"It's just bullshit," exclaimed Hexham resident Mick Hain when told the sewage system wouldn't be connected to his suburb anytime soon.
Mr Hain is one of Hexham's 150-odd residents who have been campaigning for decades for a twentieth century human waste disposal service.
The major roadworks taking place along Maitland Road as part of the M1 extension project had given them hope that their antiquated septic systems would be upgraded as part of the work.
But it appears it's not to be.
A Hunter Water spokesman said the government-owned corporation had undertaken detailed analysis of the options available to provide reticulated wastewater services to Hexham.
It previously estimated the cost of delivering the scheme would be in the order of $18.8million for the 78 residential lots in Hexham, equating to about $240,000 per residential property. The figure had not been adjusted to account for additional inflation in delivery costs.
The spokesman said the high cost reflected Hexham's remoteness from existing wastewater assets.
"Hexham is located six kilometres from the nearest wastewater treatment works and would require four new pump stations and significant upgrades to existing infrastructure crossing an environmentally sensitive area," he said.
"Given the high costs we do not consider the Hexham scheme to be viable."
In 2021, Hunter Water completed the $30 million Wyee Sewer Scheme, which provided over 400 properties with access to the sewer network. The area has the capacity for up to 2750 new homes in the future.
In 2018 IPART issued a determination for the delivery and pricing of backlog sewer services. IPART's model for backlog sewer requires that the beneficiary fund the capital cost of new sewer infrastructure, less the monetised value of any environmental or public health benefits.
"We are legally obliged to apply this methodology when considering future backlog sewer schemes," the spokesman said.
Hunter Water has returned $316 million in dividends to the state government since 2017, plus a forecast $31 million for 2022-23.
Mr Hain, who moved to the suburb in the late 1980s said the suburb continued to be treated like a backwater even though it was the hub of the Lower Hunter.
"It's the Hunter's forgotten suburb, but realistically it's the hub that connects Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Coalfields. The roads all meet at Hexham," he said.
"They are going to have to put in a lot of new drainage and infrastructure as part of the work they are doing for the bypass. You'd think they would have a good look at the sewage system as part of that. It's just bullshit."
"Over the centuries the provision of reticulated sewage remains one of mans greatest public health interventions and has succeeded in drastically reducing the incidence of water-borne diseases among urban populations along with increasing human life expectancy," NSW Health wrote in its 2014 IPART submission on the matter.
The EPA backed the call.
"The EPA supports the sewering of these areas based on environmental sensitivity criteria, particularly Hexham due to its proximity to the Hunter River and associated residential, recreational and commercial uses. The EPA recommends HWC give consideration to sewering the Tomago area as it has similar uses to Hexham associated with industrial lands occurring on the Tomago sandbeds which recharge the underlying drinking water aquifer," the letter says.
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