{"id":145362,"date":"2016-05-18T15:03:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T05:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=145362"},"modified":"2020-10-14T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T05:23:00","slug":"water-changeover-goes-smoothly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/05\/18\/water-changeover-goes-smoothly\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Changeover Goes Smoothly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
An aerial view of the new Gordonbrook Water Treatment Plant, which was put into commission on Tuesday night (Photo: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Water and Waste Water Portfolio chair Cr Roz Frohloff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 18, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

The commissioning of the new $7.5 million Gordonbrook Water Treatment Plant has gone smoothly and produced a couple of unexpected extra benefits.<\/p>\n

Water portfolio chair Cr Roz Frohloff told Wednesday’s Council meeting the new plant became fully operational on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The “cut in” had gone smoothly and there had been minimal impacts on Kingaroy’s water supply.<\/p>\n

This was largely thanks to the co-operation of Kingaroy residents, who had been asked to limit water usage to essentials from Monday to Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“The project team worked around the clock for two days,” Cr Frohloff said.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure General Manager Russell Hood told the meeting that from his perspective, the new plant was performing better than expected.<\/p>\n

He said early indications were that it would use less chlorine than the old one.<\/p>\n

This would lead to some useful cost savings over the longer term.<\/p>\n

Mr Hood said the water quality being produced by the new plant was also at a higher level than expected.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Kingaroy’s new $20 million Waste Water Treatment Plant is also moving towards being fully commissioned, Cr Frohloff said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seed sludge to start the biological processes at the plant was added in the first two weeks of May, and raw sewage cut-over was achieved on Monday, May 15.<\/p>\n

Council operators are now being trained by the plant’s builders Aquatec Maxcon, and finalisation of plant instrumentation, mechanical and civil works is close to completion.<\/p>\n

Cr Frohloff said the new plant is not yet operating at full capacity, but some good results should be seen over the coming month.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the old sewage plant has been disconnected and demolition will proceed in the near future.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Refurbishment of Murgon’s Water Treatment Plant is taking slightly longer than planned because parts of it are more run down than expected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cr Frohloff told Wednesday’s meeting that contractors have stripped back the plant’s third filter train and are currently making repairs to the vessel’s internals.<\/p>\n

Once this is completed the overall refurbishment of the plant should continue to progress at a reasonable pace.<\/p>\n

New backwash tanks are also now on site and will be installed in coming weeks.<\/p>\n