AquaNet Sydney (a subsidiary of infrastructure company Jemena) has established the $100 million Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme, a new 20 km long network that will supply 20 million litres of high-quality recycled water per day to several of western Sydney’s largest industrial water users in the Rosehill and Smithfield areas of New South Wales.
These include:
- Shell Refining Australia
- Boral Australian Gypsum
- Visy Paper
- Marubeni Australia Power Services
- LyondellBasell Australia
- The Rosehill Gardens Racecourse.
AquaNet, together with Veolia Water, has signed a long-term agreement with Sydney Water for the supply of water to the scheme. AquaNet is the constructor, owner and operator of the Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme, while Veolia operates the associated Fairfield Recycled Water Plant – which treats the water prior to distribution in the network.
To find out more about some of the project’s key features, Sustainability and Infrastructure sat down with Linda Gyzen, Business Development Manager at Jemena and AquaNet.
From gas to water
The $100 million Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme, officially opened in December 2011, was designed and delivered with the concept of ‘re-use’ at its very core. The underground network used to transport water for the scheme was formerly an isolated gas main, and has been converted to distribute the recycled water.
Ms Gyzen tells Sustainability and Infrastructure that “The concept of this project was to utilise pre-existing gas mains to facilitate a running network through built-up areas, re-using old infrastructure.”
Using existing gas main infrastructure, AquaNet ensured that there was minimal invasion of streets and existing public infrastructure in the busy area of western Sydney.
“Sydney Water came up with a concept of feeding this project and other recycling projects with high quality effluent, so re-using existing infrastructure is a key aspect of the project from Sydney Water’s point of view and Jemena’s point of view,” explains Ms Gyzen.
Water treatment
Recycled water distributed via the Rosehill network is first treated by Veolia Water at the Fairfield Recycled Water Plant. The plant takes secondary treated effluent, supplied by the Sydney Water Liverpool to Ashfield pipeline, and treats it up to advanced tertiary quality water.
The treated water is of very high quality, as industrial customers require water that does not contain certain dissolved salts and minerals (often found in drinking water) for use in cooling towers and boilers.
“The only difference between water in this project and the water that could be used for drinking is that this water does not pass through the final treatment step that would normally remove very small amounts of organic chemicals,” Ms Gyzen explains. “It is not designed for drinking; it is designed for industrial and irrigation use.”
Privatising through legislation
The Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme is the first project to be delivered by the private sector in accordance with the New South Wales Water Industry Competition Act 2006.
The Water Industry Competition Act was developed to encourage competition in the water industry and foster innovative recycling projects and dynamic efficiency in the provision of water and wastewater services.
“One of the key aspects of completing this project was getting the private sector involved,” says Ms Gyzen. “The New South Wales Government and Sydney Water are using this project as a platform to involve the private sector in water.”
AquaNet holds the retail supplier licence for the Rosehill network, while Veolia and Jemena each have a network operator’s licence. Both types of licences were necessary entities for the continuation of the project, as they allow for AquaNet to build water infrastructure in public spaces.
“Veolia and Jemena were the first to get licences under the Water Industry Competition Act, and as this project has progressed from licence-granting approval right through to operation, it’s kind of been testing the legislation,” notes Ms Gyzen.
“Having gone through that whole process, that’ll benefit other projects, because it’s a practical use of what’s there and there’s been a lot of fine tuning that they’ve had to do on the legislation as a result of this project going through.”
Supplying sustainably
Under the New South Wales Government’s Metropolitan Water Plan, the Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme can save potable drinking water for the public in addition to putting it to industrial use.
The scheme can supply over 4 billion l of high-quality, recycled water to additional customers per year, saving almost 1 per cent of Sydney’s drinking water and supporting the New South Wales Government’s commitment to increase the use of recycled water from 22 billion l a year to 70 billion l a year by 2015.
“By supplying recycled water to large industrial customers that are currently using drinking water for their processes, we are being more sustainable in our water provision,” Ms Gyzen says.
“If you take, for example, Rosehill scheme customers Marubeni Australia Power and Shell Refining Australia, between them they are using approximately 7 million l per day of drinking water in their industrial processes.
“What this project has done is save that water for drinking and provided these customers with recycled water that’s suitable for use.”
By supplying large industrial customers with recycled water, the Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme also provides water to smaller commercial customers who are also connected to the supply main, so that they may share the benefits and access a new source of recycled water.
“There’s the benefit of using big industrial customers to set up a foundational project, and then smaller and medium commercial customers also get the benefit of that. That’s one of the reasons why [the project] works,” notes Ms Gyzen.
“AquaNet is now actively expanding the market and has already signed up six additional customers to the large foundation customers, and we will go on and expand it from there.”
Expansion plans
AquaNet plans to expand the project by connecting the existing network to another industrial area located in Parramatta.
“If we can get enough industrial customers to justify that expansion, we’ll try and do that within the next 12 months,” says Ms Gyzen.
The Parramatta extension will depend on the rate of uptake of all new buildings in the city, and how quickly they are going to be built.
As Ms Gyzen explains “It all comes down to the developer wanting to get points for sustainability in their developments. They’ve got the choice to use our recycled water or they can put water tanks. For us, it really comes down to trying to convince them that using a source of recycled water is the best way to go.”
Ultimately, she says, the success of a recycled water network like the Rosehill scheme depends on geography.
“If you’ve got an industrial hub reasonably close to an effluent supply and close to a new development, then the system works.
“You could do it with a residential development on its own, but the scale of industrial customers is just so much higher. If you’ve got one customer using 3 million l per day, that’s where you get your money to put your infrastructure in,” explains Ms Gyzen.
