Corio’s Stead Park will be kept green all year round by recycled water thanks to a partnership between Barwon Water, the City of Greater Geelong (CoGG) and Viva Energy.
The project, completed with the assistance of a $200,000 grant from the Victorian government, has upgraded Stead Park’s irrigation system and connected it to Barwon Water’s Northern Water Plant (NWP).
The system, which features a newly installed tank and pump, will use up to 25 megalitres of Class A recycled water from the NWP annually, saving the same amount of potable water.
The recycled water will be provided by Viva out of the unused portion of its annual recycled water allocation, allowing the irrigation of Stead Park’s numerous baseball, hockey and soccer grounds.
Barwon Water interim managing director Shaun Cumming thanked the state government and partners CoGG and Viva for helping save precious drinking water.
“Thanks to $200,000 funding from the Victorian Government, a sharing of an unused recycled water allocation by Viva Energy and foresight and initiative by CoGG and Barwon Water staff, more of the recycled water at the Northern Water Plant can be put to productive reuse,” he said.
The NWP, which was built in 2012 as a joint project between the state and federal government, Viva and Barwon Water, takes sewage from Geelong’s northern suburbs and the Viva Energy’s Geelong Refinery and treats it to produce up to 2000 megalitres of high quality recycled water.
Geelong mayor Trent Sullivan said the completed project was a win for the city.
“By accessing recycled water from the NWP, it enabled us to extend the reach of our irrigation system and water our 5.6 hectares of playing fields, while saving about 25 megalitres of potable water annually,” he said.
“The state funding has paved the way for upgraded pipework, supply tanks and connection to existing systems, while also allowing for future expansion.”
Viva Energy’s executive general manager (refining) Dale Cooper said he was “very happy” to see the recycled water used to irrigate Stead Park.
“The highly successful water management and recycling program at the Geelong refinery… is saving the local community over a billion litres of water each year,” he said.
