Wastewater Treatment

Mr GEE (Napier) (15:45): Today, I wish to speak about water, waste, vegetables and the future economic growth of our state. If you are wondering what the relationship is between those four things, it is the Virginia Pipeline Scheme and the Northern Adelaide Irrigation Scheme. It is a big move. The Virginia Pipeline Scheme takes water waste from the Bolivar wastewater treatment plant, filters it and then pumps it to the food bowl surrounding Virginia, Angle Vale and Two Wells.

I had the privilege of touring the Bolivar wastewater treatment plant last week and the dissolved air flotation and filtration plant. It was quite an interesting experience. You are greeted by beautiful gardens and a pale brown dust. You would be interested to know that every item over three millimetres in size, including goldfish, are removed at the start of the process in order to prevent damage to equipment at the plant. The water then moves through a number of processes until it is suitable for discharge into the ocean or to head to the filtration plant. There are five different stages, which take a number of weeks to complete.

The plant receives over 140 million litres of water per day, which is the equivalent of 56 Olympic swimming pools per day. The plant runs 24 hours a day and sees two peak periods, one about four hours after people wake up and the other about four hours after they arrive home after work. The Bolivar plant serves Adelaide's north and takes about 70 per cent of Adelaide's wastewater. The other plants are located at Glenelg and Christies Beach. The plants are run mostly by computer these days, but about 35 people still work at the plant. My father used to work at the plant on night shift when we first came to Australia, back in 1963.

I want to thank Nick Swain, the manager of wastewater, performance and optimisation, from SA Water and Scott Reynolds from That Science Gang, who made the tour very interesting and enjoyable. After visiting the wastewater plant, we then travelled almost to St Kilda to view the dissolved air flotation and filtration (DAFF) plant that puts the wastewater that has been through the plant through a further process prior to its distribution to the food bowl. Currently, 19.5 gigalitres per annum of recycled water are contracted through the Virginia Pipeline Scheme, which distributes the water to approximately 400 horticulture growers. A further 20 gigalitres per annum of recycled water has been allocated to the NAIS project.

The Northern Adelaide Irrigation Scheme will secure large volumes of affordable, high security, recycled water for intensive, high-tech food production. The South Australian government has applied to the Australian government's National Water Infrastructure Development Fund for $45.6 million in funding to construct the infrastructure for the NAIS. A decision on the federal funding is expected to be announced mid-2017.

If the funding is approved, the state government, through SA Water, will co-invest $110 million in the NAIS project. This will see the upgrade of infrastructure at the Bolivar wastewater treatment plant to produce an additional 12 gigalitres per year of recycled water suitable for irrigation. It will also see the building of core recycled water distribution infrastructure to the area north of the Gawler River and enable a major new irrigation area to be constructed, including high-tech, high-value and intensive food production.

South Australia's produce from the Northern Adelaide Plains is in great demand, with mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, potatoes and much more, being transported across the state, the nation and overseas. I am fortunate to have visited two of our successful businesses on the Adelaide Plains in recent weeks. Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting SA Mushrooms.

Thanks to Nick Fermia and his team for hosting me and taking me for a tour of their high-tech facility. It was interesting to see the mushrooms in the grow rooms and hear about the growing process and the needs of the business. I found out that mushrooms, unlike all other plant life, breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide like humans.

Last Friday, I visited Perfection, previously known as D'Vine Ripe. It is again another high-tech facility that produces tomatoes in the largest greenhouse in Australia. The company supplies Coles, Woolworths and Aldi across Australia with a range of tomatoes. I wish to thank Troy Topp, the general manager, for showing me the facility.