The WA Minister for Water, Mia Davies has announced that more than 3.5 billion litres of wastewater has been successfully treated, recycled, purified and recharged back into Perth’s groundwater supply.
The milestone was achieved at the Water Corporation’s Groundwater Replenishment Trial plant, which recharged recycled water back into the Leederville Aquifer.
The wastewater goes through an advanced water treatment to bring it to drinking water standards and is then pumped back into groundwater supplies for future use as drinking water.
Water Minister Mia Davies said this was a tremendous milestone for the trial plant and for the State Government.
“Recharging 3.5billion litres of water at the groundwater replenishment trial site is a great achievement for Perth,” Ms Davies said.
“The trial plant was built to test groundwater replenishment in local conditions and to ensure all health targets can be assured. This has been successful and construction of a full-scale plant is due to begin later this year.
“The first stage of the new plant, to be built in Craigie, will recharge seven billion litres of water each year, and can be expanded to 28 billion litres of water a year as our population and needs grow.
“In our drying climate, groundwater replenishment provides a secure, rainfall independent water source with the potential to supply up to 20 per cent of Perth’s future drinking water needs by 2060.”
The Water Corporation’s Water Forever Whatever the Weather strategy aims to protect the groundwater environment by transferring abstraction from environmentally sensitive shallow aquifers to deeper aquifers, and investing in groundwater replenishment to recharge aquifers.
