Efficient water use and reducing the strain on the River
Murray have been high on Port Augusta City Council’s
agenda and, with the official opening of its waste water
reuse plant on Monday, October 24, the Council is proving
the two can be achieved.
After
five years of planning, the Council is now watering a number
of its parks and gardens using treated waste water
through its own plant and infrastructure.
The result is far greener parks and gardens using nearly
half as much water, with the added advantage of substantially
reducing the amount of effluent water pumped into Spencer
Gulf.
The innovative scheme involves the treatment of waste water
at a plant located at Central Oval, the monitoring of water
levels and delivery of water through a computerised Central
Control Rain Bird watering system, and the subsurface irrigation
system, designed and installed by Greene Eden Watering Systems.
The raw waste is sewer-mined from the SA Water sewerage
pump station on Seaview Road and is pulverized and then pumped
to the Central Oval treatment plant. This makes it the only
water re-use scheme where sewer mining from the sewer mains
is occurring in South Australia, giving it the benefit of
establishing the infrastructure close to where the watering
occurs.
It is estimated the new Rain Bird computerised watering
system will save about 20% of water used on Port Augusta’s
parks and gardens, and the sub-surface drip irrigation system
will provide another 30% water saving.
As well as saving around 50% of water, the new irrigation
system is also expected to reduce maintenance costs to a
minimum, with on-going sprinkler vandalism no longer an issue
because plants are watered at root level via the sub-surface
drip irrigation pipe.
The system installed is a Rain Bird Site Control. This is
linked to a Rain Bird weather station that measures wind
speed, rainfall and temperature.
The system factors in weather conditions and moisture levels
detected via soil moisture sensors, and responds accordingly,
delivering the amount of water required via the
sub surface irrigation system.
In total, 48,621m2 of turf is being watered as part of the
scheme, as well as a further 7,161m2 of landscaped areas.
After
five years of planning, the Council is now watering a number
of its parks and gardens using treated waste water
through its own plant and infrastructure.
The result is far greener parks and gardens using nearly
half as much water, with the added advantage of substantially
reducing the amount of effluent water pumped into Spencer
Gulf.