Mid-Western Regional Council’s $25 million Mudgee Sewer Treatment Plant is up and running and is claimed to be the most modern plant operating in Australia.
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The plant project manager, Claire Cam, said the plant uses “state-of-the-art technology” and is a fully automated process.
“This project is part of the Mudgee Sewerage Augmentation which included construction of the treatment plant,” she said.
“We put in a pump station and it included power supply upgrades and construction of the pipelines.
“The treatment plant in particular is state-of-the-art technology and it’s an automated process.
“The sewerage comes in, it’s mechanically screened to get rid of solid things and then it goes through a vortex which removes material like grit and sand.
“It then goes into aeration tanks where a de-nitrification process happens, it’s then aerated and goes through pools of aeration, settling and decanting before it goes to a catch balance pond.
“We’ve also got chemical removal of phosphorus at this plant, it settles at the bottom of the tank we then send the clear water at the top of the tank through a UV channel before it goes back down the discharge pipeline towards the river catchment.”
The concept design for the plant was started in the 1990s, before the detailed design in the mid-2000s before the project itself began in August 2011.
The plant recently completed two months of “fault-free” commissioning.
Ms Cam said that the plant was built with the expansion of Mudgee in mind including the 1200-lot Caerleon development.
“It’s built to service future growth of Mudgee and there is another stage that can be built once we start to experience that growth,” she said.
“We’ve put in bits of the pipeline to facilitate extra connections that will come with future growth.”