Turning stormwater into drinking water
The seminar, detailing how stormwater previously left to flow down drains can be harvested for drinking water, will be held at the Plant Research Centre, Hartley Grove, Waite campus, Urrbrae, on Monday, 22 October at 4pm.
The public seminar has been organised by Water for a Healthy Country Flagship to highlight innovations in urban water management.
Speakers from CSIRO, the Salisbury Council and the National Water Commission will discuss how stormwater innovation is being used to meet Australia’s water challenge.
The seminar will highlight two case studies where stormwater has been used for drinking, historically in Mount Gambier in SA’s south east, and more recently, a project under development at metropolitan Salisbury, Adelaide.
Colin Pitman, Director, City Projects, City of Salisbury, will discuss the Aquifer Storage Transfer and Recovery (ASTR) project, an unique project involving CSIRO, United Water, the City of Salisbury, SA Water and the SA Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation.
The ASTR demonstration project will involve about 200,000 cubic metres of urban stormwater being harvested each year via a reed bed and injected into an aquifer to improve quality before recovery from separate wells at drinking water standards.
Dr Peter Dillon, who leads CSIRO’s Recycling and Diversified Supply stream in the Water for a Healthy Country’ Flagship’s Urban Water Theme, says the process has been used for a demonstration bottling of stormwater as drinking water, which will be available for tasting after the seminar.
Prime Minister John Howard and Environment and Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull were amongst the first to drink the bottled stormwater at the 17th meeting of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in Canberra in June, 2007.
The seminar will be introduced by Dr John Radcliffe AM, FTSE, a commissioner with the National Water Commission and Honorary Research Fellow with CSIRO.
CSIRO initiated the National Research Flagships to provide science-based solutions in response to Australia’s major research challenges and opportunities. The nine Flagships form multidisciplinary teams with industry and the research community to deliver impact and benefits for Australia.
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Fast facts
- A public tasting of reclaimed stormwater will be held during National Water Week in a seminar being organised by Water for a Healthy Country Flagship to highlight innovations in urban water management
- The seminar, detailing how stormwater previously left to flow down drains can be harvested for drinking water, will be held at the Plant Research Centre, Hartley Grove, Waite campus, Urrbrae, on Monday, 22 October at 4pm