Download What happens after you flush?

BRISBANE | Spring 2014
A day in the life
of a sewage
treatment
plant operator
Spotlight on our
Innovation Centre
NOT ALL
BUGS
ARE BAD!
Inside Oxley
Creek Sewage
Treatment Plant
What happens after you flush?
At Queensland Urban Utilities, we do the dirty work for you. See inside for our treatment
processes and learn about what happens beyond the bowl.
...find out more on page 3
www.urbanutilities.com.au
A day in the life of
a sewage treatment
plant operator
Beyond the bowl...
What happens after you flush?
As a Technical Operations Specialist
at one of our sewage treatment
plants, David Lobegeiger is one of
our behind the scenes stars. He is on
the frontline ensuring the sewage
treatment runs smoothly.
You probably don’t think about what happens after you flush the toilet, wash your clothes or take a
shower. This is because our sewerage service is largely unseen, but it is a crucial part of our everyday lives.
At Queensland Urban Utilities, we manage and maintain
more than 9,000 kilometres of sewerage pipes and 334 pump
stations which transport sewage from your home to one of our
27 sewage treatment plants. Here’s what we do...
David says people’s perceptions of the job are
often “dirty, smelly and very low tech”, but
nothing could be further from the truth. “A lot
of our equipment is cutting edge, in particular
the sophisticated odour control systems used
to minimise odour.”
Primary treatment
Primary treatment is where liquids and solids are separated
using fine screens.
While the work may not appear glamorous,
David says the positives far outweigh the
negatives, telling us proudly that “making a
difference in people’s lives by protecting the
environment and giving value for money” is
the best part of what he does.
Secondary treatment
Turning waste into energy
Tertiary treatment
In tertiary treatment, the sewage undergoes processing to
make it safer for release into the environment.
For more information on our sewage treatment process, visit
www.urbanutilities.com.au/treatment
The sewage treatment process at a glance...
Did you know?
We manage more than 18,000
kilometres of water and sewerage
pipeline, which is around the same
distance between Brisbane and London!
Your home
Taking water and sewerage services into the future
At Queensland Urban Utilities, we continue to innovate and improve our
water and sewerage networks. We understand that great ideas can come
from lots of different places, so we have established a program that allows
our employees the opportunity to develop and present their ideas and
inventions directly to our CEO through a regular CEO innovation hour.
The innovation hour is supported by our iQ group made up of representatives
across the business. We also have a dedicated Innovation Centre which
opened this year where ideas take shape and come to life.
The centre, in a refurbished historic building, adjoins our Luggage Point
Sewage Treatment Plant in Brisbane and will be home to trials of emerging
technologies and innovation research. We want to see our ideas carried
through to delivery, and this space allows that to happen.
In less than a year, we have already seen the development and
implementation of more than 30 innovations. So far these have had wideranging benefits, including improving our safety practices and environmental
footprint, and reducing our operating costs at the same time.
2 | Spring 2014
Now that the wastewater has been treated and tested to
meet high quality standards, it can be used by agriculture and
industries that don’t require drinking quality water with the
remainder returned to our waterways.
We are committed to environmentally sustainable practices,
including the production of green power. The biosolids (sludge)
removed during the sewage treatment process undergo separate
treatment to produce what we call biogas. The biogas is used
to fuel a cogeneration facility which provides electricity for our
Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment Plant. This decreases our reliance
on the electricity grid and reduces our operating costs.
Any leftover materials from the primary treatment are removed
using an activated sludge process. Bacteria naturally treats the
sewage using a bioreactor and settling tanks, and nutrients
such as nitrogen and phosphorus are removed.
Making a difference in people’s lives doesn’t
have to be on a large scale. For example, it
can be as simple as listening to someone
who has lost a wedding ring down the sink.
“We are still trying to find it,” David says
with a smile.
This can include removing bacteria by filtering and disinfecting
the wastewater before release.
Sewage pump
station
Fine
screens
Primary
treatment
Secondary
treatment
Tertiary
treatment
Agriculture/
industry
Energy
Waterways
One of our innovations shows
that not all bugs are bad
One of our most exciting long-term projects involves impressive
bacteria called Anammox.
We have been growing Anammox with
our research partners for the past five
years, and now we’re taking steps with
industry specialists to put the bugs to
good use in the treatment of sewage.
This friendly micro-organism is an
energy-efficient nitrogen removal process
that uses less oxygen and doesn’t require
an extra food source, in contrast to the
bacteria currently used in our sewage
treatment process.
A dedicated demonstration unit is
being established at our Luggage Point
Innovation Centre and will be one of the
first of its type trialled in Australia.
To learn more about
Queensland Urban Utilities’
focus on innovation, visit
our website and click
through to ‘about us’
Queensland Urban Utilities | 3
Spring 2014
Inside Oxley Creek Sewage
Treatment Plant
The Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment Plant opened its doors to the community for a free tour as
part of the 2014 Peaks to Points Festival.
The tour also allowed our visitors to
see how far the Oxley Creek Sewage
Treatment Plant has come since the
2011 flood.
Turning sewage
treatment into art
The site suffered $32 million worth of
damage in this natural disaster, forcing
part of the plant offline.
Oxley Creek is the second largest sewage
treatment plant in Brisbane and has only
been accessible to the public a few times
in the past decade. More than 30 visitors
had the opportunity to witness the
fascinating process of converting sewage
into clear wastewater by removing solids
and nutrients.
To report a fault or emergency
Contact us 24/7 on 13 23 64
Budding photographer
Mary Wilson, from
the Brisbane Camera
Group, was one of
the attendees at our
Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment
Plant tour. Mary lingered at
each stop on the tour to throw a
creative light on sewage treatment
with her shots (above and left).
Mary said the tour was most
enjoyable and informative.
Due to industrial and residential growth
in the area, we are investing $15 million
to bring the damaged area back online
to cater for population growth.
The plant is currently processing 53
million litres of sewage a day. Once the
upgrade is complete, that will increase
to 65 million litres – the equivalent of
26 Olympic sized swimming pools.
For more information visit
www.urbanutilities.com.au
General enquiries
From 7am-7pm weekdays 13 26 57
Queensland Urban Utilities provides water and sewerage services to customers in the Brisbane, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley,
Scenic Rim and Somerset regions. Copyright © 2014. Queensland Urban Utilities is the trading name of the Central
SEQ Distributor-Retailer Authority. ABN 86 673 835 011. Printed on environmentally responsible paper. Q00743-2014.