Black & Veatch recently announced that Stage 1A of the Bundamba Advanced Water Plant (AWTP), which produced purified recycled water only 10 months after construction began, has received the Global Water Project of the Year Award from Global Water Intelligence.
“We’re very proud that we were able to play a key role in delivering this major advanced water treatment plant with high standards, on a fast track and with a superior safety record,” said Dan McCarthy, president and CEO of Black & Veatch’s global water business. “This innovative, sustainable project was an integral part of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, which ultimately will help to alleviate a water scarcity issue and provide potable water for drinking and other uses to the people of southeast Queensland.”
The Bundamba AWTP—delivered by a Black & Veatch/Thiess joint venture in partnership with Western Corridor Recycled Water Pty., Ltd. and the Queensland Government’s Department of Planning and Infrastructure—is part of the AU $2.4 billion Western Corridor Recycled Water (WCRW) Project, the third-largest recycled water project in the world. Featuring a network of 200 km of underground pipelines and three new advanced water treatment plants, the WCRW Project will ensure a secure water supply for the rapidly growing yet drought-stricken southeast Queensland region for years to come.
The Bundamba AWTP project has achieved ambitious targets during the design, construction and commissioning stages. On the former paddock where the Bundamba AWTP now sits, groundbreaking was held in November 2006. By August 2007, the plant produced purified recycled water, and Stage 1A was officially opened in September 2007, the same month in which the project exceeded the one-million man-hour mark with zero lost-time injuries, a remarkable record for a worksite with such intense activity.
“This is an excellent example of our integrated global workforce at work; it’s the only way we could deliver a project of this magnitude on such a fast track,” McCarthy said. “We mobilized professionals from many different office sites and had a strong international team on the ground that was supported by global design and resource centers in Singapore, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Beijing, the United States and the UK.”
The purified recycled water from the Bundamba AWTP is piped from the plant via a 7.3-km-long, 800-mm-diameter pipeline into the lake at the CS Energy Swanbank Power Station, reducing the power station’s reliance on the drought-affected Wivenhoe Dam and ensuring that the power station remains available to support southeast Queensland’s growing electricity needs.
The Bundamba AWTP uses the latest membrane and advanced oxidation technologies to provide purified recycled water for cooling and other purposes at the power station. The main treatment steps—ultrafiltration membranes, reverse osmosis membranes followed by advanced oxidation using ultraviolet irradiation and hydrogen peroxide—employed at the plant comprise the first large-scale indirect potable reuse scheme in Australia.
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