South East Queensland
19.8 Other wastewater discharge

Supporting information

a. Supporting information

The volume for the line item during the 2012–13 year was 892 ML.

This line item consists of treated wastewater discharges to landscape, where the primary purpose of the discharge was disposal of the effluent rather than using the effluent for irrigation purposes. This line item may include discharges to landscape that make their way into the groundwater.

The volume if recycled water used for agricultural purposes is included as part of line item 19.4 Delivery to urban water system users.

b. Wastewater system overview

The volume of wastewater collected by the wastewater system during the 2012–13 year (11.4 Wastewater collected) was 244,668 ML.  The majority of the outflow from the wastewater system (74%) was treated wastewater discharged to sea (19.7 Wastewater discharge outside of region); approximately 16% was discharged to surface water (19.5 Urban water discharge to surface water) and approximately 9 % was recycled. The remainder (1%) comprised a small volume of treated wastewater discharged to landscape and losses from the wastewater system.

The following figure shows all the inflows and outflows associated with the wastewater system. There was some unaccounted flow in the wastewater system that produced an error of  0.4% of total wastewater system inflows. 

For more detail on a particular flow associated with the recycled water system, 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 wastewater system; line numbers are provided in brackets
Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012-13 year for South East Queensland's wastewater system; line numbers are provided in brackets

Quantification approach

Data source

Logan City Council: datasheets via Queensland Water Directorate (Qldwater);

Toowoomba Regional Council: datasheet.

Provided by

Logan City Council: datasheets via Queensland Water Directorate (Qldwater);

Toowoomba Regional Council: datasheet.

Method

Metered volume of treated wastewater discharged to landscape reported by Toowoomba Regional Council (at Yarraman WWTP) and Logan City Council.

Assumptions, limitations, caveats and approximations

None

Uncertainty information

The uncertainty estimate was not quantified.