THE first stage of more than $100 million in major upgrades has begun at the Loganholme Wastewater Treatment Plant.
When complete in 2022, the upgrades will allow the plant to service a further 100,000 people in Logan.
Sewage sludge will be reduced by 90 per cent, saving the environment and ratepayers' hip pockets.
The city's largest water treatment facility services about 300,000 residents and is home to Australia's first permanent bio-solids gasification facility.
The $27 million facility transforms sewage sludge into renewable energy and a safe, environmentally friendly product called biochar. Trials were conducted last year and the facility is expected to be operational by mid-2022.
Council will also spend around $69 million to upgrade the WWTP's main treatment process. This includes construction of a modern membrane bioreactor treatment facility covering 3500 square metres.
The technology will increase the plant's treatment capacity from 45 million litres per day to 67 million litres per day.
It will complement the existing conventional treatment process and enable the transfer of flows from the Beenleigh treatment plant, which will be de-commissioned.
The move is estimated to save ratepayers about $27 million in operating costs over the next 20 years.
Council's drive to carbon neutrality will also take another leap forward, with the construction of a series of solar panels, producing 1000kw, at the plant, with construction starting next month.
The $3.6 million project will include about 3000 solar panels covering about 3700 sqm.
Meanwhile, a 30-year-old wastewater pump station at the plant will get a $6 million makeover, including new pumps, valves and pipework to more efficiently manage incoming wastewater flows and enhance safety for operators.
City Infrastructure Committee chair, Teresa Lane, said the upgrades would minimise community impacts associated with conventional treatment processes and maximise the use of the flood-free land available on-site at Loganholme.
"This is a world-class facility and the envy of councils Australia-wide," Cr Lane said.
"While the infrastructure upgrades will streamline operations and create efficiency, they're creating employment and work opportunities for hundreds of construction jobs for Logan residents and contractors."
It comes after Logan mayor Darren Power and Jordan MP Charis Mullen visiting the Cedar Grove Environmental Centre last July to see it go online.
The first flow through the $53.7 million centre was the culmination of two years' construction and a decade of planning.
The treatment plant was a Queensland first, council said.
It sits on seven hectares of wetlands, with 120,000 native trees and shrubs, some of Logan's oldest recorded Queensland blue gum trees and more than 20 bird species.
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