Rosehill-Camellia Recycled Water Scheme

The Rosehill-Camellia Recycled Water Scheme is a private sector project that will supply recycled water for industry and irrigation in western Sydney. This scheme is one of the water recycling projects under the the NSW Goverment's Metropolitan Water Plan.

The $100 million scheme will supply high quality recycled water to five of Sydney's largest industrial water users, as well as a racecourse, in the Rosehill and Smithfield areas:

• Shell Refining (Australia)
• Boral Australian Gypsum
• Visy Paper
• Marubeni Australia Power Services
• LyondellBasell Australia
• Sydney Turf Club - Rosehill Gardens

Construction started in November 2009, and it is expected that recycled water will be delivered to customers in July 2011.

Supplying recycled water

Secondary treated wastewater from the Liverpool to Ashfield Pipeline will be extracted and treated by ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis at a new water recycling plant at Fairfield. The high quality recycled water is suitable to use for irrigation, firefighting, in cooling towers, boilers and some manufacturing processes.

The Fairfield plant will initially provide over four billion litres of recycled water each year to the six major customers. The scheme has been designed to be expanded and treat a further three billion litres a year for additional customers.

Scheme background

The water recycling plant and pipelines will be built, owned and operated by AquaNet Sydney. AquaNet Sydney has an agreement with Veolia Water Australia for treatment of the recycled water.

AquaNet Sydney and Veolia Water have obtained the required licences to operate the scheme and provide the recycled water to Sydney Water under the NSW Government’s Water Industry Competition Act 2006. The Foundation Customers have recycled water supply agreements with Sydney Water.

The Water Industry Competition Act 2006 establishes a clear access and licensing regime for the water industry and gives more opportunities for the private sector to become involved in the NSW water industry. The Rosehill-Camellia scheme is the first to be delivered under the Act.

Sydney Water prepared a Contract Summary (PDF - 292KB) report on the Rosehill-Camellia Recycled Water Scheme, to comply with the Working with Government - Guidelines for Privately Financed Projects (December 2008).