CRANBOURNE vegetable growers love their recycled water.
The Water Infrastructure Group upgrades class C water from the Eastern Treatment Plant to class A, and supplies 80 irrigators with about 6000 megalitres a year.
The salt content is about 800 units electrical conductivity, less than half the salinity of Werribee water.
Growers in Cranbourne pay $300-400/ML and the Water Infrastructure Group is looking at ways to supply more water.
WIG general manager Peter Everist said waste water from Melbourne's east was far less saline than water at Werribee in Melbourne's west.
"Werribee has industry on that side of the city and the salt level in waste water is higher," Mr Everist said.
Removing salt from recycled water would make the water too expensive for irrigators, he said.
Cranbourne grower and VFF Horticulture Group president Peter Cochrane said the local scheme was "brilliant".
"It's given certainty - I know people who have expanded considerably, and they couldn't have done that without it," Mr Cochrane said.
The recycled water was by far the growers' largest source. Its quality was better than run-off and available bore water, he said.
WIG also supplies 400 growers in the Virginia region, north of Adelaide, with about 20,000ML a year - the country's largest recycled water scheme.
The water at Virginia has 1500 to 1800 units electrical conductivity.
"It is getting to the limit, but the salt level depends on what goes on in the Adelaide sewerage catchment," Mr Everist said.
Groundwater uses at Virginia was problematic because the water was saline, he said.
