Reuse of Recycled Effluent from Kwinana Wastewater Treatment Plant at the Alumina Refinery

Summary

Treated wastewater from Kwinana wastewater treatment plant is infiltrated into groundwater upstream from Alcoa groundwater extraction bores. The bores supply water for Alcoa's process water circuit for the Kwinana alumina refinery. Thus the discharge from Kwinana WWTP is indirectly reused by Alcoa and is estimated at 1.1 GL per annum.

Industry

Industry Sector	Specific Industry
water utility sector	water supply and treatment company
mining and minerals sector	alumina refinery

Region

Kwinana Industrial Area, Kwinana, Western Australia

Applied Technologies

• groundwater infiltration and water pumping systems

Triple Bottom Line Aspects (direct at operational level)

Economic	capital and operational costs to run effluent recycling system
Environmental	avoidance of water use from other resources (e.g. scheme, bore water) to meet process requirements of alumina refinery
Social	increased employee satisfaction due to improved environmental performance of the alumina refinery increased availability of scheme water for residential uses

Additional Comments

None.

References

• van Beers, D, Bossilkov, A and van Berkel, R (2005) “Capturing Regional Synergies in the Kwinana Industrial Area – 2005 Status Report”, CSRP Report (for Project 3B1), August 2005

Last Update

23 November 2005