South East Queensland
19.4 Delivery to urban water system users

Supporting information

a. Supporting information

The volume for the line item during the 2012–13 year was 236,941 ML.

This line item consists of all potable, non-potable and recycled water supplied by water authorities to their end users within the South East Queensland (SEQ) region via the urban water supply system and the recycled water system.

Delivery for urban users in South East Queensland region
Purpose

Type of water- Volume (ML)

Potable

Non-potable

Recycled

residential use

                    160,257

                                      –

                                            224

commercial, industrial and municipal use

                      58,864

                                  243

                                      10,417

agricultural / individual irrigation use

        4

            12

                1,529

other use - urban use

      12

             –

                2,344

recycled water on-site outdoor / irrigation use    

                     – 

recycled water on-site in-door use    

                      –

recycled water on-site within process use (no-recirculation)    

                                        3,035

Subtotal

                    219,137

                                  255

                                      17,549

Total

                                    236,941

     

Table Note:

1. Where data were not available this has been indicated with (–).

 

The volume delivered by each water utility to end users are shown in the following Table.

 

Delivery from water authorities for urban users in South East Queensland region
Water Authority

Type of water

Volume (ML)

 

Potable

Non-potable

Recycled

 
Queensland Urban Utility

                    117,223

                                      – 

                                        6,458

                                                  123,681

Logan City Council

                      17,008

                                      –  

                                            597

                                                    17,605

Redland City Council

                      10,981

                                      – 

                                               – 

                                                    10,981

Unitywater

                      26,876

                                      –

                                            742

                                                    27,618

Gold Coast City Council

                      46,767

                                    12

                                        7,914

                                                    54,693

Toowoomba Regional Council

                            210

                                      –  

                                            101

                                                          311

South Burnett Regional Council

                              72

 

 

                                                            72

Seqwater

                               – 

                                  243

                                        1,737

                                                      1,980

Total

                    219,137

                                  255

                                      17,549

                                                  236,941

b. Urban water supply system overview

South East Queensland's (SEQ) urban water system comprises three sub-components: 

  • urban water supply system
  • wastewater system
  • recycled water system.

There are four main sources of water for SEQ's urban water supply system:

The water intake to the urban water supply system (251,897 ML) is from four sources: surface water (224,420 ML), groundwater (158 ML), desalinated water (2,805 ML), and imported water (24,514 ML).

During the 2012–13 year, the volume of water delivered to urban users (potable and non-potable water supplied amounting to 219,392 ML) was the major outflow from the urban water supply system. This supply for urban consumption represented about 87% of the total outflow. Approximately 11% of the outflow was leakage (19.3 Urban water system leakage to groundwater) and 2% was remaining losses.

Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for South East Queensland's urban water supply system; line item numbers are provided in brackets
Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for South East Queensland's urban water supply system; line item numbers are provided in brackets

c. Recycled water system and advanced water treatment overview

About 7% of urban water consumption (236,941 ML) came from the recycled water system and from advanced water treatment.

During the 2012–13 year, approximately 55% of the recycled water produced (23,241 ML) was supplied to urban users. Approximately 13% of the recycled water was used on-site at wastewater treatment plants throughout the region; about 20% was used in-process (recirculated), and the rest was delivered for advanced water treatment. There was some unaccounted flow in the recycled water system inflows that produced an error of (1%) of total recycled water supply system inflows.The following figure shows all the inflows and outflows associated with the recycled water system and advanced water treatment.

For more detail on a particular flow associated with the recycled water system and advanced water treatment, refer to the line item notes. Note that volumes annotated with an asterisk (*) indicate flows between sub-components and are not reported in the account. As such, these flows do not have an associated line item number.


 

Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for South East Queensland's recycled water system; line item numbers are provided in brackets
Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for South East Queensland's recycled water system; line item numbers are provided in brackets

 * due to data discrepancies, it was assumed that inflow into recycled system equalled to the recycled water usage.

 

Quantification approach

Data source

Seqwater: WaterHub database;

Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU), Logan City Council, Redland City Council, Toowoomba Regional Council: datasheets via Queensland Water Directorate (Qldwater);

Council of the City of Gold Coast: SWIM code data;

South Burnett Regional Council: datasheet;

Unitywater: Bureau of Meteorology code data.

Provided by

Seqwater; QUU; Logan City Council; Unity Water; Redland City Council; Council of the City of Gold Coast; South Burnett Regional Council; Toowoomba Regional Council.

Method

The value presented is sum of the metered and estimated volumes of potable, non-potable and recycled water supplied for: (1) residential; (2) commercial; industrial and municipal; (3) agricultural / individual irrigation; and (4) other urban uses. It also includes volumes of recycled water used on-site at wastewater treatment plants, except for the volumes used for on-site with-in process recirculation.

Assumptions, limitations, caveats and approximations

Volumes delivered to minor areas out-side the National Water Account SEQ region served by Queensland Urban Utilities has not been separated this year. With further information on the water supplies to these minor areas, volume of delivery for urban consumption within the SEQ region can be further refined.

Uncertainty information

Ungraded.