Forums Posts

by Upper Hunter Shire Council Joined 01-01-0001 12:00 AM Posts 6

As title suggests - Council need to de-sludge our two maturation ponds at Merriwa STP. The plant is only 1170EP but we estimate 2600m3 of sludge may need to be removed. One of the issues we have is the site is extremely space limited - with minmal ability to remove and dry sludge onsite. The ponds need refurbishment also - but the sludge needs removal first. Has anyone had recent success with a suitable mobile desludging unit or technology they would be happy to recommend? Preferrably servicing the Hunter (or adjacent) region. Cheers, Phil

by patrick.duiveman@midcoast.nsw.gov.au Joined 24-06-2021 05:38 PM Posts 2

Hi Phil, My recommendation would be to put this to the market and get tenderers to provide options to suit your needs. I'll provide some of MidCoast Council's recent experience at a similair size site. Due to limited storage space onsite, we normally contract dewater (centrifuge) straight into trucks that beneficially reuse the biosolids on agricultural land. We had an issue last year due to excessive rainfall limiting our access to farmland, we decided to dewater (~2100 m3) into a geobag. The process didnt break the bank and had several advantages with slowing the centrate return to the head of the plant and eliminating the problem of re-wetting. The geobag process however, we've found is slow to dry and reach >15% w/w. and does take up space in the site during the drying period. We also filled the supplier's recommended size geobag before we completely emptying our lagoon. Give us a bell if you'd like to discuss more, (02) 7955 7277. Cheers Pat.