Barwon Water partners with GeelongPort to save water
05 Oct 2022
A business water saving grant from Barwon Water has led to water savings at GeelongPort.
GeelongPort applied for funding through Barwon Water's business water-savings grants program to install seven data loggers to track water use at their site.
The program provides up to 50 per cent of the direct costs of approved projects that deliver permanent reductions in drinking water consumption.
The data loggers have been in use for about 12 months and have identified a number of leaks of various sizes and locations around the port precinct leading to thousands of kilolitres of water being saved.
Barwon Water General Manager Customers, Community and Strategy Laura Kendall said the project was a great example of what could be achieved when an environmentally minded business made use of a business water saving grant from Barwon Water.
“The grants are designed to help high-water using businesses save our precious drinking water resources and save themselves money at the same time.”
“Well done on GeelongPort for coming up with a great water saving project.”
GeelongPort CEO Brett Winter said the port was always on the lookout for ways it could lessen its environmental impact.
“GeelongPort believes in achieving positive, long-term environmental outcomes for our business and our region.”
“In our current Environment Strategy we have a strong focus on improving the management of all resources and eliminating any unnecessary waste.”
GeelongPort’s Environment Specialist Nelson Taylor said the data loggers project had led to great results.
“The loggers, which are attached to a portal so staff have 24/7 access to usage data, recently alerted us to a leak of 1.85kl/min that occurred under one of the port’s berths.”
“Without the logger, the water loss could have amounted to 18.6 ML if gone unnoticed for a week.”
Mr Taylor said the port checks the data regularly and investigates any extended periods of non-zero flows.
“This process has helped us locate and repair four large leaks over the past 12 months, some of which may have run unnoticed in underground pipes for extended periods of time had the data loggers not been installed.”
“With the loggers providing real time data and alerts, unusual consumption is noticed immediately and investigated.”
“The data from the loggers is also matched with ship and operational movements to understand how water is being used, resulting in efficiency improvements with our general water consumption.”
GeelongPort will also uses the data to report on their efficiency performance indicators and goals.
To be eligible for Barwon Water funding through the business water savings grants program, projects must demonstrate their capacity to achieve water savings through one or more of:
- substitution of mains drinking water with alternative water sources such as rainwater, groundwater or surface water
- recycling wastewater to reduce drinking water consumption, for instance for irrigation
- water efficiency measures such as maintenance, equipment upgrades, installation of water efficient fittings and fixtures and improved practices.