Sewage treatment plant expansion for Wellcamp Business Park and Airport

In 2014, True Water designed and installed the Kubota Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) for the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport and Business Park, the largest private infrastructure project in Australia. With the increasing capacity of the airport and the ongoing development of the business park, True Water has been asked to facilitate the expansion of the sewage treatment system.

As part of the initial site-specific design, True Water included the ability to stage the expansion of the wastewater facility in line with the future growth of the project. The infrastructure was designed to treat the sewage and wastewater generated by the large-scale industrial community as it continues to expand.

This is possible due to the scalable nature of the Kubota STP – additional modular systems can be added with minimal disturbance to the facility and with no impact on the daily operational function.

The expanded system will have the ability to manage wastewater flows of up to 250kL/day. The treated water is then gravity fed to a treated water (effluent) tank prior to transfer to an agricultural irrigation scheme.

Durability, reliability and longevity were key project objectives. The Kubota STP employs biological treatment to manage the highly variable flows and concentrations generated by the business park. The biological moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) process utilises a gravity flow path to provide high-quality treatment even during power outages.

Being located next to the airport it was important to provide a compact and unobtrusive system. The below ground installation ensures no odour and minimal visual impact, while improving the infrastructure lifecycle.

The airport was completed by Wagners Corporation in 19 months and is designed to cater for large jets up to the size of a Boeing 747, facilitating the movement of the largest freight aircraft in and out of the region. The capacity of the airport has continued to expand, particularly in its role as a major inland freight hub and the home of Australia’s first QANTAS Pilot Academy.

Wellcamp Business Park is a highly attractive business destination with wide landscaped streets, parklands and firstclass presentation of buildings. The business park has also seen immense growth, including multiple large workshops and factories, a major milk processing plant, RSPCA depot and micro breweries.

ONGOING COMPLIANCE USING WORLD-LEADING JAPANESE TECHNOLOGY

Throughout this time, the Kubota STP installed by True Water has continued to operate at a high level. True Water has continued to work closely with Wagners to ensure the ongoing compliance of the sewage treatment infrastructure at Wellcamp. Due to the high-quality Japanese treatment technology utilised by the plant, the system has maintained a very high level of treatment.

The simplicity of the Kubota MBBR STP ensures continued low overheads and easy to manage operation and management of the infrastructure. True Waters maintenance team service the system regularly and coordinate with Wagners to keep all components looking like new and running at their optimum.