The Gippsland Water Factory will deliver a new era in water recycling and sustainability to the Gippsland region of Victoria.
The Gippsland Water Factory will be an innovative wastewater treatment and recycling system located in the Gippsland region of Victoria. The system is primarily new wastewater treatment infrastructure that will service a population base of 48,000. The main treatment plant under construction at Maryvale will treat up to 35 million litres of wastewater daily, from 15,000 homes and businesses in nine Gippsland towns, and Australian Paper’s Maryvale mill. The system also includes 78 kilometres of new pipeline, two new pump stations and six upgraded pump stations.
On completion of stage one of the project, the Gippsland Water Factory will produce about eight million litres of high quality recycled water each day to be sold to local industry. This will free up about three billion litres (1200 Olympic-size swimming pools) of fresh water each year for use in Gippsland; these uses may be for environmental flows in Gippsland rivers, drinking, or to support further growth in the area.
The Gippsland Water Factory will be the first of its kind in Australia, highlighting Gippsland as a leader in sustainability and innovation. The wastewater treatment processes that will be used at the Gippsland Water Factory will involve ground-breaking technology that has been tested in local conditions. It is also believed Gippsland Water Factory will be the first treatment plant in the world to combine anaerobic pre-treatment with membrane bioreactor processing to effectively treat pulp mill wastewater of this type.
The Gippsland Water Factory will deliver a range of benefits for the Gippsland region, including addressing the odour currently generated in the open channel section of the Regional Outfall Sewer (ROS). Once operational, only highly treated wastewater free of the organics that cause the odour will be sent down the ROS.
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An interpretive building known as the ’Vortex Centre’ will also form part of the Gippsland Water Factory. The Vortex Centre will be an educational resource for the community focussing on water conservation and sustainable water management. It will also house the operational centre for the site, providing visitors with the opportunity to see behind the scenes of a wastewater treatment plant.
Construction of the Gippsland Water Factory started in February 2007. The target date for commissioning the system is late 2008. The Gippsland Water Factory Alliance will operate the system for two years with commercial handover to Gippsland Water expected in late 2010. |