Operations
Sewage Treatment Plant
The majority of properties in South East Water's area are connected to a reticulated sewerage system. This system consists of a network of sewers and pumping stations that carry wastewater to various sewage treatment plants. The Alliance operates and maintains all assets employed. After the sewage has been processed at a treatment plant it is either re-used or released back into the environment.
South East Water's System Comprises
- 7,800 kilometres of underground sewerage mains
- 237 sewage pumping stations
- 9 sewage treatment plants
- over 520,000 connections to the sewerage system
The amount of sewage treated in South East Water's area is some 114,000 megalitres per year.
Our sewerage system has three main components:
- property connections;
- a collection and transfer system; and
- sewage treatment plants.
Property connection
These are the private sewers that carry sewage from each property to the collection system's reticulation sewers. They are usually made from UPVC plastic, iron or vitreous clay.
The Collection and Transfer System
The sewerage collection and transfer system is a network of underground sewers and pumping stations that carry sewage to a treatment plant. Pumping stations are needed to pump the sewage along a rising main to a high point where gravity takes over and sewage flows to a treatment plant.
Sewage Treatment Plants
Sewage Treatment Plants carry out the important role of removing wastes from sewage to make it safe for re-use or release to the environment. Our treatment plants deal with wastewater from residential homes, commercial and industrial properties. The waste from homes is referred to as domestic waste, while waste from industry is called trade waste. In most cases, trade waste requires some pre-treatment before it reaches the collection system.
‘us’– Utility Services operates South East Water’s 9 Sewage Treatment Plants (STP).
South East Water’s plants include six activated sludge treatment plants and the rest have lagoon based systems.
Annually, South East Water collects approximately 120,000 ML of wastewater. While the majority of this wastewater is treated at Melbourne Water's Eastern and Western Treatment Plants,
over 12,000 ML (about 10%) of wastewater was treated at our own plants.
Wastewater Treatment
Utilisation of treated wastewater provides the following tangible benefits:
- reduction of effluent being disposed to local waterways;
- reduction in nutrients entering waterways, which may cause nutrition overload, which can lead to excessive algal growth within natural ecosystems; and
- reduction in potable water consumption.
Over the past twelve months South East Water in conjunction with the Alliance has continued to develop and implement wastewater re-use opportunities for customers . Significantly, this has involved completion of a wastewater re-use pipeline which will convey 100% of treated wastewater from the Blind Bight Sewage Treatment Plant to an existing turf farm at Five Ways, some 8 kilometres away. A long-term agreement will see water from the plant stored over the winter months for use over the summer period.
While the majority of South East Water's re-use activities have been centred on the environmentally sensitive Western Port area, the Company is aware of the potential for growth in re-use opportunities on the Mornington Peninsula. The company therefore currently supplies recycled water to several vineyards in the area, which range from small boutique wineries (10 hectares) to larger, more established estates (200 hectares+).
