North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant

• Environmental and traffic management

Sydney Water has recently completed $150 million improvement work at the North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant to ensure reliable plant performance, ongoing protection of water quality and a safer work environment.

This includes the first hydro-electric plant in Australia to generate power from treated wastewater. It works by capturing energy from treated wastewater falling down a 60-metre shaft. Thanks to this innovation, as well as cogeneration - where methane produced during wastewater treatment is turned into green energy, the Treatment Plant now generates about 40% of its own power.

The improvements ensure the plant continues to perform in line with the environmental protection standards set by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) formerly the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage through to 2023.

Improvements to North Head

• The first hydro-electric plant in Australia to generate power from treated sewage
• A recycled water facility that recycles 1.5 million litres of wastewater a day for use at the Treatment Plant – as a result, 95 per cent of the water used on site is now recycled water
• A cogeneration engine that will reduce carbon emissions by turning methane produced during the treatment process into green energy
• A new biosolid management facility to improve waste handling
• A new odour scrubber to reduce odours during wastewater treatment
• Modifications to improve the Northside Storage Tunnel pumping station
• Increased performance by minimising grit build-up
• Two new grit tanks and a new grit handling plant to improve removal and cleaning of sand and gravel from wastewater
• Two new primary sedimentation tanks to improve the removal of organic solids, oil and grease from wastewater
• Improvements to the underground screenings handling facility to improve the collection, cleaning and removal of screenings
• New control and monitoring equipment.

The $150 million upgrade at North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant and hydro plant were completed by the PARR Alliance, comprising Sydney Water, United Group Infrastructure, John Holland, MWH, Worley Parsons and Manidis Roberts.

Watch a video of the improvements to the Plant (WMV - 8314KB) .

Overview

North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant is located on the North Head Peninsula at the entrance to Sydney Harbour, near Manly. The 15.9-hectare site is bordered by Sydney Harbour National Park and the Tasman Sea.

North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant was commissioned in 1971 and is the second largest ocean Treatment Plant in Sydney. It provides high rate primary treatment of sewage to a catchment of approximately 416 square kilometres that extends west to Seven Hills, south to Bankstown and north to Ku-ring-gai and Collaroy.

The plant serves a population of over one million people and treats about 300 million litres of flow a day. Treated effluent is discharged through a deepwater ocean outfall.