Construction of Santos’ water treatment facility near Narrabri is progressing well, with the project almost 50% complete.
Since construction began at Santos’ Leewood property in December, leading water treatment company Osmoflo has placed four reverse osmosis units on site, installed the underground pipe network and is finalising all civil infrastructure.
Santos’ General Manager of Energy NSW Peter Mitchley, who inspected the site last week, said the project is running ahead of schedule.
“Leewood is a very important facility for us and it was fantastic to tour the site and inspect the good progress that Osmoflo is making,” Mr Mitchley said.
“The Leewood facility will allow the groundwater extracted through Santos’ natural gas exploration and appraisal activities to be treated to a very high standard and then used for purposes like irrigation.
“The water will be treated via reverse osmosis, a common water treatment technology used throughout the world. The irrigation water will meet Australian and NSW irrigation standards.
“The treatment and beneficial re-use of water extracted from coal seams has been part and parcel of the successful development of the Queensland CSG industry for many years and we plan to replicate that in NSW.”
Leewood Phase 2 follows on from the first phase of work at Leewood, which was the construction of state of the art double lined storage ponds and associated infrastructure. Santos received a Highly Commended award at the 2015 Northern Inland Innovation Awards for the design and implementation of the Leewood Ponds.
