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Operations and Maintenance

United Water’s experienced team of operators, maintenance personnel, scientists and engineers, work together to ensure the effective delivery of contract objectives, meeting the demands and expectations of our clients and customers.

WATER TREATMENT

We manage, maintain and operate 54 water treatment plants, ranging in capacity from 0.1 ML/d to 850 ML/d. Each year we are responsible for the treatment of over 200,000 megalitres of water and its distribution through almost 10,000 kilometres of water mains to over 450,000 service connections.

United Water has delivered outstanding improvements water quality, for example:

Adelaide, South Australia
On average, our operators in Adelaide treat 500 megalitres of potable water each day. Since 1996 United Water has optimised the performance of Adelaide’s six water treatment plants. One key outcome has been the reduction of average treated water turbidity from 0.16 NTU in 1995 to 0.07 NTU.

Ballarat, Victoria
Process optimisation by United Water of the city’s two 65 ML/d water treatment plants achieved a dramatic reduction in Trihalomethane (THM) levels and a 30 percent reduction in sludge production. United Water has also implemented a water treatment sludge recycling program, resulting in 99 percent reuse of a waste product.

Ruapehu, New Zealand
Our comprehensive process review of the Matapuna Water Treatment Plant incorporated data analysis, a capacity study of operating components and jar tests to assess optimum chemical dose rates. Besides improving process reliability and reducing chemical dosage, our recommendations have enabled the Matapuna plant to consistently meet water quality guidelines. 

WASTEWATER TREATMENT

United Water manages, maintains and operates 36 wastewater treatment plants, ranging from 0.1 ML/d to 259 ML/d. Each year we are responsible for the collection and transportation of over 100,000 megalitres of household and industrial wastewater through over 7,000 kilometres of wastewater mains.

United Water has delivered outstanding improvements wastewater treatment, for example:

Christies Beach, South Australia
Process improvements and capital upgrades to the Christies Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant have significantly reduced effluent nitrogen levels and delivered a decrease in the amount of suspended solids discharged to the marine environment. In partnership with SA Water, we are currently project managing a further $200m expansion of the plant to cater for future demand and provide additional reductions in environmental impact.

Glenelg, South Australia
The Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant is delivering improvements in treated effluent quality while significantly reducing levels of nitrogen, organics, suspended solids and ammonia. This has been achieved through the installation of IFAS-BNR technology on two existing process streams, and construction and optimisation of a BNR plant, to further improve process capacity.

NETWORKS MANAGEMENT

United Water provides comprehensive maintenance programmes for water and wastewater networks. We currently manage more than 17,000km of water and wastewater mains in Australia and New Zealand. Our services include emergency and planned repairs, cleaning of sewer mains and water storage tanks, cathodic protection, mains flushing, leak detection, mechanical and electrical asset maintenance, and network performance monitoring. Our expertise in network optimisation has delivered excellent outcomes, including:

Adelaide, South Australia
Each year United Water collects over 6,000 water samples from 130 customer taps throughout the Adelaide metropolitan area. We perform over 17,000 tests to ensure we meet our key performance indicators of colour, turbidity, pH, coliform bacteria, E.coli, fluoride, manganese, chlorine, iron and soluble aluminium. By optimising network performance, United Water has lifted the rate of tap samples free from coliforms from 90 percent to 98 percent.

Papakura, New Zealand
Since 1997, we have improved the water quality grading (as assessed by the Ministry of Health) in Papakura’s pipe network from a ‘b’ grade or lower to an ‘a’ grading. Combined with an ‘A’ grading for water treatment, Papakura residents are now consistently receiving water of the highest quality.

ASSET MANAGEMENT

United Water is entrusted with the daily management, maintenance and operation of over A$7 billion worth of publicly owned water and wastewater assets. Continuous improvement of asset management is a key objective of all asset owners. United Water delivers the required level and style of management by carefully assessing and incorporating five important factors: regulatory requirements, stakeholder values and needs, characteristics of the asset portfolio, goals and objectives, and financial modelling.

Contracts which include asset management allow United Water to provide clients with an integrated long term approach to the management and operation of their assets.

Some of the asset management techniques and services we provide include:

• Risk analysis and the identification of critical assets;

• Maintenance of asset registers;

• Ongoing assessment of asset condition and performance;

• Optimised decision-making, using main replacement prioritisation models;

• Assessing levels of service based on historical performance and future requirements;

• Renewal and rehabilitation planning techniques for short and long term periods; and

• Provision of Asset Management Plans.