Issue 3 August 1999
Wilma Anastasiu,
Reuse Officer
Wilma Anastasiu believes that her job as Reuse Officer is the best at Melbourne Water.
Ms Anastasiu is excited about the future of reused or recycled effluent from the Eastern Treatment Plant at Carrum.
She took on the job three years ago, when a tiny fraction of the effluent was recycled. The figure is still low – just in excess of 1 per cent –but for Ms Anastasiu, his represents healthy progress.
“We all realise that we have a long, long way to go, but there is no doubt that we’re heading in the right direction,” she said.
“More and more, water is seen as a precious resource that we can’t afford to waste and as time goes on, drinking water will get more expensive.
“The dry weather of the past few years has emphasised the importance of not wasting water, and people will be looking for alternative and cheaper water sources,such as the recycled water from the Eastern Treatment Plant.
“And as I say to prospective customers, compared with about 72 cents a kilolitre for tap water, our charges represent a pretty attractive proposition.”
Ms Anastasiu services some 32 recyclers, all of whom are near the 56-kilometre pipeline that transports the effluent from the Eastern Treatment Plant to Boags Rocks, near Cape Schanck.
The major recycling schemes are agricultural and horticultural, with municipal golf courses and recreation reserves also using significant quantities. The customers include a school, Padua College, an orchard and a hydroponic tomato grower.
During summer, she receives several phone calls a week from all over Australia and some from overseas on the quality and availability of recycled water from the Eastern Treatment Plant. These calls are mainly from other water authorities, potential clients, students and the general public.
“It’s a really exciting area to be involved in, both in terms of the clients involved and the research and development Melbourne Water is doing,” she says.
Overseas experience shows that the drier the climate, the greater the success of water recycling schemes. The Mornington Peninsula, through which the pipeline travels, usually has good rainfall and if recycled water schemes can be set up in drier areas further away from the plant, this will boost the quantity of effluent being used.
She predicts that within 30 years, half the 400 megalitres a day of effluent currently pumped into Bass Strait from the Eastern Treatment Plant will be recycled.
“You’ve got to see this recycled water for what it is,” she says. “It’s quite clean and clear, and is high in nutrients, which makes it ideal for agriculture and other uses.
“Public perceptions about this water are improving all the time and certainly the publicity and discussions around the CSIRO’s Effluent Management Study have got more people thinking.”
Ms Anastasiu says water quality is rarely a problem for her customers, but she encourages them to raise any issues they may have and work together to solve any problems, particularly before the beginning of what she calls the recycling season, from October to May.
Angelo Santospirito,
flower grower
Life is not exactly a bed of roses for Rosebud flower wholesaler Angelo Santospirito.
Business is fiercely competitive, with many growers vying for a slice of the market and flat, low wholesale prices a commercial reality, while retail margins seem to inhibit industry expansion. Every grower is looking for a commercial advantage, however slight.
The introduction of recycled water to Mr Santospirito’s flowerbeds 10 years ago has enabled him to grow a wider range of flowers.
“In the past, we grew about 10 varieties, and the business was more seasonal, ”he said.
Now he sells up to 30 varieties, including cornflower, ranuncula, daisy, calendula, iris, christmas and asiatic lilies.
He has 16 to 25 staff, who pick, plough and plant flowers at his 58-hectare property.
The water is pumped eight kilometres from the Eastern Treatment Plant pipeline to his property.
He sells up to 1000 buckets of flowers –some containing as many as 10 bunches –to the Melbourne flower market every second day. That means that he works through each previous night before heading to the city.
Mr Santospirito, who has been a flower wholesaler for 30 years, comes from a family of flower growers. His brother has a similar business at Torquay.
But he does not believe he was born with green fingers. “This was passed on to me by my family,” he said.
Does he have a favourite variety of flower or plant? He’s in no doubt there. “The money tree,” he says. If only …
Trevor Sutherland,
stud farmer
Recycled water has made a Mornington Peninsula stud farm drought proof. That’s the view of the stud manager, Mr Trevor Sutherland.
The 120-hectare Churchill Downs property, near Dromana, is irrigated each summer with recycled water from the Eastern Treatment Plant. The sprinklers are turned on about 6pm and switched off early in the morning.
“It’s quite unbelievable how the pasture grows –maybe three to four times quicker than we reckon it would with normal water,” Mr Sutherland said.
“It costs us about $500 for the water and $600 for the pumping, but we can run more animals because the fodder’s so good. And without the water, we would have to grow or buy excess hay, anyway.
“There’s no question that the water’s worth it –I don’t know how you’ survive without it.”
Churchill Downs, which runs 250 head of cattle and 24 racehorses, was the most successful exhibitor of bulls at the Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney agricultural shows last year.
Mr Sutherland said that because of the recycled water, Churchill Downs looks its green best from January to March. Importantly, this lushness enables the stud to prepare bulls for sale at the Sydney Easter Show.
“Droughts can ruin you because you have to sell cattle at a time when everyone else is trying to sell and the prices are low, ”he said.“ Then, when the rains come, everyone wants to buy at the same time and the prices are high.
“With this water, we know we’re going to have the feed to do what we want to, when we want to.”
Mr Sutherland said that running the sprinkler system at night is more effective because up to one-third would evaporate during the heat of the day, and the system requires minimal maintenance.
He believes recycled water is an opening for the future, and says it’s a shame to see so much effluent wasted. The pipeline from the Eastern Treatment Plant runs through the property, which is owned by Mr Jim Racavolis, of the Footscray fish market.
Bob Dollenkamp,
foliage grower
Living just outside the boundary of the Eastern Treatment Plant has its advantages –just ask Bob Dollenkamp.
Mr Dollenkamp helps run his Austfoliage family business, which supplies florists with foliage such as eucalypts, willows and ferns.
The Bangholme business uses recycled water from the nearby treatment plant on a dripper system.
There are some 50,000 trees on the eight-hectare property, which can be very hot in summer –when the need for watering is greatest –and the opposite in winter, with frosts and high winds.
“The great thing about our trees is that everything grows; we’ve never had a problem despite the extremes of the weather,” Mr Dollenkamp said. “Our trees are hardy and unlike flowers, they don’t have to be sold straight away.”
| Type of scheme | Product type | Volume of effluent used 98/99 (megalitres) | Volume of effluent used 97/98 (megalitres) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horticultural | Nursery, turf farm, flowers, vineyard, orchard | 350 | 417 |
| Agricultural | Hydroponics, market garden | 698 | 351 |
| Silverculture | Foliage | 2 | 3 |
| Dust control | Biosolids, dust control | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Municipal | Golf course, recreational reserves | 514 | 506 |
| Aquacultural, ornamental | Wetlands | 1 | 0.9 |
| Total volume of effluent used | 1565 | 1278 | |
| Total volume of effluent discharged to Boags Rocks | 131,054 | 138,527 | |
| Per cent of effluent used | 1.2% | 0.9% | |