Media Release

15 Dec 2006

Australia’s Largest Industrial Water Recycling Scheme Celebrated

More than one billion litres of drinking water has already been saved by Australia’s largest industrial water recycling scheme at Wollongong.

The announcement was made today by the Minister for Water Utilities David Campbell at a celebration of the project hosted by Sydney Water and BlueScope Steel today.

The open day was attended by community members who were involved in the project, Wollongong Councillors, BlueScope Steel employees and Sydney Water staff who worked on the project.

Today’s event was held to recognise the tremendous contribution made by both staff and the community towards the success of the project.

The landmark scheme will save 7.3 billion litres of drinking water each year.

The Recycled Water Plant, located at Sydney Water’s Wollongong Sewage Treatment Plant, began final commissioning in September this year.

Production has been gradually increasing and the scheme has already saved more than one billion litres of drinking water since the switch was flicked in September.

About 16 million litres of very high grade recycled water is now consistently being produced each day using a sophisticated reverse osmosis process.

The water is then pumped to a dedicated reservoir at Berkeley and is distributed and used in the steel-making process at the BlueScope plant at Port Kembla.

The flows will be ramped up to 20 million litres per day once the final commissioning phase is complete.

As part of the project, a high proportion of wastewater flows from the Wollongong, Bellambi and Port Kembla catchments will be recycled for use at BlueScope Steel.

On most nights, the equivalent of the city’s wastewater will be used by the steelworks.

Recycling treated wastewater is a key component of the NSW Government’s Metropolitan Water Plan.

Sydney and the Illawarra already recycles around 15 billion litres of water each year, not including the BlueScope scheme, and that figure will rise to 70 billion litres by 2015.

The scheme adds to Sydney and the Illawarra’s 14 existing recycling schemes, including homes at Rouse Hill in Sydney’s north-west, agricultural reuse at Richmond, Picton and Gerroa, various golf courses and at various sewage treatment plants.

Schemes in planning, including the Western Sydney Recycled Water Initiative, new housing developments at Ropes Crossing and Hoxton Park and the industrial reuse project at Camellia, will contribute to the ultimate goal of 70 billion litres by 2015.

BlueScope Steel is Sydney Water’s largest customer, with an average demand of around 37 million litres of fresh water each day.

Ten of Sydney Water’s top 14 industrial water users are expected to be using recycled water instead of drinking water by 2015, saving around 50 million litres of drinking water a day.

Some of the important benefits of the BlueScope scheme included:

• Reducing the draw on drinking water from Avon Dam by around 20 per cent or 7.3 billion litres per year.
  
• Improving water quality at many Illawarra beaches, particularly those near the Bellambi and Port Kembla sewage treatment plants.
  
• Reducing the combined ocean discharge from these plants by 40 per cent.
  
• Reducing impacts on sensitive marine environments.

The recycled water system was part of the $215 million Illawarra Wastewater Strategy, which has boosted the Illawarra economy, creating more than 1000 jobs during the design and construction phases.

 

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