Gippsland Water will soon commence a major service of its Gippsland Water Factory in Victoria, as it has reached seven years of operation and treated more than 60billion litres of wastewater.
General Manager of Operations Mr Peter Skeels said, “The Water Factory treats an average 35million litres of wastewater a day from nine Latrobe Valley towns, as well as the Australian Paper Mill at Maryvale.
“After five years of operation, that amounts to over 60billion litres of wastewater that has been successfully treated and returned as either re-use water for industry or to the environment. Just like your car, it’s now due for a bit of extra love and attention on top of our regular ongoing maintenance schedule.”
The outage is planned to coincide with a similar maintenance window at the Australian Paper Mill and will see one of the four wastewater treatment units, known as a Bio Reactor, taken offline for approximately 42 days.
“The period off-line will allow an industrial Bio Reactor to be drained, inspections to take place safely and the required maintenance to be undertaken,” Mr Skeels said.
During this period it is possible that partially treated, diluted industrial wastewater may be required to be discharged down the Regional Outfall System (ROS) to undergo final treatment at the Dutson Downs Lagoon Facility.
Gippsland Water has been liaising with neighbours to the Gippsland Water Factory, Australian Paper as well as residents along the ROS in the lead up to this outage to ensure stakeholders are informed about the potentially changed conditions within the ROS.
Gippsland Water does not expect the outage to have any impact on the operation of the two municipal Bio Reactors or the third industrial Bio Reactor which will remain in service during this maintenance period
Nor does Gippsland Water expect any significant odours to be discharged from the ROS if diluted, partially treated industrial wastewater is required to be released during the outage.
