major projects
PARAFIELD STORMWATER HARVESTING FACILITY F Chapman Background The City of Salisbury is a northern Adelaide Council with an area of 161 square kilometres extending from the Para escarpment and foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges to the shores of Gulf Sr Vincent. The Parafield Stormwater Harvesting Facility is the first of its type in Australia which is converting stormwater from an urban nuisance and pollutant threat into a valuable resource for industry and the community. The 11.2 hectare faci lity has been established on the eastern edge of Parafield Airport, one of the nation's' busiest general aviation airports . It collects, filters and cleanses stormwater from a 1600 hectare catchment around the Parafield Airport. The ai rport and its surrounds represented the last remaining catchment in the City of Salisbury without treatment to filter and cleanse stormwater prior to discharge into the Barker Inlet, an ecologically fragi le breeding ground and nursery for much of the State's fisheries. The Council has gained international acclaim for its expertise in establishing a series of wetlands and grassed swales along urban stormwater paths to slow the flow and allow pollution to settle out. The City of Salisbury adopted a visionary partnership approach to the project, initially with GH Michell & Sons Australia and then with airport management, the State Government, North Adelaide & Barossa Catchment Water Management Board, other industry stakeholders and community gro ups. With a project capital cost of $4.5M, the partners obtained a $I.3M grant through the Commonwealth's Environment Australia Urban Stormwater Initiative to advance the project. Earthworks commenced in Spring 2001 with the engineering and technical precision of the contractor, Adelaide Civil Pry Ltd, and the design expertise of the City of Salisbury, KBR and Australian Groundwater Technologies. The major recipient of the cleansed stormwater from the project is GH Michell & Sons Australia, Australia's largest wool processing company, which is located to the
72 MARCH 2004
water
Plate
l. Construction of the basins.
ÂŽ ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
State ol the Art containment systems