$25M Wauchope Water Treatment Plant Takes Shape
31 October 2005
Work on Port Macquarie-Hastings Council's $25 million Wauchope water treatment plant at Rosewood Road enters the next stage in November with the commencement of construction on the facility's main building and reservoir.
Designed to improve the drinking water quality for all consumers in the Hastings and to better achieve the quality standards set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, the Wauchope facility is expected to be online in July 2006.
The facility includes a water conditioning system to treat all water pumped from the Hastings River. In addition, water supplied directly to Wauchope consumers will be filtered. Council's water supply manager Murray Thompson said the plant's main function will be to filter the drinking water for the Wauchope water supply scheme. This includes Wauchope, Beechwood, King Creek and Sancrox areas.
The filtration process physically removes particles from the water ensuring the protection of public health.
"Water conditioning facilities will also help to increase the alkalinity and stabilise the pH of all water pumped from the Hastings River before it is stored in the Port Macquarie and Cowarra storage dams," Mr Thompson explained.
The plant will also include educational facilities which will be utilised to further promote Council's WaterWise education program by providing opportunities for school and community groups to visit and inspect the site.
Reed Constructions are currently undertaking the construction of the water treatment plant building, clear water pumping station and five mega litre reservoir, sewerage pumping station and associated pipework, tanks and pits. Veolia Water Systems and Water Treatment Australia will supply and install the micro-filtration equipment [6 to 18 ML/day] and lime and carbon dioxide dosing systems [120ML/day], respectively.
