Reworking the Old to Provide the New: The Richmond Water Treatment Plant
Annual Conference
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The town of Richmond's water supply started as two independent systems both delivering non-compliant water with different infrastructure.
The question was what could be made out of this mix of existing infrastructure to provide a sustainable supply of compliant water? The answer came in the form of a new water treatment plant and a re-shuffle of existing infrastructure. Reaching the end result was not easy given the tight budget, but clever solutions ensured success.
Blending of the two source waters elegantly reduced nitrate to safe levels while at the same time optimised use of the consented abstraction limits. This, along with modifications to existing bores, enabled the treatment process to be simplified to rely on UV treatment and pH adjustment alone.
With the majority of the existing trunk mains being asbestos-cement, an initial investment into understanding the limitations of these mains enabled re-use of infrastructure and a change-of-use of one of the large trunk mains.
Today, the original goals of the project have been met and Richmond's water supply is secure well into the future. This paper describes how these goals were achieved and shares some of the key learnings.