Keeping Tweed water clean, safe and affordable

TWEED Shire Council is highlighting the systems that keep water moving safely through the region, from the source to homes and back to the environment.

The Council manages the urban water cycle and works towards providing safe, sustainable, and affordable water and wastewater services, which it says form the foundations of a healthy community.

Water and Wastewater Business and Assets Manager Michael Wraight said the Council managed the entire urban water cycle, including the delivery of clean water, treatment of wastewater and reuse of purified recycled water.

“Our infrastructure includes dams, treatment plants, pump stations and hundreds of kilometres of underground pipes,” Wraight said.

“It’s a complex network that most people never see, but it’s essential to our daily lives and the health of our communities.”

Wraight said the Tweed’s urban water cycle included several purified recycled water schemes, which treated wastewater to a high standard and reused it for irrigation and industrial processes.

“Several purified recycled water schemes are already in place, for example, we use this water to irrigate some tree plantations, golf courses and sports fields,” he said.

“We also supply purified recycled water to the cogeneration plant at Condong for use in industrial operations.”

Wraight said the Council encouraged the uptake of purified recycled water across the Tweed and is always looking for new opportunities to expand its use.

“Council reuses about 7.5 per cent of the Tweed’s treated wastewater, which sits just below the national average of 9 per cent,” he said.

“To help support the uptake of new schemes, we have a policy that outlines how the Council may offer financial support to help developers and landowners offset the up front costs of planning, designing, and building recycled water infrastructure.

“This ultimately supports more sustainable, long-term water solutions and helps conserve the Tweed’s precious drinking water for other uses,” he said.

For more information, visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/urban-water-cycle