Curtin wins $1m grant into waste water research

Curtin University of Technology has won a grant of almost $1 million over three years to investigate the treatment of wastewater for indirect re-use, as part of the efforts to address the decline in Perth's drinking water supplies.

The project, led by the WA Health Department, forms part of the Premier's Collaborative Research Program, which will investigate the effectiveness of microfiltration and reverse osmosis to treat wastewater prior to indirect reuse.

Recently launched by WA Premier Dr Geoff Gallop, the program will compliment another major research endeavour, the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) project, run by the CSIRO and Water Corporation of WA. Curtin is a minor participant in the MAR project which will assess if treated wastewater can be safely added to local aquifers that supply Perth's drinking water.
Professor Robert Kagi from the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre said the projects will utilise Curtin's expertise in analytical chemistry to identify safeguards to protect public health and the environment.
"Treated wastewater could be substituted for drinking water in many industrial and horticultural uses, and could be returned to the environment to replace water consumed for drinking water supplies," Professor Kagi said.

"But we must first demonstrate to the community that recycled water which has undergone the most stringent treatment using the best available technology, is consistently safe.

More specifically, Professor Kagi's research team will:

- characterise the chemical constituents of treated wastewaters from Perth's three major wastewater treatment plants and determine any seasonal and catchment differences in trace contaminants of concern for human and environmental health; and

- monitor the performance of the existing micro-filtration and reverse osmosis (MF/RO) treatment processes at the Kwinana Water Reclamation Plant, and analyse the product water quality to assess the capability of MF/RO technology to consistently produce water suitable for indirect reuse from treated wastewater.

The CSIRO Division of Land and Water will carry out a parallel study focusing on microbial constituents of the treated wastewaters.
The Water Chemistry Research group within Curtin's Centre for Applied Organic Geochemistry has for some years focused on research into the development of cost-effective drinking water treatment processes for both groundwater and surface water schemes. The Centre recently joined with the Water Corporation to form the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre (CWQRC).
Partners in the State Government's major new water research projects also include the Health Department (Project Leader), the Department of Environment, Water Corporation, CSIRO, Chemistry Centre WA, and the National Measurement Institute.

The initiative has become necessary due to the sustained reduction in Perth's rainfall and runoff that has seen a dramatic drop in water yield from local drinking water dams and borefields. The drying climate is also having a profound impact on wetlands and groundwater-dependent ecosystems.