APPLICATIONS – GROUNDWATER / AQUIFER RECHARGE
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Groundwater and aquifer recharge is replenishment with water from the land surface. Any stormwater system that is used for groundwater and aquifer recharge needs to ensure that pollutants are reduced to acceptable levels.
HydroCon pipes were used extensively for stormwater treatment and infiltration at the Kinross Business and Industrial Park – a brownfield industrial development located in the Heatherbrae industrial area at Raymond Terrace, NSW.
The site is situated at the western edge of the marine sands forming the Stockton Bight and underlain by deep unconsolidated sands forming the Tomago Sand Bed aquifer. The aquifer supplies up to 25% of raw water accessed by Hunter Water Corporation for the Newcastle and lower Hunter region. The infiltration rate into the sand is very high (180 to 3600mm/hour).
The site specific DCP “DCP LD13 Development Guidelines – Water Quality – Kinross
Industrial Estate, Heatherbrae” (April 2003), applies to the site. Its purpose is: “to maintain the water quality of the groundwater area within the Tomago Catchment of the Hunter Water (Special Area) Regulation 1997, administered by the Department of Land and Water Conservation, due to its use for drinking water.”
The HydroCon pipe system at this site has been extensively researched and reported upon. A HydroCon pipe system trial was established by the University of Technology Sydney at the Weathertex factory, adjacent to the site, prior to development approval being granted, initial results of which were presented at the 10th International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD) in Copenhagen in 2005. The trial’s success was partly responsible for regulatory approval being given for stormwater infiltration. A detailed report on the Kinross development as a WSUD demonstration site was presented in 2006 to a Regional IWCM Program – see Fact Sheet.
