New ocean outlet pipeline - Native vegetation clearing

Background

Water Corporation is proposing to install a new 3.8 km pipeline next to an existing below-ground pipeline in the City of Rockingham. 

The existing 24 km pipeline, known as the Sepia Depression Ocean Outlet Landline (SDOOL), transports treated wastewater 4 km offshore into the sepia depression, a channel running parallel to the shore.

The new duplicated section – from Ritchie Drive in Rockingham to the Water Corporation wastewater treatment site on Point Peron Road – will allow for maintenance on the existing section.

It will also add capacity to the system to accommodate population growth in the area.

In 2012, the project was referred to the Environmental Protection Authority and a decision was made of ‘Not Assessed – Public Advice Given’. In 2012, the Commonwealth made a decision that the project was ‘Not a Controlled Action’ under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

In April 2019, Water Corporation submitted the details of the project to us for consideration of the native vegetation clearing requirements, in accordance with its statewide clearing permit (CPS 185/8).

In May 2019, we received three public submissions raising concerns about potential impacts to:

• The threatened ecological community of the microbialite community in Lake Richmond.
• The threatened ecological community of forests and woodlands (Callitris preissii and Melaleuca lanceolata) of the Swan Coastal Plain. 
• Two Bush Forever sites.

July 2020