Council harvests street drainage for water tankers

Stormwater harvesting system

Fairfield City Council in western Sydney has proved its commitment to water-sensitive urban design by installing a Rocla ecoHarvest stormwater harvesting system in the centre of the CBD.

A small area of open land at an intersection provided an ideal location for the collection of stormwater run-off, which normally overflows into a box culvert drain under the CBD. By intercepting the flow, the council is able to store 30,000 L in underground concrete tanks for re-use.

Stormwater is stored in three 10,000 L ecoRain concrete tanks after being treated in a two-stage process via a gross pollutant trap and a mesh filter to remove fine particles. The treatment train includes a Rocla CDS Nipper compact gross pollutant trap, followed by an ecoRain VF2 high-volume self-cleaning filter, mounted in separate concrete pits.

The council, in collaboration with Rocla Water Quality, found the combined system of stormwater treatment and storage to be the most cost-effective solution. The completed works included the construction of a bio swale above the underground storage tanks.

Instead of limiting water re-use to the site, the council is using the system as a source for water tankers, which allows a range of uses throughout the town centre, including street cleaning as well as watering of plants and trees.