Work to install Hydro2050 units at Lake Albert has begun. Photos: Chris Roe.
Wagga Wagga City Council’s latest weapon in the battle to clean up Lake Albert is about to be unleashed with a series of hydro units being installed and tested around the site.
The council announced the new Hydro2050 technology trial in November last year after disappointing results from an enzyme-based product, Waterzyme.
Highly toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) outbreaks continue to plague the man-made waterway that is routinely subject to health advisories and closures.
Hydro2050 is an oxygen and ozone-based solution that will be trialled for the next six months at a cost to ratepayers of $300,000 to lease the technology.
“We’re really pleased that the council have given us the opportunity to showcase the technology and look forward to working with them,” said Hydro2050 CEO Michael Schaefer.
“I know that they’ve come under fire for a variety of reasons, as all councils do, but it’s a tough job and we’re dealing with a big area that is relatively shallow with not a lot of water movement and that leads to all sorts of problems.”
Mr Schaefer said they would have preferred a longer trial period that cycled through all four seasons, but explained that the technology had already proven effective in the US, Saudi Arabia and South Australia.
“We’re very confident we can clean the blue-green algae out,” he said.
“We’ve got six months to do it – we would have liked to do it for a year but we appreciate the council has limited resources – and we’re confident this will be an ongoing benefit of the wider and Riverina community.”
A concentration of blue-green algae at the northern end of Lake Albert on Friday morning.
Hydro2050 is a chemical-free approach that pumps trillions of tiny nanobubbles into the system to destroy toxic algae and bacteria.
According to its website, the water treatment solution relies on hydroxyl (OH) radicals, “to safely target organic and some inorganic water contaminants”.
“When the minuscule oxygen and ozone bubbles collapse under water pressure, they unleash highly reactive hydroxyl radicals. The sonic energy released as these bubbles collapse with the hydroxyl radicals present attack and safely degrade pathogens and other potentially harmful impurities in the water.”
Mr Schaefer said oxygen and ozone had been used extensively to purify water overseas.
“We know that this is safe because ozone has been used in Europe in their water supplies for a very long time,” he said.
“What is new is that we’re using nanobubbles as the delivery system, which is a lot more sustainable and doesn’t use heaps of energy to deliver that.”
A total of five hydro units will be installed at the three “corners” of the lake without interfering with recreation activities.
“You won’t be able to run over the buoy that shows where the submersible pump is, but they can be operating and people can still be using the lake and doing whatever they want to do in the water,” Mr Schaefer said.
If the trial is successful, Wagga City Council will renegotiate with Hydro2050 to potentially continue the program, with the cost of leasing to factor into a reduction of the purchase price.
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