Sydney
11.5 Delivery of water from outside region to urban water system

The recycled water system is one of three subcomponents of Sydney's urban water system. The three subcomponents are the:

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

In the Sydney region, around 98% of the recycled water used was produced at wastewater treatment plants within the region and a small volume was imported.

During the 2012–13 year, approximately 44% of the recycled water was supplied for to private users for residential, industrial, agricultural, or commercial use (19.4 Delivery to urban water system users); about 29% was used for environmental purposes (19.5 Urban water discharge to surface water); and the remainder was used for on-site in-process.

The following figure shows all the inflows and outflows associated with the recycled water system.

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 subcomponents 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 Sydney's recycled water system; line item numbers are provided in brackets

The volume of 1,260 ML stated in this line item represents the amount of recycled water imported into the Sydney region boundary. The recycled water was produced outside the region boundary by Shoalhaven City Council at the following sewerage treatment plants;

• Callala
• Sussex Inlet
• St Georges Basin
• Vincentia
  

Water imported into the Sydney region boundary was not reported in the 2011–12 year.

Meter reads and property categorisations, which are complied in the water billing system and meter reading data sources.

Shoalhaven City Council.

Shoalhaven City Council uses the metered volume from water billing and water meter reading records to determine the volume of recycled water supplied.

The volumes shown are a calculation of the total metered recycled volume from water billing and water meter reading records for the Shoalhaven Region and estimated factors to only include water usage within the Sydney region National Water Account boundaries.

This volume derived from measured data. The uncertainty estimate is +/- 5%