The SWS      Commercially scalable turnkey system: Efficient water management and reuse for dairy farmers Uses recycled water from farming activity Integrates with farmers’ core activity Modular components applicable for Aquaculture, Hydroponics and other related activities Vertically integrated: provides support for production, sales and marketing. Currently, many Victorian farmers are underutilising existing bore water that is mainly used for conjunctive irrigation with fresh surface water as part of a sub-surface drainage approach to managing salinity. Additional common use of this saline groundwater among airy famers includes dairy wash down, but with little or no additional use of the nutrient rich effluent which accumulates on the farm. The SWS will treat this scarce resource, separate the solids from the liquid fraction and reuse the bioremediated water for the production of more/alternative crops and/or other ‘fit-for-purpose’ on-farm uses (such as dairy wash down = full recycle). Example Pilot Site: One site runs off a series of saline bores (approx. 3 ppt salinity) on the farm.  One bore is presently used just for dairy washdown after milking and others for supplementary supply for general farm use (wash down, conjunctive irrigation).  In the present configuration, basically all of the dairy washdown effluent (solid and liquid fraction) runs down an open drain and into a single storage pond where it accumulates. Whenever necessary the farmers then irrigate with it, sometimes mixing with fresh irrigation water to dilute the salt. As part of the Innovative process the bore has now been intercepted to supply saline groundwater to a new greenhouse-based aquaculture system.  This is a simple recirculation system (two raceways inside a poly tunnel) with mechanical aeration and simple biofiltration.  At the moment they can hold about 250-500kg of fish biomass in each raceway but this could be significantly increased with some improvement to the aeration and biofiltration systems. The effluent from the raceways is also routinely flushed from the system sometimes daily/weekly, depending on load/time of year, and the effluent goes into the same pond as the dairy effluent (typically about 5-6,000 L per day on average).  The SWS provides management of the nutrient loadings in a way that allows for future redirection of the liquid fraction of the aquaculture effluent into an adjacent poly greenhouse for hydroponics production (eg. cut flowers, fruit and veg).  The SWS provides for reconfiguration of the existing waste storage pond to act as a solids trap, with an additional constructed wetland for water polishing prior to further pond culture (ornamentals) and then either conjunctive irrigation and/or reuse in the dairy for washdown etc. The farmer has other bores and fresh irrigation water available to supplement existing saline groundwater supply and plenty of space adjacent for other modular infrastructure (ponds, greenhouses, wetlands, and water treatment plants).   The SWS System will provide optimimazation of the following applications: ·         Greenhouse and irrigation system products in nutrient rich wastewater (eg. Hydroponic cut flowers, aqua-horticulture in urban wastewater etc). ·         Cultured Murray cod (and potentially other species) a ‘marquis’ product for Australiani export Treated water products designed for on-farm recycling on ‘fit for purpose’ basis to offset potable/surface irrigation demand. ·         Treatment (filtration) and recycling technologies to include innovative use of recirculation and/or open-water aquaculture systems, greenhouse systems, enhanced constructed wetland systems (Incorporating. Agar polymer products) and biosolid removal/reuse systems. ·         Fish products to include elite strain (genetically improved) Murray cod for domestic and export; ornamental species for high value retail. ·         Potential ‘biomass’ (high volume/low value) species (e.g. carp) for petfood/fertiliser. Author: staff writer Keywords: sws,  farming,  system,  water Created on 30 May 2007,   Modified on 30 May 2007