Properly treated sewage can be used to safely irrigate most crops and pasture. This has been widely practised throughout Victoria for many years. Increasingly, countries with scarce water supplies are reusing treated sewage as a dual water supply to residential properties for use in toilet cisterns and for watering gardens. In some locations highly treated sewage is recycled into the domestic water supply. The former option has been implemented in NSW and trials are being organised in Victoria.
Sewage sludge is rich in nutrients and organic matter.
It is an excellent soil conditioner and should be reused for this purpose. Both sludge and effluent reuse can be jeopardised by contamination with industrial toxicants and, hence, these need to be properly controlled by trade waste agreements. It is statutory policy in Victoria that sewage effluent be reused wherever this can be done in a practicable and environmentally beneficial way. Our goal is to reuse all of this valuable resource. In the past, most coastal towns discharged untreated sewage to the ocean.