Dutson Downs is located 20km south-east of Sale and consists of 8,300 hectares of land. Dutson Downs was established in 1954 by the former Latrobe Valley Water and Sewerage Board (now Gippsland Water).
Dutson Downs is home to the Resource Recovery Facility, Soil and Organic Recycling Facility and Gippsland Water's Agribusiness
Resource Recovery Facility
One of Gippsland Water's major wastewater and waste management assets is the Dutson Downs Resource Recovery Facility.
The Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) consists of 3% of the land within Dutson Downs and is licensed by EPA to receive industrial wastes including those associated with water and wastewater services. The waste management operations within the RRF include:
- liquid and sludge waste treatment and bioremediation;
- open windrow composting of biosolids;
- landfilling of oil contaminated sludges;
- emplacement of chromium contaminated tannery wastes in engineered landfill area;
- emplacement of asbestos in designated landfill area;
- fixation of oily sludges containing naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMS);
- treatment and land filling of low level hydrocarbon and oil contaminated soils;
- industrial and domestic wastewater treatment.
Soil and Organic Recycling Facility
The Soil and Organic Recycling Facility (SORF) will treat various waste streams and aligns with the Victorian Government’s landfill waste reduction initiative. The primary function of the Soil and Organic Recycling Facility will be to prepare composted material using organic wastes including contaminated soil.
Although there are a number of liquid and composting facilities in Victoria, Gippsland Water’s Soil and Organic Recycling Facility will be the first to combine liquid and sludge separation with in-vessel composting. This has the added benefit of enabling Gippsland Water to use the end product for agricultural purposes.
Agribusiness
The Gippsland Water Agribusiness operates across six broad-acre land assets including Dutson Downs, Eastern Region Irrigation (Maffra, Stratford and Heyfield) and Western Region Irrigation (Drouin and Mirboo North). These assets are managed in conjunction with Gippsland Water's wastewater treatment facilities.
A mix of farming enterprises are supported at each of our facilities. These include plantation, grain and fodder production and livestock programs. Each of these programs provides a complementary function within Gippsland Water's provision of sustainable water and wastewater services.
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