AN environmentally friendly change to operations at the Warwick Wastewater Treatment Plant has resulted in significant savings, according to the Southern Downs Regional Council.
Since July last year, the council has been working with Oceanic Bio to improve the treatment process at the treatment plant.
The project has involved the use of ‘Eco-Tabs’, an environmentally friendly proprietary product that keeps wastewater treatment plants running efficiently.
Southern Downs water and wastewater manager Tendekai Mapeza said that trialling the use of Eco-Tabs had been very successful.
“Using Eco-Tabs has improved the quality of our tertiary water,” he said.
“Not only that, but we have seen significant savings to the costs of our wastewater operations.
“An annual chemical saving of over $34,000 and electricity cost saving of over $11,000 has been achieved by using Eco-Tabs.”
Southern Downs wastewater treatment supervisor David Neal said that using the Eco-tabs had reduced the need for frequent and costly operations at the plant.
“There’s been a reduction in bio solids being generated and there is also thicker sludge in the sedimentation tank,” Mr Neal said
“It’s pretty clear that there has been an increase in the overall system efficiency.
“If the council continues to use this product, there will be reduced use of chemicals and electricity, and the recovery time of the bioreactor after sudden shock inflows from the catchments is also now eight times faster. Recovery used to take two hours before.”
Eco-tabs are simply dropped into the wastewater treatment tanks.
The tablets fall to the bottom of the tank and dissolve slowly over time to oxygenate the water, which then reacts with the toxic contaminants to turn them into non-toxic substances and remove odours.
