Water Reuse in the Alice project wins top award

05 Aug 2010

At a recent ceremony held at the Darwin Turf Club, Power and Water Corporation’s water reuse project in Alice Springs was announced as the overall winner of the NT 2010 Engineering Excellence Awards.

Power and Water General Manager Water Services, Steve McKenzie said that this was recognition of the Corporation’s work to improve wastewater services in Alice Springs.

“This is tremendous acknowledgement for this innovative and challenging project and great recognition for the whole team behind it,” said Mr McKenzie.

“This is a completely new wastewater facility with state of the art technology that also provides an opportunity for water reuse,” said Mr McKenzie.

“By reusing water we help reduce pressure on valuable water resources while adapting to climate change and acknowledging a growth in population,” he said.

Power and Water has committed $13.4 million to this project where up to 600 megalitres per year of treated wastewater is recycled into an underground aquifer for later reuse by horticulture.

Water from wastewater stabilisation ponds undergoes treatment in a Dissolved Air Flotation plant before it is pumped along a 6km pipe to the Arid Zone Research Institute. Once the water arrives here it is filtrated through Soil Aquifer Treatment basins and stored in an unground aquifer before being pumped back to the surface for reuse.

The benefits of using the Soil Aquifer Treatment system include:

• Increased treatment for the recycled water as it is naturally purified to a better standard because it is filtered through the earth;
• The basins will fill and dry so mosquitoes can’t breed;
• Water is not wasted through evaporation; and
• Water can be stored underground for years.

This project is a joint initiative between Power and Water; Department of Resources; Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport and CSIRO.

This is the second major prize for the project; Brendan Meney and Associates engaged by Power and Water received a commendation from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in their 2008 NT Architecture Awards for the building and layout.

The Water Reuse in the Alice project will now be entered into the national awards which take place in Canberra in November.

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