Sewage decision looming

CASSOWARY Coast Regional Council is expected to decide if it will accept responsibility of the construction and and management of a new sewage treatment plant at the private Port Hinchinbrook estate next month.

Standing in the way is a current deficit of about $4 million in funding for the proposed $8.6 million project, with Mayor Mark Nolan “categorically” ruling out rumours the wider Cassowary Coast ratepayer base would foot the bill.

The State Government has offered the council $4.3 million towards the project.

“The wider rate-paying community will not fund this, there’s only one option and that’s for the Federal Government to come good,” he said.

Mayor Nolan welcomed a letter Kennedy MP Bob Katter penned to Prime Minister Scott Morrison with the federal member requesting funding for “a basic human right of successfully flushing your toilet”.

“State and federal governments should be funding it because this is a public health issue and a threat to the Great Barrier Reef issue,” Cr Nolan said.

The council issued a survey seeking residents’ feedback on whether the local government should accept responsibility of the estate’s sewage.

“The general consensus from Port Hinchinbrook property owners – council is probably best positioned to take on that plant, but they feel the costs ($1500 initially and $3000 annual sewerage rates) were very extreme,” it found.

“The general consensus of non-Port Hinchinbrook property owners – as the benefit area is Port Hinchinbrook, they should be responsible for the costs.”

Mayor Nolan said if the council did not receive the additional government funding, the “unfortunate” option would be to leave the sewage treatment plant with the estate owner – The Passage Holdings – currently in liquidation.

However, Lindsay Hallam, a Port Hinchinbrook property owner, said governments were missing the bigger picture.

“The State Government (in 2009) had $15 million ready to link all of Cardwell up to sewage, not just Port Hinchinbrook. Why not look at that, and create an affordable system for everyone. They could roll it out in stages.”