TasWater begin Tamar Estuary River Health Action Plan with Margaret Street works

TasWater will begin extensive underground construction at the pumping station on Margaret Street, Kings Park, as part of a $17 million project which has been jointly funded by local, state and federal governments.

TasWater project delivery general manager Tony Wilmott said the works would involve the formation of a drop structure 10 metres below ground and a new diversion chamber to redirect overflows after rainfall.

Mr Wilmott said the completed works - estimated to be finished by March next year - would significantly reduce sewerage and stormwater which currently ends up in the river.

"We're targeting a 66 per cent reduction in overflows in an average rainfall year, and average rainfall year is around 750 millimetres here in Launceston, so it's substantial," he said.

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"We're also then targeting that 36 per cent reduction of biological matter in the river in particular in zone one, which is the base."

The works - which will be completed by Latrobe company BridgePro - form part of the larger $129.2 million plan to restore the ecological and social environment of the river system under the Tamar Estuary River Health Action Plan.

The TERHAP is estimated to be finished by 2024.

Liberal Windermere MLC and Parliamentary Secretary for the Tamar Nick Duigan said the impacts of the work on the river system's health would be "profound and substantial".

"Since the building of Ti Tree Bend 40 or 50 years ago, this is the most profound improvement that we will make to the health and quality of the water in our river system," Mr Duigan said.

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Although only the first step in a multi-year project, it marks the beginning of long-called-for plans to address one of the country's oldest sewerage systems and follows preliminary pipeline upgrades along the Esplanade and St John Street this year.

TasWater said the St John Street works would be active in the next four or five days and would "significantly improve [the] ability to move the sewerage and stormwater out towards Ti Tree Bend".

The management of the waterway has long been a point of contention between state and local governments, and a key election issue at recent federal and council elections.

The action plan was developed by the Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce and the Launceston City Deal last year to address long running concerns over the health of the troubled waterway.

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Then-Premier Peter Gutwein announced $42 million for sewerage upgrades, which was matched by the federal government, TasWater and Launceston City Council.

In July, it received a damning environmental report from agencies responsible for the management of the river that concluded the lower basin had "poor ecosystem health" and failed to meet water quality guidelines.

The project is being completed in tandem with the Launceston Sewerage Improvement Plan, which will involve rolling improvements to treatment plants in the region as well as a larger facility at Ti Tree Bend.

It forms part of the 10-year vision plan for the waterway, announced earlier this year.

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