FAQs

Currently the West Camden Recycling Plant wastewater treatment capacity is 16 ML/d - that's the equivalent of 88,000 people.

Once upgraded, the plant's capacity will double to 32 ML/d capacity to serve 176,000 people to service forecast growth in the West Camden catchment to 2046. 

Construction will begin in October 2021 and will be completed by mid/late 2024.

The upgrade involves:

• building of new assets  

• decommission and re-purposing of existing assets

• implementing new technology.

The new technology is smaller, so requires less space on the site and also has a smaller carbon construction footprint.

This provides us with more space which we can use for emergency storage on site. Emergency storage is particularly important during wet weather events, to prevent any overflows.

One of the new assets we will be constructing on the site as part of the plant upgrade is a Membrane Bio-Reactor’ or ‘MBR’.

The advanced advantage is that it’s not just providing the biological treatment, which is the conventional approach, but it’s also providing a very high level of filtration to remove (practically) all of the contaminants from the wastewater.

The result is a better quality of Recycled Water and the water we discharge in our waterways 

We will be implementing new technology, which will allow us to treat the wastewater to a very high standard. This means that any treatment discharges to the waterways will have a very high quality and will improve waterway health.

The new technology will also require less space on site. We will use this space to increase our emergency storage capacity, which will improve environmental outcomes during wet weather events as it reduces the risk of overflows.

No, the plant will be in full operation while we are working on the upgrade.