Filtration system is high-tech

Martin Hancock at the Bray Park Water Treatment Facility.

Blainey Woodham

WATER flows into the enormous membrane facility's second-floor like a giant, calming water feature for its staff.

It's something which has fascinated Bray Park Water Treatment plant process engineer Marty Hancock for some time.

He began his career as a secondary school teacher before lecturing at university on water issues and management.

"I worked for Tweed Shire Council looking at water quality issues on the flood plain," Mr Hancock said.

"Then I moved into the water unit, and now concentrate on treatment."

The council had accepted a request from the Daily News to tour the plant after all three of its pumps failed the night before Australia Day.

The pumps were back on line before the weekend and re-commenced supply to about 75,000 people.

Water and sewerage operations engineer Peter Haywood said the failure of fuses powering the pumps was "unheard of" and causes were still being determined.

"There was a fault that occurred on Kyogle Rd, which touched powerlines and took out transformers up there, but it's a bit early to link the two," he said.

Mr Haywood said when the plant-at-large was built it was one of the most advanced in Australia.

"It was built for the future."

Mr Hancock said most of the plant's operation revolved around membrane ultrafiltration, and took the Daily News through the physical process.

"With membrane technology we need to protect the membranes from coarse objects," he said.

About six million membranes - hollow fibres about 1.9mm in diameter, with billions of microscopic pores through which only water molecules can pass - are used.

He said the old method was water trickling through sand granules of various sizes, while desalination involved water flowing through finer membrane fibres.

Water screened for large objects by Tweed River's Bray Park Weir is initially sent to two raw water strainers, which look like giant green taps.

These remove weeds, algae, fish, shrimp and debris and are occasionally backwashed with screened water to removed solids lodged in the strainers.