Tamworth Regional Council has five sewerage treatment works across the region providing secondary and advanced secondary treatment.
The system has the capacity to treat wastewater for around 54,000 people using a method known as Intermittent Extended Aeration/Activated Sludge and the more traditional Trickling Filter. The system currently has:
- 22 pumping stations capable of dealing with 70 megalitres per day of wastewater
- 23km of rising mains, a sewerage system where a pump lifts and pushes the sewage along a system of sealed pipes
- 457km of gravity trunk mains and reticulation, relying on gravity to carry the wastewater to the pumping station and then the treatment plant.
Big changes in the future for Tamworth’s wastewater
Council is developing its water recycling capability by constructing a new sewerage treatment facility and reuse system, after receiving $9.1 million in funding from the NSW government.
Tamworth’s existing wastewater treatment plant at Swan Street will cease operation as sewerage flows are directed to the upgraded plant at Westdale.
The Westdale treatment plant will be significantly upgraded to handle this increased flow, and the capacity to store and move the effluent, beginning operation in 2010.
Treated effluent from the new Westdale plant will be delivered via pipeline to a 1,500 hectare reuse farm 7.5km away, near Tamworth Regional Airport.