1^st Place in the National Water Sensitive Design Awards goes to Kiama Council + STORM_CONSULTING

For their vision, skill and persistence, Kiama Council and STORM_CONSULTING were recognised and rewarded for water engineering excellence. The Elambra Estate residential subdivision in Gerringong, and the Kiama CBD Stormwater Harvesting and Reuse Project were considered by the Stormwater Industry Association's judges to represent leading edge water sustainability principles across the whole urban water cycle. This Award is the most prestigious one that Kiama and STORM have won for these projects to date. It was presented at the Cities as Catchments - Water Sensitive Urban Design Conference in Adelaide in November 2004 in the presence of an international audience. In these projects, Council was faced with a variety of constraints, and through clever engineering, STORM was able to identify cost-effective strategies that equate to truly sustainable development.

Follow these links to find out more information:

The Stormwater Industry Association's WSUD Awards web link
Description of Elambra Estate Subdivision
Short Description of the Kiama CBD Stormwater Harvesting & Reuse project
To contact STORM_CONSULTING, click here
 

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Sand filters with HydroCon ™  pipes feature in WSUD Award design

Kiama Council expressed extreme reluctance at the possibility of using constructed wetlands in the Elambra Estate development, and generally within their LGA.  They were concerned about:

• Land take eating into developable land
• Public health and safety risks such as mosquitoes and drownings
• A lack of ability to understand, and therefore properly maintain wetland systems

Faced with these constraints, STORM proposed sand filters as viable alternatives and which addressed all of Council's concerns.  Sand filters have much smaller land takes than wetlands when used in Water Sensitive Urban Designs. 

Fundamental to the performance of these sand filters is the incorporation of HydroCon™   pipe technology from Germany.  These pipes provide trapping of particulates, and ionic adsorption of nutrients and heavy metals, etc. within the permeable pipe matrix.  They are designed for German regulations which are much more stringent than those in Australia, and so they provide high levels of treatment. 

For more information on HydroCon™  pipes, visit www.hydrocon.com.au

For details of the performance of sand filters incorporating HydroCon™  Pipes, click to view technical details of the Kiama CBD project which will feature in the next Public Works Engineering Journal.

To contact HydroCon, click here

To contact STORM_CONSULTING, click here

Project partners

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