Words: Varun Godinho
A new state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant is currently under construction at Queensland’s Great Keppel Island (Woppa).
The facility will turn wastewater into Class A+ recycled water suitable for non-drinking uses such as irrigation.
The plant is fully funded by the Queensland Government as part of the Great Keppel Island (Woppa) Concept Master Plan.
Livingstone Shire Council awarded the design and construction of the new sewage treatment plant to the RSK firm Pensar, with the design work starting in October 2024 and construction commencing in August last year. The plant is expected to be fully operational in June 2026.
Designed to a Category C cyclone rating, the facility will be able to withstand winds of more than 250 kilometres per hour.
All containers, structures and tanks are designed to meet that cyclone rating, in line with Australian Standards and local council building regulations.
The design also factors in the proximity to saltwater for corrosion and other environmental factors such as UV, temperature, soil movement, humidity and rainfall, to ensure the plant can withstand harsh environmental conditions.
“Extensive field sampling and testing were undertaken to inform a robust process design that was developed and completed in-house by Pensar’s process engineering team,” Pensar’s chief operating officer David Brown says.
“The environmentally sensitive nature of the location, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, has required detailed planning and strict adherence to statutory requirements. All materials and equipment had to be transported via private barge and unloaded during high tide windows, requiring precise logistical planning and coordination.”
Completion of the first stage of the sewage treatment plant project will provide sufficient capacity to service the Great Keppel Island Hideaway Resort, Great Keppel Island Holiday Village, new visitor amenity blocks and northern freehold allotments on Fisherman’s Beach.
The project will deliver a membrane bioreactor plant producing Class A+ effluent, sized for 480 equivalent persons or 100 kilolitres per day.
The project scope includes the installation of two duplex and 10 simplex sewer pumping stations (SPS) serving businesses and residents for the northern freehold allotments on Fisherman’s Beach.
Brown says that the sewage treatment plant is a packaged unit designed to be easily transportable, with significantly reduced establishment and installation time compared to most traditional treatment plants.
“It consists of custom-fitted shipping containers that hold the plant rooms and critical electrical equipment. These will work in conjunction with heavy-duty PE (polyethylene) tanks that contain the critical process-related equipment – such as the membrane bioreactor and aerators – and make up the system that treats the island’s sewage into recycled water that will be used to irrigate the island’s open spaces. The plant is fully automated with remote monitoring and control, and is designed to consider the maintenance challenges relating to the remote location of the site on an island,” says Brown.
The main sewage pumping station has been designed to handle wet weather events. The plant offers 500 kilolitres of wet weather storage to mitigate overflows during wet weather events.
This article first appeared in FM Media
Lead image: Pensar’s Troy Elder, Livingstone Shire Council Mayor Adam Belot, Member for Keppel Nigel Hutton, Regional Director for the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Candace Vea Vea, and Pensar’s Stuart Holcroft. Image: Pensar
