Karen Sanchez - Peter
Woods - Don MacKay
at the Maroochy Water Services Nambour Sewage Treatment Plant
Wastewater Treatment Down Under.…A report from the land of the clockwise
spinning water…
In May Ron and I were on our dream vacation in Australia. Post-Birdman
Brisbane show may 25th…
We had a couple of days free, so I got in touch with Don MacKay, Principal
Teacher of Water and Wastewater Treatment at the Open Learning Institute in
Brisbane, Queensland.
Don generously offered to take us on tours of Queensland’s beautiful
beaches and rainforests.
My heart lies with wastewater – er, sewage. I could not resist
and asked Don if we could visit an Australian wastewater treatment plant. So,
on our way to the beach, amongst the (Giant) Pineapple and the sugar cane
fields, we stopped off at the Maroochy Water Services Nambour Sewage Treatment
Plant.
My first surprise was the level of security. We drove up to the gated
security fence and were greeted by a camera and intercom. Once inside,
the operator Peter Woods, was a bit confused why we were interested in touring
a wastewater plant on our “holiday”, but generously agreed to give
us a tour.
The reason the security is so tight there is that they have had problems with
trespassing and vandalism. Water reuse is being proposed there in Maroochy,
and the presence of endocrine disrupters in water is a hot button issue that
has generated public discussion and even fear.
The facility is a nutrient removal plant that uses the Bardenpho process with
aerobic digestion and has DAF and a belt filter press for biosolids processing
and disinfects effluent with UV prior to discharge.
Queensland is semi-tropical, and heat is the biggest operational issue. The
main problem is odors. Besides heat, anaerobic conditions and long detention
times add to the problem. Septage is transported to the plant daily
from the many holding tanks in the area. The service area is quite large.
And most of the sewers are small diameter and pressurized, adding to the odor
situation. Oxygen injection is the main odor control scenario; they
have found it works better than chemical addition.
As we walked past the bar screen facility, I noticed that there was a vine
with what looked like little green mangos growing on the fence. I asked
and was told that was passion fruit! Yum!
Onward to the aeration basin. Nutrient removal is also affected by heat:
apparently nitrogen and phosphorous removal are not difficult there.
But carbon has to be added at the head of the nutrient removal basins. In
Queensland they use sugar cane.
The rest of the facility and its operations seemed similar to ours.
Discharge permit limits in Australia are comparable to the US EPA 30/30 but
are based on the receiving water. Non-point discharge and TMDL’s
are the big issue there now. Also, the Maroochy sewage treatment plant
used to discharge to the small ephemeral stream adjacent to the facility,
recently had to install a multiple kilometer pipeline to discharge to a lager
receiving body of water. Sound familiar?
We thanked Peter and sped on out (in a Holden – an Australian car) to
enjoy the clean surf and the white sand beaches of the Sunshine Coast, warmed
by the camaraderie that sewage provides. G’day mate!
When she's
not helping out small towns in Montana, Karen "Kazzer" Sanchez,
is the Studio Hostess at GLEA. She's also the drummer and bass player for
"The Sludge Band".
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