Gippsland Water and Wellington Shire Council have confirmed their preferred wastewater treatment option for the townships of Coongulla and Glenmaggie.

The preferred option is a reticulated pressure grinder pump system. This involves installing underground pumping pits on each property. Sewage would pass through those pits before travelling through sewer mains to Gippsland Water’s existing wastewater treatment lagoons at Heyfield.

Findings from land capability assessments conducted in Coongulla and Glenmaggie in late 2008 lead to the selection of this option.

Residents and ratepayers in the two towns received information about the preferred option recently in a joint written update from Gippsland Water and Wellington Shire Council. Five options were considered as part of an options study completed by Gippsland Water and its consultants, Whitehead & Associates. Both on-property and off-property wastewater management solutions were investigated.

Three options were looked at in detail, and the preferred option was chosen as it provides the best outcome based on financial, environmental, and socio-economic considerations.

Gippsland Water Managing Director David Mawer said the system was cost effective and used proven technology.

``Gippsland Water has installed a similar system at Seaspray. This type of system is suited to townships near waterways, and accommodates the fluctuations between summer and winter flows,’’ Mr Mawer said.

The corporation will continue its planning and design work to determine the cost of the sewerage project.

The next step in the process will be to use this data to develop a fully-costed business case. It is anticipated the business case will be presented to the Gippsland Water Board for its consideration in mid-2010.