Challenge

In 2006, fast growing South-eastern Queensland, Australia, faced severe water shortages. Drought and population increases resulted in Level 5 water restrictions for much of the region. They needed a solution to ensure an alternative sustainable source of purified recycled water (PRW) to supplement water supplies for the Swanbank Power Station for use in the cooling process, thus reducing demand on the region’s drinking water supply.

Solution

The Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant (BAWTP) was designed and constructed by leading Australian construction company Thiess Pty Ltd along with Joint Venture partner Black & Veatch – a leading US engineering company who are recycled water and waste treatment experts -- in alliance with the Queensland Government Department of Infrastructure. The BAWTP was a key part of the AUS$2.4 billion Western Corridor Recycled Water (WCRW) Project, the largest recycled water project in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest in the world.

The WCRW Project has the capacity to supply up to 232 megalitres a day (MLD) of purified recycled water, taking secondary effluent from several municipal wastewater plants and treating it to high quality standards at three separate advanced water treatment facilities. The BAWTP treats 75 MLD of wastewater from four wastewater treatment plants in order to produce up to 66 MLD of recycled water for reuse. The wastewater treatment process includes filtration through Memcor low-pressure membranes, as well as reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation (ultraviolet light combined with hydrogen peroxide).

Results

Constructed in two stages, Stage 1A began operation in August 2007, less than 9 months after being granted access to the site, and Stage 1B in June 2008. The purified recycled water from the BAWTP is piped from the plant via a 7.3km long, 800mm diameter pipeline into the lake at the Swanbank Power Station.

The BAWTP project involved pouring more than 30,000 cubic meters of concrete (almost 5,800 truck loads) and installing more than 6,400 tonnes of reinforcement and 1,800 tonnes of structural steel. To reduce workplace congestion within the critical membrane filtration and reverse osmosis building, the control and switch rooms for the building were constructed off-site. The two buildings, one of which weighed more than 80 tonnes, were then transported and installed at the BAWTP. This significantly improved work area safety and shortened construction time by several weeks.

The plant has won a number of prestigious awards from various leading international construction and engineering institutions, including the 2008 Global Water Project of the Year. The award was based on the plant’s innovative and sustainable solution to growing water scarcity in South-eastern Queensland, its ability to advance public acceptance of reuse and the quality of the technology used in the plant.