Water Use and Reuse Stream Projects
Aquifer Storage Transfer and Recovery
(ASTR) – Drinking water from urban stormwater
and a brackish aquifer
ECOS article 138 | AUG–SEP | 2007 "Reclaimed water that’s good enough to bottle" (PDF, 220 kB)
Media Release, 29 August 2006 - Securing South Australia's water resources - The Prime Minister announces joint federal, state, local government and private funding for the Waterproofing Northern Adelaide project. The project will capture 17 gigalitres of stormwater per year, cleanse it in wetlands, and inject it into the Northern Adelaide Plains aquifer for storage and reuse (ASR). ASR is a product of CSIRO Land and Water and partners' research.
Brochure March 2007 (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Introduction
This project aims to be the first of its type
in the world whereby urban stormwater harvested
from an engineered wetland is injected into an
aquifer and recovered as water fit for continuous
sustainable supply at potable water quality.
The project builds on previous experience in
aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) research projects
that have been conducted in South Australia over
10 years involving stormwater, reclaimed water
and potable water, and on advances in hazard
analysis and critical control points (HACCP)
methods in managing distributed water systems,
which will enable replication elsewhere. Whereas
traditional ASR uses the same well for injection
and recovery, ASTR uses separate wells to extend
the residence time and travel distance within
the aquifer and enhance attenuation of chemical
and microbial contaminants. This project is also
particularly relevant in the South Australian
context, given the State Government aims of reducing
demand on the River Murray and the Water Proofing
Adelaide strategy.
 Objectives/Scope
- to evaluate the performance of aquifer
injection and recovery systems that store passively
treated stormwater in aquifers for recovery
at potable quality on a sustainable basis
- to determine HACCP procedures to apply
to catchments, detention storages, injection
systems, monitoring wells and recovery wells
to identify siting, design (eg well spacing),
planning, land management, monitoring and operational
requirements for wider scale implementation
- to document the results of the trial
system and write a technical manual to address
Australian requirements
- to conduct workshops and demonstrations
repackage the manual to address needs of
those using them in those developing countries.
Activities
- Licence Prep & Prelims
- aquifer hydraulic evaluation & tracers
- modelling local heads, salinity, paths for
design & operation
- model of wetland treatment
- geochem studies inc coring, mineralogical
analyses, modelling
- fate of organics -aquifer & wetland
- fate of pathogens - aquifer & wetland
- model of aquifer treatment
- revising HACCP
- data compilation, data management, quality
control
- final report preparation, editing, and revising,
publishing
Key CSIRO Staff
Peter
Dillon, Simon
Toze, Joanne
Vanderzalm, Karen
Barry, Elise
Bekele, Peter Cook
 Project Consortium
- The ASTR (Aquifer Storage Transfer & Recovery) Project
- The City of Salisbury
- CSIRO Land & Water
- United Water International Pty Ltd (UWI)
- Northern Adelaide & Barossa Catchment
Water Management Board (NABCWMB)
- South Australian Water Corporation (SA Water)
- Department of Water Land & Biodiversity
Conservation (DWLBC)
- TAFE South Australia
- SA Premiers Science and Research Fund
Project Associates
- Patawolonga Catchment Water Management
Board
- Torrens Catchment Water Management Board
Project Advisory Role
- South Australian Department of Health
- South Australian Environment Protection
Agency
Project Co-ordinators
- Dr. Stephanie Rinck-Pfeiffer (UWI) Project
Manager
- Dr. Peter Dillon (CSIRO) Research Leader
Timeline
2005-2008
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