Yeppoon STP Effluent Upgrade

Abstract

The Yeppoon STP (capacity 20,000 EP) was upgraded in 2016 with addition of membrane bioreactors which allow the plant to reliably produce class A effluent for up to three times average dry weather flow. Until recently the system relied on manual intervention to be able to deliver class A water to customers with the majority of the class A effluent discharged into large in-ground lagoons where the water quality declined significantly (including sporadic blooms of blue green algae) prior to delivery to recycled water customers. Council was successful in gaining a 50% funding grant from the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) to augment the system. The proposed works included duplication of a significant length of recycled water main plus storage to increase system capacity and protect the quality of the recycled water from the upgraded treatment plant. Additional system storage was initially to be provided by a 1 Megalitre (Ml) reservoir however during tendering, this element was found to be significantly over budget and the project team had to quickly find an innovative solution to alter the project scope and still deliver the promised benefits. The main contract is at practical completion as of today (15/12/21) and Council still has work to do in commissioning the automated control system within its own scope. However we expect customers to be consistently receiving class A recycled water by the end of the week.