Questions about population and original wastewater treatment plant

[Bin TangParticipant]

1) I found a pdf(Saibai Sustainable Land Use Plan part2 https://www.tsra.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/2038/14-saibai-slup.pdf) said the original wastewater treatment plant was designed for 600 people and at that time the population is 300-400, I want to know what is the population in 2023?

2) Also in that pdf, it said “the treated effluent is pumped from the original original wastewater treatment plant to an ocean outfall at the north of the island.” Is this means all the water discharge to the ocean or some of them have been reused for other purposes like irrigation? And is there any intermediate products can be reused, because the introduction of the wastewater treatment plant said it use rotating bio contactors to treat sewage water to secondary level, didn’t mention other information.

Thank you in advance.

[Jean AquindeKeymaster]

Hi Bin,

Great find on that resource material! I think I will have to add that to our recommended reading list. 🙂

To answer your questions,

1) The latest release of census data from Australia Bureau of Statistics for Saibai Island island is 2021. Based on 2021 data, I suggest that you make an estimate for 2023 population using the information on ‘identified growth rate’ in the PDF document that you linked. It mentioned there ‘a low growth rate of 1% (an extra 39 persons over 10 years)’ or a high growth rate of 2%’.

2) In the PDF document you linked, there is a specific section about Effluent Re-use:

Effluent from the treatment plant is treated to a secondary level only and as such, is unsuitable to be considered for potable use. The treatment plant as designed is not readily modifiable to enable effluent treatment to a tertiary level.

There may be an opportunity to use the secondary treated water to irrigate community areas during the dry season, however this would involve the provision of significant infrastructure and the need for strict environmental health management systems to be implemented.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘intermediate products’ in your question. Can you give me more context about that and as to what do you want to achieve related to that?

Regards,
Jean

• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Jean Aquinde.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Jean Aquinde.

[Bin TangParticipant]

Hi Jean,

Thank you for answering my questions and the information about population.

1) The reason I ask the second question is that I don’t know after these years if the original sewage treatment plant has been upgraded or not.
2) And the ‘intermediate products’ in my second question is something left after treating the sewage water, such as sludge, are they directly send to landfill or they are treated then reuse for fertilizer.

Thank you!

Bin Tang

[Jean AquindeKeymaster]

You’re welcome Bin! 🙂

A quick update, I found this recent article: Roadtrain® Delivers Safe Environmental Discharge for Saibai STP from Hydrolux, the supplier of the packaged plant which appears to me that their sewage treatment plant system has been upgraded.

Based on our recent chat with a TSIRC staff, we have confirmed that sludge are untreated and sent directly to the landfill.

I hope this helps!

Regards,
Jean

[Bin TangParticipant]

Hi Jean,

Thank you very much, this information is very helpful for me.

Kind regards,

Bin

[Jean AquindeKeymaster]

You’re welcome Bin! All the best with your project! 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 months, 1 week ago by Jean Aquinde.

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