Recycling Water for a Greener Future
- Recycled water - an alternative water supply
- Melbourne Water's role
- Recycled water use 2006/07
- How can recycled water be used?
- Downloads
Recycled water - an alternative water supply
Stormwater, greywater and recycled water are all alternative water supplies that, when treated as required, are suitable for a range of purposes, including irrigation, industrial processing, and to keep our public and recreational spaces green.
Recycled water should not be confused with greywater. Greywater includes water from the laundry and bathroom - it does not include toilet waste. There are environmental guidelines for the use of greywater, available from EPA Victoria. In this section, we will look at recycled water that is produced from fully treating sewage.
Water recycling is a key part of maintaining a sustainable water supply for Melbourne and Melbourne Water believes recycled water is an important and valuable resource. Water recycling contributes to the conservation of drinking quality water, improves the reliability of our water supplies, frees up water for the environment, and reduces the amount of treated effluent discharged into our bays and oceans.
Melbourne Water's role
Melbourne Water operates Melbourne's two major sewage treatment plants - the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee and the Eastern Treatment Plant at Bangholme. Between them, they treat about 747 million litres of sewage a day (October 2007). In 2006/07, 61,062 million litres of recycled water was reclaimed at the two treatment plants for use either at the plants or by customers outside the plant (see Table below).
Melbourne Water is committed to providing safe, high quality recycled water and, in partnership, has achieved the Victorian Government's target of 20% water recycling by 2010. The Government has announced new recycling targets requiring 6200 million litres of recycled water substituting for drinking quality water by 2015, increasing to 10,000 million litres by 2030.
We have recently carried out significant upgrades to our sewage treatment plants to improve the quality of recycled water and make it suitable for a wide range of uses. We are developing schemes with various water industry partners and Government to enable recycled water to be used by farmers, industry, local councils and householders.
Melbourne Water provides recycled water for our retail partners, which supply recycled water and customer service directly to users. Our retail partners include Southern Rural Water, TopAq and the metropolitan retail water companies.
Recycled water use 2006/07
| Project | Actual 2005/06 | Actual 2006/07 | OWOF Target 2010 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Treatment Plant | ML | % | ML | % | ML | % |
| Onsite Recycling | 21,707 | 7.25 | 26,317 | 9.799 | 37,000 | 11.3 |
| Werribee Tourist Precinct | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0.005 | 0 | 0 |
| MacKillop College | 0 | 0 | 201 | 0.06 | 8,500 | 2.6 |
| Drought relief tankers | 0 | 0 | 88 | 0.033 | ||
| Werribee Irrigation District | 1,279 | 0.42 | 10,946 | 4.076 | 8,500 | 2.6 |
| Sub-total | 23,061 | 7.70 | 37,584 | 13.995 | 46,000 | 14.1 |
| Eastern Treatment Plant | ML | % | ML | % | ML | % |
| Onsite Recycling | 14,067 | 4.69 | 13,054 | 4.861 | 13,800 | 4.2 |
| Eastern Irrigation Scheme | 5,174 | 1.73 | 8,296 | 3.089 | 5,000 | 1.5 |
| South East Outfall | 1,458 | 0.49 | 2,128 | 0.792 | 1,700 | 0.5 |
| Sub-total | 20,699 | 6.91 | 23,478 | 8.742 | 20,500 | 6.2 |
| Total | 43,760 | 14.61 | 61,062 | 22.737 | 66,500 | 20.3 |
| Wastewater discharge | 299,481 | 268,556 | ||||
| Environmental flow at Western Treatment Plant |
15,065 | 13,856 | 5.159 | |||
Melbourne Water provides recycled water for our retail partners, which supply recycled water and customer service directly to users. Our retail partners include Southern Rural Water, TopAq and the metropolitan retail water companies.
We also provide tours of our treatment plants, which include information on water recycling.
How can recycled water be used?
Melburnians use almost 500,000 million litres of drinking water a year for a number of purposes, such as irrigation of parks and gardens, which do not require water of drinking water quality.
Recycled water can be used for agricultural/horticultural irrigation, watering parks and recreational areas, some industrial processes, and toilet flushing and garden watering in suburban dual pipe schemes.
Recycled water has been in common use throughout the world for more than 30 years. Places such as California and Israel effectively use recycled water as a key component of managing their water resources.
Recycled water is also used across Victoria. Some towns with much lower volumes of sewage than Melbourne have high rates of water recycling. For example, all of the water from some treatment plants in the Gippsland and Grampians region is recycled for local agriculture.
Environmental factors such as salinity, nutrient loads, waterway and land management are important considerations in water recycling programs.
Downloads
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