Finding the water to maintain Council park and streetscape assets in drought stricken circumstances has instigated a whole new way of doing business for Kogarah Council.
Located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, Kogarah Council was the first Local Government in the Sydney metropolitan area to sign a sewer mining agreement with Sydney Water. This agreement allows Kogarah to pump sewage out of the Sydney Water Sewer System, treat it in a custom designed water treatment plant and deliver the recycled water for the irrigation of Council’s parks and playing fields. This process is saving up to 750 kilolitres of potable water a day.
Council is now in the process of incorporating a new Smart Irrigation System initiative called the Micromet Irrigation System to automate the way this water is distributed. Expected to be online by the end of August, the system promotes sustainable, smart and waterwise irrigation within the municipality.
The need for this new initiative was identified as a result of the New South Wales Government’s Water Savings Action Plan 2006, which called for improvements in the irrigation of public open spaces. Council also recognised that the installation of a ‘smarter’ irrigation control system would provide significant benefits to current irrigation practices, including:
- a 20 per cent reduction in water use compared to current irrigation consumption
- labour savings through automated on/off irrigation controllers, which allow labour resources to be deployed elsewhere
- improved quality by encouraging deeper rooted, less water dependant turf and plants
- ease of management as Micromet units can be controlled online or via telephone. Irrigation information is then available at any time online and management reports can be easily created.
The installation of Micromet involves setting up a weather station, which is used to measure real time weather data such as temperature, precipitation rate and so forth.
Council’s Park’s Supervisor, Greig Williams, said this makes the system environmentally friendly as it only delivers the appropriate amount of water to plants and protects the environment by reducing runoff, conserving water, and maximising plant health.
“The system works with Council’s existing irrigation system,” he said. “It uses real time weather data combined with plant and soil type information, such as soil texture, to control the irrigation.
“The actual watering requirements of a given area are automatically determined and the accurate amount of water distributed, thus avoiding any unnecessary wastage of water.
“The information collected by the weather station is also sent back to a central controller, enabling Council access to the data.”
The smart system will be connected to tanks that have been installed in a number of reserves within the municipality.
Once it comes online, it will receive water from a local water reclamation plant.
For further information contact Violeta Becvarovski at Kogarah’s Department Assets and Services, on (02) 9330 9448.
