Productive Use of Industrial Wastewater

The challenge

An industrial paper mill near Albury needed a lessee for its Maryvale and Rosevale farms who could safely and productively use treated wastewater for irrigation. After treatment, this wastewater is high in nitrogen and phosphorous. It cannot be disposed in the Murray River because it accelerates algal growth, leading to oxygen crashes and fish kills. Irrigation use with a strict and supervised program of growth and crash feeding is very successful in the right hands.

The previous lessee had struggled with high‑risk, machinery‑intensive cropping systems that could not reliably use the available volumes, creating operational and environmental risk for the mill owner. The landholder sought a proposal that maximised wastewater use, protected soil and water quality, and generated stable returns from the irrigated land.

Our approach

The successful proposal put pasture‑based, livestock‑harvested rotations at the centre of the irrigation strategy. Drawing on specialist agronomy advice, the lessee proposed a sequence of forage brassica and barley in the early years, moving into lucerne once weed burdens were under control, all established using long‑term no‑till techniques.

The rotations were explicitly designed to reliably use at least 6 ML/ha of wastewater each year; spread water demand across seasons; use grazing animals ather than heavy harvest machinery to “harvest” the crop; and improve soil biological fertility and resilience over time. High‑water‑use but high‑risk crops, such as maize and fodder beet were treated as opportunistic options, rather than the basis of the system. This avoided large summer water peaks and harvest risk.

The result

This systems‑based design offered the mill owner a low‑risk, high‑uptake pathway for wastewater use that aligned farm profitability, soil health and regulatory requirements. The combination of no‑till, flexible irrigated rotations and livestock finishing created a robust platform for long‑term wastewater utilisation. The over‑committing to narrow, machinery‑dependent cropping systems was avoided. It successfully demonstrated how industrial wastewater can be integrated into commercial mixed farming in a way that is attractive to both landholder and lessee.

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