Water Recycling in Sydney: A Report on the Rouse Hill Plant Operations

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Rouse Hill Water Recycling Plant, Australia's largest residential recycling scheme, located in Sydney. It details the plant's layout, equipment functions, and the various water treatment processes, including primary screening, grit removal, secondary bioreactor, chemical mixing, clarification, filtration, and disinfection. The report also addresses potential maintenance issues, such as human error, wear and tear, and equipment failure, and proposes solutions like planned, reactive, and preventive maintenance strategies. The plant treats approximately 20 million liters of water daily and produces around 10,000 tonnes of biosolids annually, highlighting its crucial role in sustainable water management in the face of a growing population. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of water recycling plants in ensuring efficient and rational water usage.

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CIVIL ENGINEERING
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Background
Rouse hill water recycling plant is the largest recycling scheme in Australia. It is among the
many wastewater recycling and treatment plants located in Sydney. It is situated northern
areas of Rouse , and it helps to treat approximately 10 different regions including Stanhope
Gardens, all of Rouse Hill, Kellyville Ridge, Glenwood, Parklea, Beaumont Hills, Acacia
Gardens, The Ponds, Castle Hill and Quakers Hill.
Wastewater in this treatment plant is usually treated to the tertiary standards and ye treated
water is returned to the clients for non-consumption uses such as watering plants and cleaning
(Sydney water, 2018)
In the modern world which is ever-growing water treatment plants play a very vital role.
Because of different uses of water by the clients, water treatment and recycling plants allow
the clients to isolate water from drinking water that is used for other activities such as
watering plants and car washing.
Report structure
This report will show the complete layout of the water treatment plant and also the function
of all the equipment. The discussion section in the report will detail the issues and concerns
that might arise when running such equipment for lengthy periods. Assessing and planning
strategies to rectify or prevent such challenges will also be discussed. The conclusive section
will be at the end of the report and will summarise it.
Plant layout.
Water Treatment processes in Rouse Hill plant
Primary
Screening
This early phase helps in trapping large solid particles such as q tips, toilet paper, and plastic
within a screen.

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Removing Grit
This stage implicates spiralling the wastewater in a tank into a vortex which makes the grit be
centralised inside the spiral and be able to be separated from water.
Secondary
Bioreactor
In this tank an activated sludge process takes place. In this process, large amounts of germs
are applied to break the nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Within the tank, the levels of
air are varied to permit many types of microbes to participate in the procedure. After that the
water is propelled into a clarifier anywhere the slurry which is activated descends into the end
of the tank for the scrapers to remove. Biosolids are produced by some of the treated sludge.
This phase is much related to the Bioreactor, nevertheless, after the process of activated
slurry, the wastewater goes over settling, decanting and aeration in the similar tank.
Tertially
Chemical mixing
In this stage, flocculation occurs through the creation of flocs, which are usually a
combination of small particles into large particles. (Sydney Water, 2018).
Tertially clarifier
In this phase the size of the flocs increases and due to that they are allowed to settle at the
bottommost of the clarifier thus permitting easy removal.
Filters
In this phase filters which are usually produced from coal and sand are applied to trap the fine
solids and the flocs, which clears the water further (Sydney Water, 2018).

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Disinfection
This is the final phase of the process whereby the water is disinfected with ultraviolet lights
and chlorine to kill all any microbes which can cause harm to human health.
Discussion
The plant is made up of a staff of 8 members who are tasked with operating, maintaining and
managing the plant. One of their main tasks is to collect water samples and then analysing
them in the laboratory. Also, they are tasked to manage the special projects which cater to the
plant safety and functionality efficiencies. (Sydney Water, 2018).
Approximately 20 million litres of water is treated by the plant daily to over 32 thousand
properties at the same time produces about 10,000 tonnes of biosolids each year. Due to the
high amount of wastewaters that the plant handles it is likely to suffer from maintenance
issues, and the equipment in the plant will require regular maintenance. In most cases that are
associated with human error, tearing and wearing, old equipment and clogging of the pipes.
As such repairs techniques have been taken into concern when handling both the expected
and the unexpected failing, breakdown or expiring of the machine.
They comprise Planned Maintenance Type, Reactive Maintenance type, and Preventive
Maintenance Type. The Preventive Maintenance Type that the equipment that requires
regular servicing are serviced in order for them to function efficiently, for example, the
Preventive Maintenance Type can be tightening of bolts and nuts, oiling of motors and
lubricating the certain equipment. Planned Maintenance Type, the element of the equipment
which is likely to break down, is partially or completely replaced. This approach involves
strategizing for the equipment which is known to have a fictional expiry date. Reactive
Maintenance Type is a measure which takes place sudden expiration of the equipment or
sudden malfunctioning. The approach considers to repair or replace equipment to confirm
that the task it performs is not affected.

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Back up equipment can be put in place to ensure when such unexpected issues occur the
water treatment process is not affected in any way. Nevertheless, it can be hard to meet this
proposal due to financial strains.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the population of Sydney and Australia at large remain growing interminably.
Due to that water must be efficiently and rationally. Water treatment plants such as the Rouse
Hill water recycling scheme plays an essential role in ensuring that water is not irreconcilably
used, disposed or wasted for the purpose of reactional. Instead of using consumption water
for such activities the recycled water is applied. This report shows the layout of the water
recycling plant and the3 process that takes places with their functions. In the report, the
amount of water that needs to be recycled is discussed. And the malfunctioning issues that
can occur in the plant and the planned solutions to these challenges.