Consultation was undertaken with utility providers to understand high level servicing opportunities and constraints in the corridor.

Key findings:

• There is limited access to reticulated sewerage infrastructure in the corridor and the sewer system does not cross south of the Princes Freeway.
• No feasibility investigation has been completed for sewering the Avalon Corridor but initial discussions with Barwon Water have indicated that it could be possible.
• An alternative to a mains connected sewer network could include the potential use of small package systems with reuse of waste effluent for beneficial purposes.
• Currently there is no recycled water reticulation to properties within the Avalon Corridor despite the immediate proximity of the Melbourne Water WTP and Barwon Water Northern Treatment Plant in Corio.
• The ability to discharge additional treated wastewater to Corio Bay and other local waterways would need to be further investigated and consider EPA licencing requirements.
• The Northern Treatment Plant in Corio (just outside the Avalon Corridor) would likely be able to process sewage and produce recycled water for nearby reuse. However the commercial viability of this would need to be further investigated. A connection to WTP could also be investigated for commercial viability.
• No major issues were identified from a water supply perspective. Most of the area could be supplied with asset upgrades and extensions to the existing network.
• Additional feeder mains may be required to service growth in the demand for power from development and operations of Avalon Airport and other employment precincts.
• The Avalon Corridor largely constitutes low lying flat plains. The majority of flood outlet locations for waterway catchments exist at the coastal interface. Key issues relate to stormwater sediment and retention.
• Flood plains of the Lollypop Creek and Little River systems are known to be extensive and are under further investigation by WCC.
• CoGG recently completed the Lara Flood Study and will be implementing updated LSIO mapping via Amendment C339.
• High pressure oil and gas pipelines traverse the corridor. Future development near these major pipelines will require further investigation and possible preparation of a Safety Management Study (SMS).

The Avalon Corridor contains a high pressure gas pipeline owned and operated by APA Group as well as three oil pipelines owned and operated by VIVA Energy. The high pressure gas pipeline raises a number of technical and planning considerations for adjacent land including the need to consider relevant measurement lengths from the pipeline easement.

The general intent is to discourage the establishment of sensitive uses within the nominated measurement lengths such as community facilities aged care hospitals schools and early learning centres. Where development or land use change is proposed within a nominated measurement length a SMS must be prepared in accordance with AS 2885 to assess and reduce potential risks.

There is also a general preference to avoid construction of roads and road crossings over gas pipeline easements due to the challenges this can cause to management and maintenance of the pipeline. Where this is unavoidable a proponent must demonstrate that the number of crossings has been minimised and that crossings have been designed to be as perpendicular as possible to the pipeline to minimise the area of impact.

Any proposed landscaping within or nearby the easement should consider the APA Site Planning and Landscape National Guidelines (2020). Relevant considerations include maintaining a line of sight along the pipeline easement and avoiding large selection of species with large root zones.

The three VIVA Energy oil pipelines in the Avalon Corridor accommodate more than half of Victoria’s fuel requirements and are therefore critical to the state’s economy. The pipelines operate in a single direction only with the WAG pipeline supplying crude oil to the Geelong Refinery and the WOPL and BOPL pipelines supplying refined oil back to Newport.

The major priority for the VIVA Energy pipelines is to ensure that any development occurring adjacent or near the pipelines meets the current standards which may differ to the standards that applied when the pipelines were originally built.

The requirements for the VIVA Energy pipelines are similar to the APA Group gas pipeline being also covered under AS 2885. An SMS needs to be completed to determine the risk profile of any significant land use change or development adjacent to the pipeline easement and to consider how the risk can be appropriately mitigated