Room 12's Visits The Tahuna Treatment Plant

As part of our sustainability exploration, room 12 took advantage of our local business's and visited the treatment plant that's just down the road!

What a fascinating trip we had to the Tahuna Treatment Plant. The students were all curious and slightly apprehensive in the lead up to our excursion. Most people thought that the smell and sights would be hideous, but actually we were pleasantly surprised by what we discovered.

We had to wear gloves and a hard hat before we were allowed to tour the facility. Our education guide was awesome and she prepared us before our trip. We discovered a lot about how we can make differences within our homes with our water use, and how our actions can affect the work that needs to be done at the treatment plant.

We learnt that anything that goes into the drains is not treated and this ends up in our harbour! This was a bit of a surprise for some of us. We also discovered that by washing the family car on the lawn, this runoff was better for the waterways as much of it gets absorbed by the land.

We had to wear gloves when we walked inside the treatment plant, this was to protect us from surfaces that would have trace elements of faecal matter and other nasties. 

We saw massive tanks that were filled with plastic media. We also discovered that they grow bugs that are introduced into the treatment facility to help break down the waste.

The treatment plant was amazing, there were high tech monitoring rooms, tanks and UV light rooms. We went into the UV light room and had to wear sunglasses. This was the final disinfectant room where light from the UV rays stopped bugs from reproducing and then the waste went through a the giant PJC and into the ocean 1.5km out!

It was such a cool visit and we were filled with heaps of new knowledge about where our waste goes and how it is dealt with.