North East Water

Wodonga’s water supply has undergone one of the biggest changes in its history with the addition of new filtration system at the Huons Hill water treatment plant.

North East Water has installed a dissolved air floatation (DAF) system to complement the plant’s existing seven direct-filtration beds.

The $2.6 million project is part of an extensive region-wide capital works program that was outlined in the Corporation’s five-year Water Plan 2008-13.

Operations Executive Manager, Fiona Smith, said the new DAF system used tiny air bubbles to float dirt and sediment to the water’s surface, where they are then removed before the water is passed through the filter beds.

“Our operators say that this dual-process system is producing a much better quality of treated water than before by removing significantly more of the impurities from the raw water before the filtration stage,” she said.

“Wodonga’s water quality has traditionally been good; this new system has taken that quality to a new level.”

Ms Smith said the DAF process was a more efficient way to filter water, and was better suited to the raw water quality treated at the plant. 

She said its addition had increased the plant’s capacity, reduced water wastage and reduced the need to add expensive chemicals to assist the filtration process.

“We’ve seen an 80% fall in the amount of water we need to backwash the filter beds, and the plant is now much more robust and flexible for dealing with things like storm events, which can cause sudden increases in raw water sediment,” she said.

“Importantly, the upgrade is designed to better remove algae, which has been an increasing problem recently.”

Ms Smith said the installation of the DAF process had involved significant input from North East Water’s engineering, electrical and operational staff, whose expertise helped to greatly reduce the overall cost of the project.

“We are fortunate to have some very capable in-house experts who did a lot of the necessary hard work to see this become a successful project,” she said.

Ms Smith said the project highlighted North East Water’s ongoing commitment to improving its services.

“We have a number of similar projects in planning and construction phases throughout the region, and all will result in significant benefits for customers, whether it be water quality, supply quantity or the delivery of wastewater services,” she said.

The Wodonga water treatment plant supplies water to customers in Wodonga, Baranduda. Killara, Bonegilla, Ebden, Kiewa, Tangambalanga, Leneva, Barnawartha and Chiltern.