Where does my wastewater go?

We have over 655km of sewerage pipes, more than 167 pumping stations, over 13,000 manholes and 8 Sewage Treatment Plants! Our Sewage Treatment Plants are located at:

• Port Macquarie
• Wauchope
• Camden Haven
• Lake Cathie / Bonny Hills
• Herons Creek
• Long Flat
• Comboyne
• Telegraph Point
• And, we have a new Plant in the works at Thrumster.

In most cases, wastewater on the North Shore, Beechwood and Telegraph Point is sent to nearby Treatment Plants via pressure sewer systems at each property.

Our wastewater is made up of about 0.1% waste and 99.9% water! The waste includes organics, biological matter like detergents, toilet paper, fats and oil.

Wastewater is what we call water after it goes down the drain. Before the treatment process starts, we remove items larger than 10mm. We often find rags, pieces of wood, metal, jewellery, plastic and rubble, which can break our equipment. 

The wastewater is treated through a series of processes including aerating, settling, decanting and sludge removal, before small solids (down to 0.0002mm) are removed. What’s left is called effluent or treated wastewater, and this gets disinfected to kill bacteria and breakdown any pathogens or other dangerous microbes. Some of the effluent gets sent to our Recycled Water Treatment Plant for reuse; the effluent we don’t reuse is clean enough to release back into the environment. The solids produced through this treatment are referred to as “sludge”. 

Sludge is treated to produce a stable and odourless product called a bio-solid. Bio-solids are sent to the Cairncross Composting Facility and used in composting.