Water Recycling

Water recycling and wastewater management on the Hawkesbury campus has been a key component of operational demonstration of best practice peri-urban landscape management.

Recycled water is provided from the Sydney Water Recycled Water plant, which is used in low throwing pivot irrigators on Hawkesbury Farm for fodder production, along with further treatment before irrigation of the main campus oval.

Stormwater is harvested from campus and the neighbouring suburb of Hobartville and treated through constructed wetlands before being used to irrigate the grounds of the historical precinct and student residences. The movement of water is automated to ensure water is not wasted and is used sustainably. These wetlands also improve water quality prior to any overflow being discharged into waterways.

There are treatment trains in both the recycled and stormwater systems to address a range of urban pollutants, along with incident response protocols on the campus (refer pg 34 of the University’s Emergency Response Guidelines (opens in a new window)).

Over the last 20 years, the water recycling scheme has been the focus for a range of undergraduate and postgraduate projects with the School of Science (opens in a new window), particularly with a number of collaborative publications with Chris Derry from the School of Science, including Achieving Resilience through Water Recycling in Peri-Urban Agriculture.(opens in a new window)

Related Action Plan Themes

• Resilience and Climate Change
• Water Cycle Management