OCU put on hold

There has been a dramatic development in relation to Sydney Water’s Proposed Odour Control Unit in the Wolli Creek Valley. After a frequently extended consultation period and further review, Sydney Water had narrowed the choice down to three options (see the February Wolli Creek Update) with the choice between the three to be further informed via a workshop with stakeholders on March 24.

But on 23 March we were informed that the workshop had been cancelled and the whole project ‘put on hold’ on technical grounds. New information means that an extra element will be needed at the OCU and the Unwin St sites are space constrained and probably can’t fit it in without a cost blow-out.

It also seems that without the delays occasioned by WCPS arguments, counterproposals, and questions, backed by the support of the 5,000 signatories on our petition, the OCU might have been built by now, only to be found ‘not fit for purpose’ with all sorts of costly consequences. Anyway, this is a sort of success, but one qualified by a recognition that the odour and corrosion problems the OCU was to solve still exist and that, in principle at least, the OCU has not completely gone away, but only put on hold for 6-8 months.