This is exactly what the load based licensing system is meant to achieve. By linking licence fees to pollution - it has given licence holders a real incentive to improve their environmental performance and save money. If Tamworth City Council adopts its plan, it will effectively stop discharging treated effluent to local waterways and divert the effluent to irrigate a 1,500 hectare intensive cropping farm it has established. Mr Debus said councils in the New England region had collectively made the best response in NSW to the polluter pays scheme - many fast tracking pollution reduction plans.
Council plans to channel profits from the venture into local schools.
Mr Debus said these proposals mean significant savings for country councils and communities could provide local jobs and clean up stressed local waterways. The Councils and the local communities stand to make significant environmental gains because the effluent will no longer end up in the river. The polluter pays principle has resulted in entrepreneurial opportunities for Tamworth, Narrabri and Armidale Dumaresque, and a cleaner environment.