Our water management is balanced and effective
We manage water captured onsite to maintain quality standards for reuse. We use water for operational purposes, such as dust suppression, wash downs and firefighting systems. Managing water is a careful balance between capturing it for operational uses and allocating storage capacity in anticipation of storm events.
Water management remains one of the key environmental concerns for our local community and we must comply with all water-related conditions specified in our Environment Protection Licences (EPLs), consents and other regulatory licences, while using water sustainably.
We achieved our performance target to reduce the amount of sediment contained within excess water released to the Hunter River.
Case Study
New flocculant capabilities – transition to business as usual
Water quality improvement trials continued in 2023 with the commissioning of a flocculation dosing system at the Kooragang Terminal. Flocculation dosing assists the sedimentation process by clumping fine particles together. The mobile dosing system is mounted on a trailer and allows flexibility in trialling different locations for treatment within our water management system. Optimising flocculation rates, in particular following storm events, will be a focus in 2024.
Case Study
Detention Pond D repair
Routine condition monitoring last year identified cracking on the northeastern corner of one of our major storm water holding facilities, Detention Pond D. As a conservative asset protection measure, we minimised the stored water levels in Detention Pond D while geotechnical modelling and detailed design for corrective repairs were undertaken. Civil repairs were completed in December, returning Detention Pond D to full capacity of 44ML.
