Moonee Valley City Council are no longer reliant on mains water to maintain the sports ovals and bowling greens at Maribyrnong Park. Water for irrigation is now available during peak demand periods through the desalination of borewater extracted and stored on site in a 200,000 litre EcoAID underground artificial aquifer.
The structural strength of EC-1000 arches ensures the land over the storage is still available for sports activities, general public usage, and access by emergency and heavy vehicles if required. The location of the storage is not immediately obvious, and out of sight of potential vandals. The system quietly goes about it’s business of buffering any irrigation yield demand beyond the desalination plant’s treatment volume capacity.
A prefabricated, extremely durable and flexible engineered liner, EcoLiner was installed prior to EC-1000 component placement to ensure not a drop of treated water is lost. In comparison, the practice of creating open ponds and dams results in significant water losses via evaporation and seepage through permeable soil bases. EcoLiner is guaranteed for 20 years and has proven long-term performance, with containment application installations still in service since the 1940’s. The liner is thick and durable enough to ensure survival without damage; during installation, with indentation from drainage stone in-service, and with conformance to vertical sides of excavations. The selection of the right engineered liner, and in particular the polymer type is critical to the long term success of the installation. EcoLiner also has ANSI / NSF-61 drinking (potable) water certification, and makes no compromises.
EC-1000 arches are fast and easy to install and comply to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) lifting requirements. Structural strength is gained by the columns of crushed drainage stone between rows of arches. The primary contribution to the strength of the installed system is from the surrounding stone - resulting in an installation far more rigid and strong than if plastic alone were used to create the void. In sports field applications, having a consistent, flat playing surface is a major consideration, and the contribution of the drainage aggregate ensures there is no differential settlement at the storage footprint boundary.
The EcoAID system has an extremely effective way of managing any sediment or pollutants that enter the storage via surface water run-off, using Catch-All rows and inspection ports. As the water stored at Maribyrnong Park is extracted from a bore and treated, the treatment potential of the system will not required. The reinforced vertical and horizontal pipe ports on the EC-1000 arches however were utilised for pipe inlets, flow equalisation and venting.
The EcoAID system is developed and made in Australia. Our Australian manufacturing facility has the following accreditations:-
- ISO 9001
- ISO / TS 16949
- ISO 14001 (environmental accreditation)
Buy local, reduce your CO2 Footprint and Carbon Miles!