By Christine de Kock
THE State Government will introduce stage one water restrictions from September 1 if “good” rain falls are not experienced this month.
The government raised the warning despite acknowledging that Melburnians have saved more water in the “first six months of this year compared with the first six months of last year”.
Industries in Whitehall St, Yarraville, have also introduced strong water saving measures in the last year.
Sugar Australia expect to release the results of its $870,000 dewatering decanter program in the next eight weeks.
The process diverts calcium phosphate waste from the sewer system.
And the clean water is reused in the sugar refining process, in such instances as the removal of impurities from sugar.
Albright and Wilson produces food phosphates at the company’s Yarraville site.
The company will also release a document before the end of the year outlining the results of its water saving measures.
Ray Cranke, Albright and Wilson’s general manager of operations, said the document was an environmental improvement plan.
“It’s mostly about reduction in emissions through our stack,” he said
Water that was usually discharged is also being cleaned and reused in cooling towers.
“By reusing the water, we have dropped our water consumption considerably as well,” he said.
An officer for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said companies in Whitehall St were being encouraged to improve their performances.
“Licensed sites such as Albright and Wilson and Sugar Australia are required to have an Environmental Improvement Plan, which sets out plans for improving the performance over a certain time frame.”
The EPA is promoting the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle across industries.
“Work at these sites have also been supported through an innovative partnership program between EPA and City West Water.”
