Orange City Council has let the tender for a preliminary business case for a Purified Recycled Water (PRW) demonstration plant and education centre.
The project will investigate PRW as a rainfall independent water security opportunity for Orange and educate the community on the benefits of PRW.
The $460,000 project will be undertaken by global consulting firm TSA Riley. The firm was involved in Sydney Water's Quakers Hill PRW Discovery Centre which opened in 2023.
Orange water treatment plant
The project is funded by the Australian Government, through the National Water Grid Fund ($200,000), the NSW Government ($100,000) and Orange City Council ($160,000).
While only at an early investigation stage the project could see cutting edge technology used to treat and recycle wastewater to an extremely high standard that would be used by Cadia gold mine for industrial purposes. It is proposed that the plant would produce approximately 3.5 megalitres per day, which is roughly a quarter of Orange's daily needs.
Orange City Council's Infrastructure Policy Committee Chair Cr Jeff Whitton said using PRW has great potential to increase water supply resilience and take the pressure off existing water sources. It is worth investigating.
"It is worth investigating. It will start with water for industrial purposes but in the longer term this could be an additional supply source for the city's residents," he said.
"The benefit of PRW is it isn't dependent on rainfall and could be another great diversification of our water supply system that already includes a network of pipelines to other sources, dams and increased capacity, stormwater harvesting and groundwater."
The scheme involves the re-use of treated wastewater effluent, further purified to meet drinking water quality standards in accordance with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and the Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling.
Cr Whitton said the focus of the demonstration plant and education centre was getting the community to be part of the project.
"If at some point down the track PRW is part of our potable supply it will be as a result of the community being on board," he said.
