Amberley Wastewater Treatment Plant desludging is now complete

An estimated 620 tonnes of dry sludge has been removed from the wastewater ponds through a desludging process, an accumulation of 10-12 years of wastewater into the ponds from Amberley Beach, Amberley, Leithfield Beach and Leithfield Village.

Lagoon dredging is by far the most common form of lagoon (pond) sludge removal, where the dredger floats on the lagoon and sucks up the organic and non-organic material (the sludge) from the base of the lagoon where it has settled. The sludge is then pumped into five ‘Geo-Bags’ where a polymer is added to assist in the drying process. Once the sludge has dried out, its ready for re-use which can be added to a landfill, applied to agricultural cropland as fertiliser, or bagged with other materials and marketed as “biosolid compost” for use in agriculture and landscaping. The drying out process takes about two to three years, during which time the wastewater weeps from these bags, is collected, and pumped back through the ponds for irrigation use in the future.