NCIG is delighted to have received the Hunter Water Love Water Award at the 2023 Hunter Business Awards, for our Recycled Water Project.
The Love Water award is awarded by Hunter Water to an organisation who has undertaken a water efficiency management plan to reduce their use of potable water, delivering cost savings to their business and reducing the demand on the region’s drinking supply—the equivalent of 1,700 residential homes annual water usage.
CEO of NCIG, Aaron Johansen accepted the award on behalf of NCIG and thanked project partners Hunter Water, CoNEXA, GHD, Mullanes Plumbing, Gradient and Macquarie Engineers alongside the NCIG project team.
“The Love Water award is a huge achievement for our team, as it recognises our commitment to water management under our Sustainability Strategy. As a business, we’ve made a commitment to operate sustainably and to minimise our impact on the environment and community, and this award is recognition for our sustained dedication.”
As one of the Lower Hunter’s major industrial consumers of household water, NCIG’s investment of over $1 million into an onsite Recycled Water Project will return at least 275 megalitres of household water annually back to the Hunter network.
Motivated by the drought conditions experienced in 2018 and 2019, and the community’s concerns regarding water security, NCIG felt a responsibility to find an alternate water source that did not detract from the community’s water supply. Additionally, water scarcity and possible restrictions posed a risk to the effectiveness of dust suppression controls which in turn could also negatively impact the local community.
In our search for an alternate water supply, NCIG partnered with CoNEXA (formerly Water Utilities Australia) to expand existing infrastructure on Kooragang Island to be able to supply recycled water to NCIG. The Recycled Water Project utilises wastewater from the Hunter Water network that has been treated at CoNEXA’s Steel River facility, to meet firefighting standards. This water is then sent to NCIG where it is further treated utilising a newly commissioned calcification unit, which modifies the water to limit corrosion of concrete lined pipes. The water is then stored onsite, ready for use, primarily for dust-suppression and plant/infrastructure cleaning.
This exciting project has set a strong foundation for NCIG, contributing towards drought-proofing operations, reducing impact of operations on the regional community, and supporting sustainability ambitions. “We have a firm commitment to building and maintaining a sustainable operation for the future, and taking steps to minimise our reliance on household water for industrial purposes helps us achieve this. The Recycled Water Project is just one of a number of sustainable initiatives toward reducing our impact on the environment and community within which we operate,” said Mr Johansen.
NCIG has a suite of Management Approach documents that outline how we manage various risks and focus areas across our business, including our Water Management Approach.
To find out more about sustainability in practice at NCIG, read our Sustainability Strategy.
From left to right; Aaron Johansen, Wade Covey, Carly Parmenter and Aaron Arthur represented NCIG at the Hunter Business Awards evening.