The World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef is the Cairns region’s single greatest asset, so it is fitting that Cairns Regional Council’s largest ever project was aimed at protecting it.
The $188 million Cleaner Seas Alliance project commenced in 2007 and was completed in 2010. It involved extensive upgrades of the four major wastewater treatment plants to cope with projected future population and improve the quality of wastewater discharged to the marine environment.
“This was a huge project, designed to service some 200,000 people in the future,” said Bruce Gardiner, General Manager of Council’s Water and Waste Department. “To give an idea of the project’s size, the membrane filtration process installed at the Northern plant was, at the time of construction, the largest used in wastewater treatment in Australia.
“The holding tank contains as much liquid as four Olympic swimming pools.”
The project was a major environmental milestone for Cairns, and is achieving a massive 160 tonne reduction in nutrients discharged to Great Barrier Reef waters each year.
“Wastewater leaving the upgraded treatment plants across the city is now 80 per cent cleaner,” Bruce Gardiner said.
The project has also made high quality recycled water available for use at the Cairns Botanic Gardens and Yorkey’s Knob State School, and purple delivery pipes have been installed underground in a 1,000 lot new housing development to supply reticulated recycled water for outdoor and toilet flushing uses.
