WASTEWATER
GIPPSLAND WATER’S NEW SEWER PUMP STATION:
FINDING SUCCESS ACROSS PERFORMANCE AND AMENITY By Christopher Allan, Journalist, Pump Industry Magazine
Gippsland Water’s new Sale Outfall Sewer Pump Station is now operational, a $13.5 million project that will service the communities of Sale, Wurruk, and Fulham for the next 50 years. Pump Industry spoke with Gippsland Water’s Manager Asset Delivery, Paul Henderson, to learn how key planning and design decisions have delivered both successful asset performance, as well as positive amenity outcomes for the community like improved odour control.
S
ewerage infrastructure in the Sale region is now more resilient and has a more amenable future, with Gippsland Water’s successful commissioning of the new Sale Outfall Sewer Pump Station last year. The $13.5 million project, which will service the networks of Sale, Wurruk and Fulham for the next 50 years, was first identified as a top ten capital project in Gippsland Water’s 2018-2023 Price Submission to the Essential Services Commission. Paul Henderson, Manager Asset Delivery at Gippsland Water, reveals that it was more cost-effective and beneficial to the Sale community to build a new pump station, with greater resilience and amenable design. Key benefits delivered by the new station include greater capacity when compared to the old station, the inclusion of odour mitigation technology, and improved resilience of the asset under wet weather scenarios.
Designing an asset for performance and resilience
From design and procurement through to construction and operation, the new Outfall Sewer Pump Station has been
50
pump industry | Summer 2022 | Issue 38
optimised for both performance and resilience for the next 50 years, from capacity improvements to better resistance to wet weather events. “The old SPS was at capacity and could no longer contain flows to our containment standard, which is to contain flows from an 18.1 per cent annual exceedance probability (AEP) rainfall event,” Mr Henderson said. “The pump station now services 7,586 existing connections – households and businesses – and is designed to cater for a further 2,000 connections.” The likelihood of spills into Flooding Creek has also been addressed, by constructing a one megalitre storage tank that will be invaluable in managing wet weather events. While the new pump station’s discharge capacity remains comparable to that of the old station, inflow capacity has been boosted significantly – also thanks to the station’s storage tank. The new pump station caters for a peak dry weather flow of 346 litres per second (L/s) and peak wet weather flow of 628L/s.
www.pumpindustry.com.au
