Project Overview
In recent years due to the drought and other factors water usage had become a contentious issue. Tatura Milk Industries Ltd is a co-operative dairy company with close links to the dairy farmers which hold shares in the company. These close links and reliance on the agricultural industry have ensured a company focus on water usage reduction and water recycling.
In 2004 Tatura Milk Industries Ltd in partnership with Goulburn ValleyWater, EPA’s Business Sustainability Team and Dairy Australia (via UNEP Working Group for Cleaner Production), completed a salt and water audit of the site. The results of the salt and water audit were used to identify areas of the plant where water usage could be reduced or recycled. A number of areas were identified and projects with a return on investment of 2 years were implemented. Two other projects in the CD2 dryer and MSD2 dryer were identified as having a return on investment of 4 years. Due to the potential water savings it was decided to persue the project with additional help from external funding.
The project aimed to implement a water capture and distribution system for pump, vacuum pump and homogeniser seal water. The capture and distribution system was installed in CD2 and MSD2 and currently captures seal water and cooling water from 33 pumps, 9 vacuum pumps, 3 MVR’s and 1 homogeniser. This has resulted in total town water savings of 41.69ML/year and trade waste discharge savings of 115.2 ML/year.
