Cessnock WWTW
The Cessnock Wastewater Treatment Works serves the communities of:
- Cessnock
- Aberdare
- Bellbird
- Nulkaba.
The plant will also serve Kitchener and the “Vintage” Development in the future.
It currently treats:
The Cessnock plant can handle wastewater from a population equivalent to:
How it works
The plant is designed to remove nutrients (nitrogen & phosphorus) and to provide a high level of disinfection.
The plant provides tertiary treatment of the wastewater by the following process:
- Inlet works, including screening flow meter and grit removal
- Soil bed biofilter for odour control
- Two primary clarifiers
- Four trickling filters
- A humus clarifier
- Chemical dosing to remove phosphorus
- Anaerobic digestion system for sludge stabilization
- An onsite Centrifuge dewatering system
- A tertiary flotation plant to remove algal cells and other suspended solids
- A UV disinfection system after flotation.
How is the treated effluent used?
All biosolids produced at the plant are beneficially used for mine site rehabilitation.
Recycled water from the plant is used for:
- grit and screening washing
- general wash down around the plant
- grounds irrigation.
A nearby farmer and golf course also take up to 50 megalitres per year of recycled water from the plant for irrigation.
The rest of the effluent is discharged to Black Creek. Downstream irrigators are also licensed to extract water from Black Creek, the flows of which are mainly sustained by treated effluent from Cessnock plant.
For further detail see diagram below.