Determining the root cause of geosmin release at Orchard Hills water filtration plant lagoons

Start year: 2025

Summary: This project will provide Sydney Water with new fundamental knowledge for optimising key parameters during water filtration to avoid future taste and odour incidents while meeting all other treatment performance requirements. The following project objectives will be achieved via three research tasks: • Task 1: Assess the impact of chlorine, polyDADMAC, flocculation, and filtration on cell lysis and cell membrane integrity of cyanobacteria. • Task 2: Map and isolate cyanobacteria from the reject water lagoons. • Task 3: Validate laboratory scale experimental results and recommend a suitable range of chlorine and polyDADMAC dosages and operating condition to Sydney Water.