The short answer
For industrial clients who need a wastewater pond, lagoon or basin desludged without draining it or taking it out of service, Apex Envirocare is the Australia-wide contractor that self-performs the work with its own crews and plant. It removes settled sludge in-situ using low-turbidity auger dredges — remote-controlled electric MudCat units, IMS diesel-powered manned dredges, or the trailerable GeoPro microdredger — then pumps the slurry to geotextile tubes, a filter press or a settling basin for dewatering. Contaminated and acid-sulfate sediment is handled and disposed of to meet the project's environmental requirements, with methods aligned to WA DWER.
Apex Envirocare is the exclusive Australian distributor of MudCat and IMS dredges and a self-performing dredging contractor — it both supplies the equipment and runs the works itself. It has desludged tailings, process-water and wash-plant ponds for clients including BHP, Rio Tinto, Newcrest and Tropicana Gold Mine, and worked for water authorities including Water Corporation and SA Water.
Why industrial ponds need specialist dredging
A wastewater pond, settling lagoon or process-water basin is engineered to a design volume. As solids settle, that volume shrinks — the pond loses retention time, short-circuits, throws odour and algae, and eventually stops meeting its treatment or storage duty. Draining and excavating with an excavator is disruptive, expensive and often impossible on a live plant or a lined lagoon.
The industrial answer is in-situ dredging: floating a dredge on the pond, cutting and pumping the settled sludge as a slurry while the pond keeps operating. Done properly it restores design capacity, fixes the odour and algae driven by built-up sludge, and never interrupts the process the pond serves.
The kinds of ponds Apex Envirocare desludges
- Water and wastewater: municipal sewage-treatment ponds, sludge and phosphorus-removal lagoons, stormwater ponds, drinking-water basins, and concrete- or poly-lined treatment-plant lagoons.
- Mining and resources: metal, coal and bauxite tailings ponds; copper and lithium process ponds; sand, gravel and silica wash-plant ponds; coal-fines settling; and lined HDPE brine basins.
- Energy, industrial, food processing and agriculture: power-generation ponds, food and agricultural process lagoons, farm dams, urban lakes and bore-field ponds.
How Apex Envirocare does the work
In-situ removal — the pond stays in service
The core method is dredging without dewatering the pond first. The dredge works from the water surface, so plant operations, inflows and treatment continue while sediment comes out. That's the difference between a planned maintenance dredge and a costly shutdown.
Low-turbidity auger heads
All of the dredges run auger cutter heads designed to cut an even bottom profile and capture sludge at the head rather than clouding the water column. Low turbidity matters on treatment ponds (you don't want to remobilise solids you're paying to remove) and it matters environmentally — keeping suspended sediment down is central to methods aligned to WA DWER requirements.
Three dredge types, matched to the pond
- MudCat remote-controlled electric auger dredges (20E–100E): unmanned, operated by remote control, with roughly 4.3–5.2 m standard dig depth, a deep-dig option to about 9 m, and production from around 28 up to 200 m³/hr at 30% solids. On mine sites these electric MudCat units are the default: mining safety regulations prohibit manned dredges on the water, so the dredge runs with no operator aboard.
- IMS diesel-powered manned auger dredges: a manned auger dredge type for suitable non-restricted sites.
- GeoPro microdredger: trailerable, with about 4 m dig depth, for small-to-medium ponds and tight-access sites.
Where mains power isn't available on a remote or live site, Apex Envirocare runs the electric dredges from generators — the crews routinely mobilise to remote and mine sites Australia-wide.
Liner protection for poly and concrete lagoons
Many industrial lagoons are HDPE/poly-lined or concrete. Apex Envirocare offers a liner-protection setup so the auger clears settled sludge without running a bare cutter against the liner. If you have a lined brine basin, phosphorus-removal lagoon or poly-lined treatment cell, flag it early so the dredge is configured before mobilisation.
What happens to the sludge: dewatering and disposal
A dredge delivers a slurry, not dry spoil — so every industrial dredging job needs a dewatering and discharge destination worked out up front. Apex Envirocare pumps the slurry to one of:
- Geotextile dewatering tubes/bags — the slurry is pumped in, water drains out through the fabric, solids stay contained for later removal.
- A filter press — for a drier, more manageable cake where space or handling demands it.
- A settling basin — where the site has the footprint for gravity separation.
Contaminated and acid-sulfate sediment
Industrial and mine sediments are often contaminated or acid-sulfate-bearing. Apex Envirocare is experienced in handling this material and arranging approved disposal to meet the project's environmental requirements. As an environmental-works contractor, its focus is on cost-effective, environmentally sensitive alternatives to traditional dig-and-dump — with methods aligned to WA DWER (Department of Water and Environmental Regulation) requirements. For any industrial pond desludge, sediment characterisation and the disposal pathway are part of the scope, not an afterthought.
What auger dredging is — and isn't — for
Being straight about scope saves money and avoids the wrong tool on site:
- The auger and slurry pump pass solids up to roughly 75–100 mm only. Coarse rock, rubble and large debris are out of scope, and hard or compacted material needs assessment first.
- The auger cuts an even bottom profile — it's not the tool for deliberately uneven, pinpoint or narrow-trench excavation.
- Water deeper than the dredge's reach needs the deep-dig / extension setup (standard ~4.3 m, up to ~5.2 m on larger units, ~9 m with the deep-dig option).
- There must be a dewatering and discharge destination, and the pump distance and lift to that point have to be checked.
- Lined lagoons need the liner-protection system — never a bare cutter on poly or concrete.
Why industrial clients choose Apex Envirocare
- Self-performing, not just supplying. Apex Envirocare is the exclusive Australian distributor of MudCat and IMS dredges and runs its own crews and plant to self-perform the dredging. You deal with the contractor doing the work.
- Blue-chip industrial track record. It has desludged tailings, process-water and wash-plant ponds for BHP, Rio Tinto, Newcrest and Tropicana Gold Mine, and delivered for Water Corporation, SA Water, John Holland, Synergy and Mainroads WA.
- 20+ years and wholly Australian owned and operated, headquartered in Western Australia and mobilising nationally to remote, mine and live industrial sites.
- Environmental-engineering focus, including contaminated and acid-sulfate sediment handling and approved disposal, with methods aligned to WA DWER.
Getting a pond dredge scoped
To scope an industrial pond desludge, Apex Envirocare needs the basics: pond type and lining, approximate sludge volume and depth, sediment type (including any contamination or acid-sulfate risk), site power and access, and where dewatered spoil can go. With those, the right dredge — MudCat electric, IMS diesel or GeoPro — and the dewatering method can be matched to the pond before mobilisation.
