October
7, Friday at the Bridgewater Lifestyle Village, Erskine, saw the
launch of a very important project for WA. ETC has been a leader
in the
field of water management and now Dr Martin Anda and his team have
got the chance to show of a working trial of a greywater reuse system
in one of Perth's most innovative residential villages: Bridgewater
Lifestyle
Estate, Erskine.
Member for Mandurah, Mr David Templeton, MLA today handed over $44
000 to Murdoch University to enable the implementation and subsequent
monitoring of wastewater recycling at Bridgewater Lifestyle Village,
Erskine.
“
The Bridgewater Lifestyle Village is a housing development project
that focuses on sustainability across water, energy, materials and
shelter,” Mr Templeman said. “ The
involvement of Murdoch University in this development is focused on
minimising water consumption. The aim is to develop a site where
all greywater will be recycled and use of scheme water will be
reduced through use of rainwater and groundwater.”
“ Every
house in the Village will have an approved greywater reuse system
installed. Recycling of greywater will occur through the use
of a biofilter prior to irrigating gardens.” Mr
Templeman presented the cheque to Dr Martin Anda, Director of the
Environmental
Technology Centre at Murdoch University.
The cheque is
the first instalment of a $205 000 grant from the Premier’s
Water Foundation, which has so far provided more than $2.5
million in funding for innovative research aimed at improving water
products
and services. The
Premier’s
Water Foundation was established as an initiative of the State Water
Strategy. The Foundation was set up to provide grants
to promote and enhance water related research and development
activities in Western Australia. Foundation Chair,
Mr Charlie Welker was on hand to launch the greywater recycling scheme
at the Village.
“
The Premier’s Water Foundation is one way the State Government
is investing in smarter ways to conserve and reuse water
to help secure the WA water future,” Mr Welker said. “ So
far, projects funded by the Foundation have attracted an additional
$9 million investment into water research in the State.”
“
By supporting innovative research into improved water management and
conservation, the Premier’s Water Foundation is assisting in
finding solutions to the water issues being faced by Western Australians.”
The Murdoch project
consists of wastewater recycling trials at three different sites
in the metropolitan
and Peel regions.
It
is anticipated
that the project will be completed by June 2008.
Beth Strang, Research
on a Premier's Water Foundation Scholarship said that this project
was a great example of University, State Government, Local Government
and private industry and developers, not to mention the residents,
working together to provide a living waste water recycling
project.
"Water management
in urban areas is still a major issue and isn't going away," said
Dr Martin Anda, Director of ETC. "Even if deep aquifers contain more
water than we could use it still makes economic, environmental and
social sense to advance recycling technologies and encourage a systematic
approach to total water management. Waste water isn't waste, we have
to stop thinking of it as that. Used water can be re-used. NLV are
really leading the way here. They see not only the environmental
but the economic benefit to this systematic approach."
Pictured above
from left: Member for Mandurah Hon Mr David Templeton MLA, Mr Richard
HammondNatioonal Lifestyle Villages, Dr Martin Anda, ETC Murdoch
Univ.
Project: Conduct
a wastewater recycling trial to
- demonstrate the
performance and reliability
- to meet regulatory
standards
- study effects
on soil and vegetation
- pathogen disinfection,
- nutrients prevented
from infiltration to groundwater
- maintenance issues of the systems
- the effective
amount of scheme and bore water saved in the long term
Partners: National
Lifestyle Villages, Peel Waters, Mallee Nominees and other
developers with support
from DoH, DoE, Local Government and Water Corporation.
More about the
Project
Year 1 (2005) focus
of this project will be on the Bridgewater lifestyle
village at Erskine by National Lifestyle Villages P/L where recycling
of
greywater will occur on each of 380 houses by irrigation on each
each house
yard with dripline. Total installed design flow across the whole
village is
expected to be 57 kl/day of greywater that replaces scheme and bore
water
use in an area where groundwater resource is fragile and allocation
from DoE
very low. Construction of this village will commence in September
2004 and
several different DoH approved greywater units will be installed
in the
display village in the following months. See attached proposed design
for
display village. These trial systems will be supplied with groundwater
only
as there will be no residents. In 2005, based on the outcome of the
trial,
the preferred unit will be selected and installed on the 380 houses
as they
are built progressively and ready for full scale monitoring in 2006
for
overall system performance of the whole village. Preliminary review
of the
concept design has been undertaken with City of Mandurah, DoE and
DoH and
final detailed design documentation of the individual household systems
has
been submitted to City of Mandurah to receive formal approvals. Syrinx
Environmental P/L has prepared the Drainage Nutrient & Irrigation
Management
Plan for DoE. This status has been achieved by technical support
from
Murdoch University ETC, Syrinx, Netafim, AAS Agricultural P/L and
other
industry partners as well as liaison with Water Corporation and the
financial investment of the land developers. Monitoring and evaluation
of
this system will continue through Years 2 and 3.
The Year 2 (2006) focus
of this project will be on the Timbers Edge resort
village at Dawesville by Vogue Developments P/L and Peel Waters
P/L where
recycling of greywater from 260 houses will occur through a series
of
subsurface flow biofilters before irrigation with dripline to
public open
space within the village. A design flow of 70 to 100 kl/day greywater
has
been determined which will substitute for limited groundwater.
The greywater
collection infrastructure is already installed, detailed design
of the
treatment facility by Syrinx Environmental P/L is now complete,
construction
of Stages 1 and 2 houses is now underway and the greywater treatment
and
irrigation facility will be constructed by December 2005 after
final
approval by WA Department of Health (DoH) and WA Department of
Environment
(DoE). Preliminary review of the concept design has been undertaken
with
City of Mandurah, DoE and DoH and final detailed design documentation
will
be submitted shortly to receive formal approvals. ATA Environmental
P/L has
prepared the Drainage Nutrient & Irrigation Management Plan
for DoE. An
Operation and Maintenance Plan is currently under preparation
for DoH. This
status has been achieved by technical support from Murdoch University
ETC,
Netafim, Syrinx, Infratech P/L, AAS Agricultural P/L and other
industry
partners as well as liaison with Water Corporation and the financial
investment of the land developers. Monitoring and evaluation
of this system
will continue through Years 2 and 3.
In Year 2 (2006) it will also be possible
to compare water and nutrient
performance of the all-house Bridgewater trial with South Beach
Village in
Fremantle/Cockburn by Stockland/Landcorp where installation of
greywater
systems on each house is encouraged (to reduce outdoor scheme
water use)
through the residential design guidelines but not mandatory.
There will be
250 single residential lots and 22 multi-residential lots. The
civil works
on this site are currently under construction and lot sales and
house
construction are underway. This status has been achieved by technical
support from Murdoch University ETC (preparation of an Integrated
Urban
Water Management Plan) and industry partners as well as liaison
with Water
Corporation and the financial investment of the land developers.
In Year 3 (2007) several land developers currently propose to
establish
wastewater recycling schemes at several projects with the technical
support
of Murdoch University ETC and industry partners: a Dwellingup
integrated
tourist and residential village (125 holiday cabins+ 15-50 housing
lots)
with Mallee Nominees (WA) Pty Ltd, an effluent recycling scheme
for a
Busselton lifestyle village (230 park homes) and Hillview lifestyle
village
at High Wycombe (270 park homes) with National Lifestyle Villages
P/L and
another scheme by Infratech P/L. The first of these projects
to get approved
and commissioned will form the basis of Year 3 of this project
and the
ongoing monitoring and evaluation.
