Load & Haul

Name change for water-based storage project

The Glen Innes Severn Council, which had purchased the Glen Innes quarry and surrounding land in July 2011, has renamed the quarry it bought to store water. The pit will be called Eerindii Ponds.

According to the council, the name was chosen as it was cited in hand written notes referencing the area dating back to the 1800s.

“Eerindii is believed to be the Ngoorabul name for the locality of Glen Innes, including the Furracabad valley,” Mayor Toms said in a media release for the council.

“An Aboriginal name was chosen in consultation with the Glen Innes Local Aboriginal Lands Council to honour Aboriginal heritage,” he added.

Glen Innes Severn Council general manager Hein Basson also noted his approval for the name change in the media release.

“It is thrilling to have the important off-stream water storage locality aptly renamed. ‘Eerindii Ponds’ guarantee Glen Innes’ water security and future growth, acknowledging the historic significance of the area,” Basson said.

As previously reported by Quarry, the council has purchased two pits at the site, announcing one would continue to supply gravel, sand and road-based aggregates and the other would primarily function as water storage to ‘drought-proof’ the town.

Glen Innes Severn Council alternated extraction across the site’s two pits to progressively expand their volume and prepare them for water storage, with the NSW Government contributing $970,000 towards the works as part of its Water Security for Regions program.

Since then, the council has confirmed it is in the stages of creating a third pond on-site.

According to Toms, the project was an ‘asset’ to the local community, as it had 16 per cent more water storage capacity than the Beardy Waters reservoir, which was previously relied upon to supply water to the town.

“Last summer, Glen Innes was saved from water restrictions because of this increased water storage,” Toms said.

The water storage project has certainly paid off, with the council later noting it was expecting a profit of more than half a million dollars this financial year.

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