In response to a request from The Bugle for an update on their plans to increase sewer capacity at Jamberoo, Sydney Water has revealed that there will be no further connections made available within the existing village.

Jamberoo residents were told in October 2020 that as no new connections were available they could not lodge DAs that would require them.

A spokesperson for Sydney Water has now told us, “The Jamberoo sewerage scheme was connected as part of the NSW Government’s Priority Sewerage Program (PSP) in 2005. This scheme was designed with limited capacity, including a small allowance for growth and additional development is not able to be connected to the sewer system.

“A system that exceeds its capacity limits is likely to cause overflows which impact the environment and customer properties. This information has been shared with Kiama Council.

“Following recent detailed planning, Sydney Water has proposed to upsize the transfer main and odour control unit, which will be funded by the developer, to service 200 dwellings outside the PSP boundary.”

When clarification was sought, it was confirmed that this means there will be no extra connections within the existing village (see map).

Instead, extra capacity above and beyond the 51 lots envisaged in the Golden Valley Road DA will be provided outside of the boundary of the PSP system.

It had been hoped that there could be some way of leveraging off the work required of the developer to service their lots, so that the whole of Jamberoo would benefit.

The heavy black line shows the boundary of the PSP. The red line is the low pressure pumping system to be upsized. Taken from a Sydney Water map.

When informed of the situation, members of the JVRRA committee, Stuart Richards, Mary Lou Reid and Roslyn Neilson, commented through a joint statement, “The proposed large capacity augmentation of the sewerage system outside the village boundary is extremely concerning.

“It gives no advantage at all to Jamberoo village, which at this stage is struggling with no spare capacity for sewerage connections for even simple DAs for dual occupancies within the village.

“On the other hand, the large augmentation immediately outside of Jamberoo village in effect puts decisions about the future spread of the village into the hands of developers.

“It has the potential to enable further re-zoning and residential development applications that will put at risk the community values expressed in the LSPS about the importance of retaining villages in our Municipality that are separated by green spaces.

“Jamberoo residents remember that Council has in the past given approval for a residential development to occur outside the boundaries of Sydney Water’s original plan. This was a development for over-55s, and it took up a significant proportion of the existing PSP system.

“That decision was, however, taken with community consultation, in response to a community need that Council agreed was appropriate.”

The Member for Kiama, Gareth Ward, is scathing of the decision.

“This is a cheap and slick solution that is not in the interest of the community of Jamberoo.

“I’m appalled with the laziness of Sydney Water that they are not interested in doing what’s in the best interest of the overall community.

“What they’ve served up is actually the worst possible choice of all the options that are available.

“I will be using Parliament next week to place questions on notice to the Minister for Water and you can guarantee that I will be fighting back on behalf of the community that will be appalled with this proposal.”

Kiama’s Mayor Neil Reilly is disturbed the decision has been made ahead of a meeting he has been trying to schedule with the Minister for Water to voice residents’ concerns.

“We’ve made approaches to speak to the Minister and so far no response. It is very disheartening and we would expect this kind of infrastructure requirement would have at least encouraged them to talk to us.

“I’m not a hydraulic engineer, but it seems like a weird solution to me.

“I really just don’t understand.”

The village’s exclusion from extra capacity was also news to Lawson Fredericks, the developer of Golden Valley Road, “Fountaindale is continuing to work with Sydney Water to deliver sewer and water services for the Golden Valley project.

“As party of that work, Sydney Water have indicated that they are now looking to upgrade the existing sewer rising main from Jamberoo, which will service our project and also deliver some additional capacity to Jamberoo.

“We are currently awaiting advice from Sydney Water on the design parameters for the new main.”