Eastern Treatment Plant
Quick Facts
- Treats about 40% of Melbourne's sewage
- Built in 1975
- Sits on 1,100 hectares
- Generates its own electricity (biogas)
- Supplied 22 billion litres of recycled water in 08/09
- Major upgrade planned by end-2012
About the plant
The Eastern Treatment Plant in Bangholme treats about 40% of Melbourne’s sewage, or about 312 million litres a day. It serves about 1.5 million people in Melbourne's south-eastern and eastern suburbs.
About 92% of the sewage that flows into the Eastern Treatment Plant is from homes and businesses. The remaining 8% is from industry.
Sewage is treated and disinfected. Some of it is used as recycled water by local customers. The rest is pumped via a 56-kilometre pipeline for discharge into Bass Strait at the South Eastern Outfall at Boags Rocks on the Mornington Peninsula.
We are committed to reducing the environmental impacts of treated effluent on the marine environment at Boags Rocks. We undertake regular water quality monitoring near Gunnamatta Beach, St Andrew’s Beach and at the outfall. We have also begun a major project to reduce ammonia levels in treated effluent.