Hastings Point Wastewater Treatment Plant performance upgrade
Consultative Committee expressions of interest - applications are closed
At the 19 June 2025 Council meeting, Council resolved to form a consultative committee to support the performance upgrade for the Hastings Point Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).
The Hastings Point WWTP Consultative Committee will include four local community members who will provide feedback on strategic aspects of the performance upgrade, including options for the plant’s future.
Expressions of Interest (EOIs) were open for four weeks, from 28 July 2025 until 18 August 2025. All submissions will be included in a report to Council. Council is expected to make a decision on committee membership at its meeting on Thursday 18 September 2025, subject to confirmation.
Applicants were invited to submit their interest. Review the full Terms of Reference, which includes the committee’s purpose and membership criteria. A summary of the community member eligibility is below:
- The committee will include four (4) community representatives, four (4) Council staff (including one from the Sustainability and Environment Unit), and a Chair from the NSW State Government (e.g. Public Works or similar).
- Community representatives with a conflict of interest — including adjoining landholders — are not eligible to apply.
- Community representatives must be residents of the Tweed Shire, with at least one representative from Hastings Point, Bogangar, or Pottsville.
- Three (3) community representatives should ideally have experience or qualifications in water or wastewater management, and one (1) should ideally have financial management qualifications (e.g. CPA certified).
The Hastings Point Wastewater Treatment Plant currently services about 12,860 people who live, work and holiday in Cabarita Beach, Bogangar, Hastings Point and Pottsville.
Ageing assets and population growth is putting pressure on the plant’s performance. While the plant is licensed by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to service about 18,000 people, it needs some improvement works now to ensure it can meet this licensed capacity into the future.
Community benefits
By upgrading the performance of the plant, we will be able to provide resilient and efficient wastewater services for current and future populations. The quality of treated wastewater will be higher, ensuring the plant continues to meet the conditions of its EPA licence.
Options for upgrading
In 2024, Council engaged external engineering consultants, GHD, to evaluate 5 potential upgrade options for the Hastings Point WWTP. This assessment considered technical performance, environmental impact and financial feasibility to identify the most suitable upgrade.
The consultants recommended Option 4: Construct a third extended aeration tank (EAT) as the preferred solution due to its balance of performance, cost and environmental outcomes.
The consultant's report was then subjected to a peer review by Hunter BECA, an independent engineering consultant, who also concluded that Option 4 was suitable compared to the alternatives.
View the Options Assessment Report 2024 and Peer Review of Options Assessment 2024 for details on the options.
Option 4 involves:
- constructing a third extended aeration tank
- new inlet works and odour treatment system
- a 99kW solar array
- other complementary improvements
- renewal of existing components at the plant.
The GHD assessment names these benefits of Option 4:
- maintains the current plant’s operational philosophy with a familiar technology whilst increasing treatment capacity, reliability and redundancy
- relatively low technical risk in construction and commissioning
- relatively low energy consumption
- low maintenance
- reuses a large amount of existing infrastructure that has remaining life.
Have your say
In May and June 2024, Council sought community feedback on the draft Hastings Point Wastewater Treatment Plant Options Assessment. Of the submissions received:
- 50% supported the proposed performance upgrade, with some specific issues raised
- 33% were neither for nor against, with some specific issues raised
- 17% were against the proposal.
Following additional community input in late 2024 and early 2025, Council resolved at their 20 February 2025 meeting to undertake additional engineering assessment works for both Option 4: constructing a third extended aeration tank (EAT) and Option 5: converting to a membrane bioreactor (MBR) process with the addition of a contact tank. The additional works are now underway and will focus on:
- further developing performance upgrade Options 4 and 5, to provide more accurate costings and consider outcomes of the noise and odour studies
- further investigating the current and future loadings on the Hastings WWTP including the impact of holiday loading
- considering all relevant legislative and regulatory requirements following the performance upgrade of the plant
- considering Options 4 and 5 in the 2025-26 budget.
For the full Council meeting minutes, visit Council Meeting – 20 February 2025.
What’s next?
We are proceeding with additional assessment works for Options 4 and 5. It is estimated this additional work will take 12 months to complete. The additional engineering investigation report will then be provided to Council to determine a preferred option. This report will be made available on this page prior to Council decision.
Once Council has determined a preferred option, we will finalise the concept design, review environmental factors and determine planning and other government agency approvals. This is expected to take 12 months.
When these actions are complete and approvals are in place, the project will move to the detailed design stage and after that, construction will commence. This is expected to take an additional 2 years.
