The Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme, a

recycled water Water reclamation (also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling) is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) or industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. Types of reuse include: ...

project, is located in the

South East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

region of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The scheme is managed by

Seqwater Seqwater is a statutory authority of the Government of Queensland that provides bulk water storage, transport and treatment, water grid management and planning, catchment management and flood mitigation services to the South East Queensland reg ...

and forms a key part of the SEQ Water Grid constructed by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...

in response to population growth,

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and severe

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. The 2.5 billion project is reported as the largest recycled water project in Australia. As of 2019, the scheme has been constructed and its performance has been validated. It remains in care and maintenance mode, and will commence operation after SEQ Water Grid dam levels reach 60%.

Location and features

The Western Corridor is the area from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

's south west suburbs towards the city of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. For many years the corridor has experienced significant population growth with the development of the suburb of

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

and the resultant extension of the

Centenary Highway The M5 (Centenary Motorway) is a motorway in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. It starts as a two-lane arterial road at Yamanto, travelling to Springfield, where it becomes a two-lane highway and travels across the M2 Logan Motorw ...

and the upgrade to the

Ipswich Motorway The Ipswich Motorway (M7) is a major road that connects Brisbane and Ipswich in South East Queensland, Australia. It commences at the junction of Ipswich Road and Granard Road and proceeds through to the M2 Logan Motorway interchange. It is the ...

. The scheme involved the construction of three advanced

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the Water quality, quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking water, drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recrea ...

plants constructed at

Bundamba Bundamba is a suburb of Ipswich in the City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. In the Bundamba had a population of 6,514 people. Geography The Bremer River forms the western part of the suburb's northern boundary. The Warrego Highway enter ...

, Luggage Point and Gibson Island, which draw water from six existing

wastewater Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industr ...

treatment plants in the region to produce up to of purified recycled water daily. The treatment train consists of

microfiltration Microfiltration is a type of physical filtration process where a contaminated fluid is passed through a special pore-sized membrane filter to separate microorganisms and suspended particles from process liquid. It is commonly used in conjunction ...

reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pre ...

ultraviolet light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

with advanced oxidation and chlorine disinfection. The water is distributed via a network of pipelines measuring more than in length. Construction began on the Recycled Water Project in 2006 and completed in late 2008. 408 million of funding was provided by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

via its Water Smart Australia Program. In Stage 1 of the project the scheme has provided an alternative water source for

Swanbank Power Station The Swanbank Power Stations are located in Swanbank within South East Queensland, Australia. The original power station was coal fired, but the site has since moved to gas. By 2007 the site had consisted of the highly efficient gas-fired Swanb ...

and both

Tarong Power Station The Tarong Power Station is a coal fired power station located on a site in Tarong in the South Burnett Region near the town of Nanango, in Queensland, Australia. The station has a maximum generating capacity of 1,400 megawatts, generated f ...

and

Tarong North Power Station Tarong North Power Station is a 443 megawatt coal fired power station on the same site as Tarong Power Station in the South Burnett. The Queensland Government commissioned the construction of the power station in November 1999. Construction wo ...

. Supplies to Swanbank started in 2007 and supplies to Tarong and Tarong North started in June 2008. This supply has since ceased. The system has the capacity to provide water to other industrial users, agricultural users and to supplement drinking water supplies in Wivenhoe Dam. Testing of the pipeline to Wivenhoe Dam has been conducted, however in November 2008,

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Anna Bligh Anna Maria Bligh (born 14 July 1960) is a lobbyist and former Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of Queensland, in office from 2007 to 2012 as leader of the Labor Party. She was the first woman to hold either position. In 2 ...

declared that recycled water will not enter the dam unless levels drop to below 40%. Initially, the three power stations were the main customers of the recycled water, consuming per day. Since coming online in August 2007, through to July 2010, the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme has supplied more than of water into the SEQ Water Grid. In January 2013 it was reported that the Newman

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

was considering shutting down part or all of the scheme. The scheme was decommissioned on 31 March 2015 after sufficient rainfall forestalled immediate water security concerns.

References

External links

Seqwater
{{WaterQueensland , state=autocollapse Water management in Queensland South East Queensland 2008 establishments in Australia Water treatment Infrastructure in Australia Infrastructure in Queensland

Location and features

See also

References

External links