MEDIA RELEASE 4 April 2007

Top team creates first-class plant

A new sewage treatment plant is in the pipeline to keep up with Hervey Bay's growing waste demands.

Wide Bay Water Corporation expects the $35million plant will be operational by Christmas 2008.

"The Eli Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is getting close to capacity," said WBWC executive manager of engineering Peter Care, "so we need to build another plant to let development continue on the western side of town."

The plant will be built next to the massive dam at Nikenbah which holds recycled water that is pumped on to cane farms, turf farms and tree plantations.

Mr Care said the plant would be able to treat water from the equivalent of 10,000 houses via a membrane bio reactor process.

"MBR is a biological treatment which uses membrane filtration at the end of the process," said Mr Care. "There's not many in Australia and it's certainly new technology for the Wide Bay."

He said the plant would treat water to such a high standard that it could be considered a supplementary water source in times of crisis.

"It takes exceptional skill to design a plant like this one," said Mr Care. "We have that expertise available because of Wide Bay Water's philosophy of recruiting talented individuals whose services are on-sold to water authorities throughout the world. This allows us to deliver first class water solutions for the people of Hervey Bay."

The tendering process has begun and contracts will be awarded in June/July.

For more details phone Denis Heron, Wide Bay Water Corporation on 1300 808 888.