Hervey Bay, located 300 km north of Brisbane, has become one of the fastest growing communities in regional Queensland. The area’s growth is due in great part to the highly desirable natural environment, general appeal, relatively low cost of living and overall liveability it offers.

To keep pace with an unprecedented population growth over the past two decades and in light of projected future growth, Fraser Coast Regional Council has faced a host of challenges in terms of infrastructure provision.

Not the least of those issues stems from a water and wastewater management perspective.

Fraser Coast Regional Council’s major priority in the design and application of any such infrastructure is the safeguarding of the unique natural environment of the Great Sandy Straits, Fraser Island and the waters of the Bay, which include a marine park and fisheries reserve.

It is that focus that has positioned Council’s independent corporatised water business Wide Bay Water Corporation at the forefront of wastewater management in Australia over the past decade. The organisation’s enviable reputation has stemmed from its innovative, pioneering efforts in large-scale wastewater re-use.

Likewise it was that focus that led Wide Bay Water Corporation to prioritise infrastructure that would enhance its effluent re-use capability not only to more efficiently meet the needs of the present community but also to accommodate a growing population.

A natural by-product of the city’s growth was increasing levels of wastewater. The Pulgul Inlet Works and Lift Station realised part of a long-term strategy to deal with the city’s future wastewater production, but with the current potential to offset demands made on existing systems and significantly boost tourism and farming industries in the region.

The Concept

Wide Bay Water Corporation is renowned for its award-winning approach to wastewater management. In the 1990’s the organisation devised a highly effective effluent reuse scheme that now enables up to 100% of the city’s effluent to be re-used by turf farms, sugar farms and other rural industries.

This cutting edge approach to re-using wastewater on land has eliminated the need for ocean outfall, ensuring protection of the bay and the ongoing prosperity of the local tourism industry.

In turn the scheme contributes to the local economy through increased agricultural outputs due to agri-industries’ access to wastewater to improve their crop yields.

By developing the Pulgul Inlet Works and Lift Station, Wide Bay Water Corporation was able to augment existing wastewater management infrastructure and create a facility that improves the quality of effluent and biosolids being used by local land-based industries.

The Pulgul Inlet Works is a $1.277 million dollar project for which the State Government provided a capital works subsidy of 40% of the project value. The facility is the first stage of a $5.5 million upgrade of the Pulgul Wastewater Treatment Plant to meet the increased demand driven by the continuing growth of Hervey Bay City.

Historically, treated wastewater from the 20,000 EP Eli Creek WWTP was discharged into an adjacent tidal creek. This was not considered to be long term environmental best practice due to the potential to threaten water based activities of the local tourist industry in the bay and the sensitive marine environment. Faced with this dilemma and based on the success of the Pulgul Wastewater Reuse Scheme, Council elected to implement a land based agricultural irrigation scheme but on a larger scale.

The scheme was considered to be an innovative benchmark for the reuse of treated wastewater. Subsequently the Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency have used the scheme to demonstrate the operational and environmental monitoring protocols which other Queensland effluent reuse schemes should adopt.

An extensive Environment Impact Study (EIS) process was initially conducted. The EIS recommended an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to govern the construction and operational phases of the scheme. The EMP resulted in:

• Farm Management Plans to ensure the sustainability of irrigation areas.
• Construction Phase elements including community consultation and construction protocol
• Operational Phase elements including public health and safety, water quality, operator health and safety and soil management.

A diversity of applications receive the entire 4.5 million litres of treated effluent per day from the treatment plant. Two golf courses, a turf farmer and seven cane farmers use the treated wastewater. The can farmers receive their treated water following a minimum 30 day detention period in a 960 million litre storage dam at Nikenbah via an 8km pipeline from a 50 megalitre effluent polishing pond at the Eli WWTP.

All wastewater customers have water supply agreements that deal with water allocations and individual environmental management plans. The supply agreements were finalised after a comprehensive risk assessment.