Booragoon goes with the flow

by Mel Austin | 09 Oct 2013

The Booragoon Men's Club visited the Water Corporation's Advanced Water Recycling Plant in Craigie to learn all about the recent trial of recycling waste water to replenish ground water.

Pictured: Members inspected the different appearances of treated water at the various stages of purification.

Members and partners of the Booragoon Men's Club recently attended the Water Corporation's Advanced Water Recycling Plant in Craigie. This extremely interesting visit, arranged by Outings Officer Paul Simpson, was followed by an enjoyable lunch at the Greenwood Tavern.

The south-west of WA has been experiencing reduced rainfall over many years and this, coupled with a rapidly increasing population, means that the region's dams no longer capture enough water to supply its needs. Consequently, the region is increasingly dependent upon desalinated sea water and ground water from deep acqifers.

At the present time, most waste water is treated to remove chemicals, bacteria, nutrients, detergents and heavy metals, and discharged to the ocean. The Recycling Plant was set up to trial replenishment of the ground water with treated waste water. The trial has been completed successfully and a report is now in the hands of the State Government.

The recycling plant receives already treated water, which is then subject to a further three processes, namely:

1. Ultra filtration to remove large molecules and dissolved materials larger than 1/300th of a human hair.
2. Reverse osmosis which forces water under pressure through membranes with tiny pores, 100 times smaller than used in step one.
3. The water is treated with ultra-violet light as a final disinfection to destroy trace levels of micro organisms which may remain.

Following these steps the water is of tap-water quality and is injected into the aquifer, where the ground water acts as a natural filter, further purifying the recycled water.

Those attending left with a much better understanding of the nature and safety of the process, which promises to be of such benefit in a drying climate. Members were reminded that there is no such thing as new water on earth and that all water, so necessary for our survival, has been recycled since the earth's formation.