Kingston is home to Tasmania’s first Floating Treatment Wetlands – an innovative approach to stormwater management that mimics natural floating island environments to enhance waterfront land value, improve water quality, and provide habitats for local wildlife.
Installed in the Kingborough Council LGA with GPT (Gross Pollutant Trap) pretreatment, these Floating Wetlands will support clean waterways across the Kingston Park Open Space Master Plan – a mixed green and brownfield development looking to reinvigorate the local area with expansive green space, park lands and wetlands areas.
Kingborough Council and Traders in Purple support the master-planned development and its goal to deliver eighty homes, apartments and an office block. Expanding stormwater infrastructure is vital to facilitate the growth of this residential hotspot.
Enhancing stormwater infrastructure will ensure pollutants are removed from stormwater runoff captured from the site’s expansive urban catchments – supporting environmental stewardship and sustainable outcomes for the local community.
Green Infrastructure Driving Healthy Waterways
The innovative design of Atlan’s Floating Treatment Wetlands (FTW) presented a cost-effective and efficient solution for Kingston Park. Retrofit to an existing stormwater pond, the FTW’s zero-land use negated the need for large-scale earthworks and disruption of nearby wetlands environments.
Building FTW assets on top of the site’s existing water body optimised project expenditure by reducing land acquisition costs, land take, and installation costs compared to constructing new infrastructure from the ground up.
As reported by Kingborough Council – Mayor Paula Wriedt said,
“Floating Wetlands have not been used previously in Tasmania but are becoming widespread across Australia as an innovative water treatment solution. The Floating Wetlands, designed by Atlan Stormwater, utilises natural and sustainable technology to treat polluted stormwater collected in surrounding areas.”
“They remove excess nutrients and eliminate sediment from the water column and have allowed the retrofit of the existing stormwater ponds with a positive environmental solution.”
Atlan’s Floating Treatment Wetlands provide modular growing platforms for wetlands vegetation and a habitat for local wildlife – providing a refuge for birds, fish, and amphibian species. Sustainable and green, they mirror natural ecosystems, beautify the surrounding area, and support biodiversity outcomes across the site.
Supercharging pollution removal by suspending plant root systems in the water column, Floating Treatment Wetlands provide increased surface area for biofilm growth. Biofilm contains communities of microbes populating an extracellular matrix – which enhances stormwater treatment through bioremediation processes.
By harnessing the natural properties of wetlands ecosystems, the stormwater cleaning process will remove various stormwater pollutants such as total suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals.
Combining Stormwater Wetlands with GPT Pretreatment
The Atlan Vortceptor will provide pretreatment for this wetlands system. A SQIDEP verified Gross Pollutant Trap (GPT), this high-performance primary treatment solution will capture litter, debris and plastic pollution.
This device will ensure the removal of urban pollutants from stormwater before discharging downstream, reducing pollutant loads and minimising maintenance in receiving wetlands and waterways. Removing pollutants before entering the stormwater ponds will help to lower operating costs and minimise environmental impact.
The Vortceptor is locally manufactured at Atlan’s fibreglass manufacturing facilities and features 100-year design life, single-piece design, and non-blocking vortex style separation. Its unique screen and treatment action results in excellent pollution removal performance and enhances water quality outcomes.
The SQIDEP verified treatment efficiencies for the Vortceptor are 93% Total Suspended Solids (TSS), 86% Total Phosphorus (TP), 49% Total Nitrogen (TN), and 100% Gross Pollutants.
This innovative combination of GPT and Floating Treatment Wetlands technology will help secure the health of Kingston Park’s waterways – ensuring Joy in Water for future generations and futureproofing the ongoing development of this growing community centre.
