It has been seven months since the catastrophic flood of February 28 tore through our community causing damage that has seen the event classified as the second worst natural disaster in Australian history (insurance dollar value).

As we know, Lismore City Council (LCC) suffered massive damage to its assets such as buildings, roads, bridges, sewage treatment plants and water.

The Lismore App sat down with General Manager John Walker for an update.

"It's going slower than we would have expected and most people would have expected," Mr Walker began, "But there's a lot of work to be done. You know, we're talking about $400 to $500 million worth of council assets that we have to fix and a lot of that's not easy."

"Buildings for example have to be stripped, dried, de-moulded and funded. Most of the council buildings are at a good point now where we can start to reconstruct but it's likely to be 2023 before the building assets come back into play."

The current estimate to repair over 100 Council sites is $36.3 million.

Mr Walker said City Hall was a "long way off" which is not good news for local theatre company NORPA as is the news for regular swimmers and swimming clubs with the Lismore Memorial Baths looking at a 2023 completion date. The sporting grounds will be finished and back in action quicker.

"It's a long process and we're not making as quick a recovery as we had hoped."

ROADS

The Lismore LGA road network was not only affected by the February and March floods but by ongoing rain events for most of the year. LCC statistics say 1600 individual areas of road have recorded damage on 415 roads. So far the reconstruction works include 181 km of gravel roads, 686m of stormwater drainages pipes installed and 40,610m2 of insitu lime stabilising on our sealed road network.

The current estimate for repair of our road and bridge network is likely to exceed $200 million.

"We've done most of the emergency works, which is great and now we're getting into the hard stuff. So, we're engaging project managers and designers and geotech people who can do all the hard yards but there are so many lanslip-affected roads it takes a long time. That is a three to five-year program."

"We are well advanced and we're now moving more quickly. I know people are frustrated but the stuff we can do under emergency funding is being done and the next phase will happen so you will see a lot of work towards the end of the year and next year."

For those unaware, these are the landslips around the Nimbin and Wyrallah road.

"We have started that work," Mr Walker added, "We've engaged designers and project managers and the funding is there which is the main thing. So, really you've got funding, you've got materials, you've got personnel, it's only a matter of time."

SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS

The estimated repair costs for the East and South Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant is $100 million

"We've got a lot of work to do there. We're talking about 100 million for that, and that's still the case."

"South Lismore will be prepared because there's a lot of damage particularly switchboards and electrics and the like. East Lismore will hopefully be fixed in some form but may have to be relocated, we're still talking about that but that's a big, big job."

The plan is for the East Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant to remain in the same precinct but move further up the hill out of the flood zone.

"Public Works is working through that with us to help with the design."

"Meanwhile, we've made repairs so we're not polluting the river anymore but it is makeshift, running on diesel generators and the switchboard alarm isn't really right as well as damage to the ponds and everything else so we know that's a major job."

"We're probably looking at 2024 before that's completed."

The biggest risk to Lismore's wastewater system is another flood before works are completed.

THE LISMORE WASTE FACILITY

"This is the one that probably goes unnoticed a bit. It was totally inundated."

"The cell where we deposited our rubbish is gone, liners are gone so it leeches. It's probably two years before the tip can get back into use which means all of our rubbish has been collected and trucked to Queensland."

"The separation for recycling is happening to a degree but nowhere near what we'd like. It's a long-term project and we've got maybe $25-30 million worth of damage in the tip side and the recovery centre."

"So, we add roads and bridges, buildings, water and waste and you can see where the bill is."

FLOOD LEVEE SYSTEM

The current estimate for the repair of the Flood Pump Stations is $750,000.

Rous County Council (RCC) are the asset owner of the pump stations and the levee wall which means RCC is responsible for the Flood Levee System rebuild which it is doing through its insurance claims. LCC has started the repairs to the damaged pumps which will be reimbursed from RCC.

LCC own the flood warning network and has undertaken all repairs to restore the network to its previous condition. Raising pumps and electrics is being assessed and any betterment of the system will be subject to gran funding.

FLOOD MITIGATION

"Flood mitigation is ongoing with the Floodplain committee meeting but of course, everything hangs off the CSIRO report, it will be doing all of the serious lifting work. We're hopeful that within six months we'll get an interim report so that might lead the way and give some guidance but there's not a lot of flood mitigation work we can do until we've got the data and that report."

SHORTAGE OF SKILLED LABOUR

"You have to remember that on top of all this the Council still has to do business as usual."

"We're short staffed like everybody, you just can't find them but specialist staff, like project managers, engineers, geotechs and planners are really hard to find. They are a) scarce and b) expensive. So, we're fortunate that the state and federal governments are supplying the funding."

"At the moment it looks like most of what we are doing is paid for. All of those things I mentioned is subject to funding but there will be gaps that we have to fill as a council but we're looking good there."

"From a cash flow point of view, we're staying afloat. When you spend potentially $10-20 million a month our cash flow management is critical but we're getting great support from the state in making sure the money comes in to pay the bills."

As we have discovered, everything is taking much longer than we thought so patience is still key.