A good turnout was recorded at
the Lake Dunstan Water Supply treatment plant open day at Clyde on Saturday (25 November) in
picture-perfect conditions.
About 40 people were given an
in-depth tour of the plant and facilities and a chance to ask any questions
about the water treatment process.
A feature of the process is the membrane filtration, a rapidly expanding field in water treatment. Membranes are used to remove undesirable components from water, such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium. At Clyde, the membranes are loaded into racks. Each of them holds 80 modules, and each module encases 6350 fibres. This means there is 50 square metres of membrane area per module.
Amongst the visitors were Gavin and Cathy Dann of Alexandra.
“We enjoyed the opportunity to see this state-of-the-art plant and are reassured to know this infrastructure is providing excellent protection from Lindavia, Cryptosporidium and other organisms as well as providing residents with a soft water source.”
Following initial consultation with the community for the 2018 Long-term Plan, the Lake Dunstan Water Supply project was officially opened on 23 May 2023. The $16.1 million upgrade to the water supplies has significantly reduced the lime in Alexandra’s water, and the membrane treatment provides an additional level of treatment, along with chlorination.
CODC Water Services team members Philippa Bain and Kate Hayward were on hand, along with Joel Dykstra and Luke Parish from Fulton Hogan to lend their technical expertise to answer a range of questions from the public. Glenda and John Thompson of Alexandra said they had particularly enjoyed the tour.
“Our tour guide was very informative…we were impressed with the intelligent and articulate commentary and his good humour.”
It has been just over two years since the first excavations commenced on site. The project scope involved the expansion of the Clyde bore field, including the installation of a new bore and the upgrade of the second bore, both of which enable water to be pumped to the 350m3 raw water tank at a rate of 160L/sec. In addition, the treated water tank holds 750m3 of water to feed Clyde and Alexandra. The tank is approximately 20m higher than the Alexandra Northern reservoir, so is filled using 100% gravity with no pumping required – a great efficiency.
Mayor Tim Cadogan said the open day was “absolutely brilliantly put together”.
“I was very proud to have been mayor wandering around this facility with our public and seeing their positive response to it all.”
