AquaSure desal plant achieves milestone

AquaSure announced that the Victorian Desalination Plant has produced its first sample of drinking water.

The plant is located on the Bass Coast, near Wonthaggi, in the Australian state Victoria.

The AquaSure consortium comprising Degremont, Macquarie Capital and Thiess emineralised the desalinated water to achieve the set standards of the Australian drinking water guidelines at the plant, which is also known as the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant.

Omar Shahin, Thiess Degrémont commissioning director, said the water produced at the plant has to meet the quality guidelines.

"The water we are already producing confirms that our water is of a very high quality and is meeting the required specifications," Shahin added.

The consortium will also carry out performance tests under which it has to produce drinkable water as per the guidelines for a set period.

The drinking water produced from the plant is again returned to the sea as per the discharge water quality standards specified under the Section 30A commissioning approval.

The AquaSure consortium will then perform a seven-day reliability test and eventually release the water into the pipeline for delivery to the Cardinia Reservoir.

The production capacity of the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant will be gradually increased over the next few months during the commissioning period.

The plant is expected to achieve its full production capacity by the end of 2012.