night carting – this could

be required if the road is cut due to an accident or bushfires, or if there is an issue with
water supply or use causing a delay in supply.
Learnings
A project as complex as this that has to be delivered in a short time, under intense public
and media scrutiny, is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in. Of course, ideally,
we would not be in the situation where we are having to transport water this way, however
when you do find yourself in this situation, as sometimes happens in local government, it is
heartening to see what we can pull together and achieve as public works professionals.
It is critical to draw on your staff and their knowledge – empower them and make them
comfortable to come to you with ideas. In our situation, the staff (and our contractors)
were the ones who came up with the on the ground solutions once the decision was made
on which was the preferred option.
Engaging early with key stakeholders is essential. With such public interest in this project
there was a lot of media including interviews (television and newspaper), media events and
releases, and community sessions. Being as open and honest as possible has helped us on
this project to maintain the communities trust that they will not run out of water in
Stanthorpe. Understanding what the community is going through is also important, in this
case a crippling drought for industry and tourism in this region followed by bushfires.
There are always going to be unexpected items in a project like this – we had a best
estimate of $2.4 million for the capital outlay and spent $2.6 million. Given this is not an
everyday project that we deliver as public works professionals being less than 10% over
budget is quite an achievement.

And finally, remember, just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t!
Thankfully we were not prepared to think we weren’t going to run out of water and as
public works professionals we banded together to deliver a solution – it’s impressive what
we can do as a local government for our community.

Acknowledgements
   •   Queensland Government
   •   Southern Downs Regional Council staff – from field staff to procurement staff; and from
       capital delivery to ongoing operations
   •   Newlands Civil
   •   GHD
   •   GenEng Solutions
   •   Department of Transport and Main Roads
   •   Abberfield

References
       Nil