26 May 2011

Last week the IPWEA's Excellence Awards Dinner was held at Doltone House in Pyrmont following the One Day Forum. The Awards Dinner was well attended with good food and great entertainment following the presentation of the awards.

We are pleased to announce that Kyogle Shire Council was winner of the 2011 Innovation in Water Supply and Wastewater Award for the Kyogle Sewage Treatment Works Augmentation project. Graham Kennett from Kyogle Shire accepted this award on behalf of his Council. This project involved conventional upgrade work to the trickling filters and the installation of a new Septage disposal and pre-treatment facility at the Kyogle Sewage Treatment Plant. The innovative feature of this project however was the construction of a state-of-the-art hydroponic wetland to provide tertiary nutrient removal.

The hydroponic wetland consists of 20 trenches of plants using the nutrient rich effluent for their growth and thereby reducing the concentration of nutrients in the resulting discharge flows. The remaining effluent, discharged to the Richmond River, is now easily meeting the EPA's minimum criteria and hundreds of mature trees are developed on a cyclical basis for use on other council projects.

This is the second award Kyogle Shire Council has won in recent months with them also winning the inaugural Environmental Best Practice for Local Water Utilities Award at the LGSA's Excellence in the Environment Awards in 2010. Congratulations to the dedicated team at Kyogle Shire Council.

Note that this year there was no highly commended award in the Innovation in Water Supply and Wastewater category due to a lack of nominated projects. However, congratulations also go to Richmond Valley Council for winning the Environment Award category at the IPWEA Excellence Awards.

The Water Directorate encourages all our members to nominate for the 2012 Excellence Awards later this year as a way to showcase your staff and projects. Congratulations also to all the organisers from IPWEA and everyone involved in the successful evening.

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