LAKE BOLAC - Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh last week toured the site of the new $800,000 Lake Bolac wastewater treatment plant.
The plant, which is due for completion in March, has been constructed by engineering company SYRINX under the guidance of Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water, as part of a $2.7 million sewerage scheme for Lake Bolac.
Mr Walsh praised the unique system and said it would have a positive effect on the town.
"The pressurised system they are putting in around the town and the treatment on the site is innovative and it is actually economical for a town of Lake Bolac's size," he said.
"The beauty of the area is there is no energy required, it is environmentally friendly and economical to run."
Mr Walsh said the completion of the project, which had been proposed as far back as 2005, would make it easier for the town to further develop.
"In most towns once they've got a sewerage system they actually go ahead. If there is further development it makes it a lot easier than having a septic tank on your property, because septics are old, they aren't functioning as well as they used to, so this is a great boon for any country town," he said.
Lake Bolac resident and member of the subcommittee for the Lake Bolac community reference group, Tom Atkinson agreed that the town would now be able to move ahead.
"Since the sewerage scheme works started there are two new houses being built already," Mr Atkinson said.
"Now the last house that was built (in the town) was in 2003, it was one that had burned down, so this will hopefully mean we are picking up where we left off 10 years ago.
"I think Grampians Water have done a marvellous job and the engineers and contractors, it has been a very wet year and difficult conditions but they've persisted and have done it well, I'm wrapped with it."
The wastewater treatment plant uses a combination of large septic tanks, bio-filtration, subsurface flow wetlands and surface-flow wetlands to treat the wastewater to a very high standard.
Its unique feature, a compost filter not seen in Victoria, uses natural biological processes from more than 70,000 plants, which break down the waste in a specially-constructed wetland area.
Kathy Meney, the principal engineer of SYNRIX said the treatment plant was more a combination of rather simple engineering elements, all used to create an innovation.
"It is the combination of elements which makes it unique, most of these things have been used in other applications, but the compost filter has not been used in a treatment plant as far as we are aware in Victoria, maybe even Australia," she said.
"It is basically used in landfill systems, so it is a bit of an innovation to use it as a sewerage screening system."
The treatment site does not use any power as it all operates by gravity and is designed for minimal maintenance.
"It is much cheaper to develop and certainly much cheaper to run, they (the treatment plants) just need care and maintenance," Ms Meney said.
"Occasionally pipes need to be unblocked, but it only takes someone driving past one day a week, checking it routinely. They are very cost effective."
Construction of the wastewater treatment plant began in February, 2011.
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