The water industry has lacked a system for recording plant performance data conducted and water quality sampled by Operators. Ten years ago Wannon Water and Goulburn Valley Water combined to address this issue, however the vendor was based overseas, the system was quite complex and the lack of sufficient resources by both water corporations meant the technology was outdated before the system was fully built. Fast forward to 2011 – Wannon Water and Goulburn Valley employed the services of a Victorian company to deliver a modern, industry specific system.

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The Queensland Water Directorate (qldwater) through its Water Skills Partnership Program has commenced an initiative which takes the first tangible steps towards a Certification program for Drinking Water Treatment Operators in Queensland. The Pilot, in partnership with WIOA, is being delivered as part of national efforts to test the National Certification Framework under the oversight of the Water Industry Skills Taskforce. Similar trials have commenced in NSW.

Around 25 to 30 individual operators from 5 different organisations (Seqwater, Toowoomba Regional Council, Bundaberg Regional Council, Longreach Regional Council and Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council) are participating in the Pilot.

The two key drivers for this work are: to provide better access to nationally benchmarked training and professional development, including for operators in smaller organisations and in rural and remote areas; and to establish clear career paths in the industry including formal recognition of the skills and expertise of the State’s many long-serving operators.

The support for a future Certification program is significant, including recognition as a key initiative in the State’s 30 Year Water Sector Strategy. Water service provision across Queensland is challenging, and this initiative has the potential to provide real public health benefits in the long term, for a relatively small initial investment.

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The Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) was formed in 2008 with the amalgamation of Toowoomba City Council and 7 surrounding shires. TRC operates with an annual budget approaching $550m and an asset base totalling $3.2b. Approximately 1,600 full time staff are employed covering a geographical area of nearly 13,000 km2. Potable water is supplied to over 135,000 people, with 44,000 sewer connections including 1,600 trade waste generators producing 7,400 ML of waste water per year.

In March 2009 TRC considered a number of recommendations under the “Toowoomba Regional Sewage Strategy (GHD)” to upgrade or replace aging Wastewater Treatment Plants across the region. The focus of the report was to build a new Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) to accommodate the wastewater treatment requirements in the southern regions. This facility was to be located at Wyreema and was known as the Southern Regional WRF. Phase two of the scheme was to pump wastewater from central and northern regions to Toowoomba’s primary WRF Wetalla. This phase included construction of a sludge thickener capable of much better supernatant recovery and directing thickened sludge from the Mt Kynoch Water Treatment Plant to Wetalla via a gravity sewer. These projects were grouped together into a single contract and was known as the Toowoomba Wastewater Infrastructure Projects.

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Typical limits to indicate an acceptable level of sewage treatment for release to a non-sensitive environment or for municipal irrigation reuse are 20mg/L biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and 30mg/L suspended solids (SS). This paper describes the overhaul carried out to the Biggenden sewage treatment plant in North Burnett to achieve this standard.

The plant comprised bar screen, grit channels, Imhoff tank, trickling filter, three facultative lagoons in series and chlorine disinfection. Prior to the overhaul the average effluent BOD was 30mg/L and SS was highly variable but averaging 100mg/L courtesy of algae.

The overhaul included repairs to the Imhoff tank settling chamber and desludging of the ponds. Upgrade items included a mechanical screen, new sludge drying beds, improved hydraulics and partitioning in the first two ponds and conversion of the third pond to a rock filter.

The upgraded plant was commissioned in June 2013. In the six months to March 2014 the average BOD has been 4mg/L and SS 2mg/L. Perhaps just as significantly, the thermotolerant coliform level has been below 1,000 cfu/100mL (Class C) without chlorination – suitable for irrigation of the adjacent golf course.

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Despite fundamental similarities in the core processes used in the water treatment industry, every water treatment plant has its own unique characteristics. Operating philosophies are developed to optimise performance of coagulation, flocculation, settling/floatation and filtration in any given facility. It is when the typical or average conditions and quality of raw water vary significantly, that the drive to innovate to improve process capacity becomes a ‘must do’ rather than a ‘nice to do’, and where ground can be broken in order to resolve problems and bridge the gap between the theories of plant design and operation, and the reality of making it work today.

Successful resolution of issues arising due to changing environmental conditions, natural disasters or other influences beyond the control or scope of plant designers, constructors and operators requires a structured approach and attention to detail. Accurate jar testing procedures combined with thorough working knowledge of plant capacity are essential, the knowledge and ideas of a wide range of people needs to be combined and one needs to think outside the box to resolve situations that are themselves outside the box of standard operating conditions.

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In early 2013, qldwater secured a grant from Skills Queensland (now the Department of Education, Training and Employment) to undertake a project trial, focussed on technical development and up-skilling for drinking water treatment operators in regional and remote locations. The main focus of the project is to provide workforce development activities such as mentoring, sound planning and upskilling, to improve services to communities, and build regional networks to better support these key roles. The project targets two key regions: Longreach and Central West Queensland and Burnett and Toowoomba regions and surrounds.

The first stage of the project, the initial technical assessment site visits, took place in the Longreach region in September and Burnett region in November. A total of 22 water treatment plants were visited by the technical consultants as part of these visits. A full technical report for each treatment plant, including suggested improvement actions, was provided to each Council involved in the project.

Regional operator training workshops for both Longreach and Burnett region were held in March and April 2014. These training workshops, conducted by the technical consultants in collaboration with qldwater, provide practical training aimed at addressing some of the skills/training gaps identified during the technical visits.

The project has also developed a mentoring framework to promote operator information sharing and exchange programs and is exploring options to encourage collaboration on training and workforce planning. Feedback on the project to date has been very positive and communication strategies and a continuity plan will be developed to ensure the outcomes and learnings can be applied in other regions.

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Coombabah sewage treatment plant secondary treatment stage includes a 5 stage Bardenpho configured bioreactor with an ethanol dosing facility that provides an additional carbon source to denitrifying bacteria to further reduce nitrogen in the wastewater. Ethanol dosing optimisation was undertaken as part of the plant-wide optimisation initiatives and results from the trial showed that ethanol dosing was not required to reduce the nitrogen concentration in the mixed liquor in the bioreactor, and that manipulating the internal recirculation rates and aeration set-points was sufficient to reduce nitrogen to within the licence limits. Ceasing ethanol dosing into this bioreactor is estimated to result in considerable cost savings of $181,000 per year.

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In Jimboomba we have an effluent lagoon that holds 20 ML of recycled water from the Jimboomba Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). This STP has a zero discharge to river, stream and any other waterways required by the Development Approval (DA). The treated wastewater is used to irrigate a golf course and horse paddocks located near the STP. Before 2010, drought conditions meant the demand for reuse water exceeded what could be supplied to this lagoon. Since 2009/2010 with the floods and high rainfall wet seasons, the reuse demand has been lower than normal.

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Thiess Asset and Infrastructure Services regularly provides advice to clients on how to best operate and maintain its assets to maximise value for the short and long term. This improves the performance and reliability of assets and develops innovative strategies to manage its spares and critical stocks.

In 2013, Thiess embarked upon a series of initiatives to understand the rationale behind existing stock levels and types of stock held for a Queensland water services provider. Following a review of the stock items and remaining asset life, Thiess identified potential savings for the client of around $500,000 for the 2014-2015 financial year.

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As part of the Queensland Government’s water reform program, Unitywater began operations on 1 July 2010, which included inheriting a “Design, Build and Operate” contract for the Redcliffe Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). Shortly after taking responsibility for the plant, Unitywater proceeded to calculate the contractor’s fee payments with a significant reduction (in accordance with contractual mechanisms) for regular effluent quality licence exceedances and commenced performance management activities (e.g. audits, condition assessments, requests for Action Plans) in regards to: Significant safety and security issues, Licence compliances issues (odour and effluent quality), Maintenance and housekeeping issues (significant deterioration was apparent on structures and mechanical & electrical equipment).

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The Lowood Water Treatment Plant is located in South East Queensland and sources its raw water from the mid Brisbane River. Leading up to the January 2011 flood, the area received a large amount of rainfall. This impacted sludge handling by restricting the ability to get sufficient drying time for the 10 drying beds, which hold approximately 40m3 of wet sludge each. During normal dry conditions, the drying beds are an efficient method of sludge handling at the plant, with two beds being on duty at a time. It would take approximately two weeks for the beds to fill (depending on raw water quality and production rates), then it would take approximately three weeks to dry during summer and four to six weeks to dry during winter.

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This end-to-end wireless networking solutions paper provides an overview on how to deliver a complete networking solution for differing water applications. Such applications can include: pump station control, real-time treatment plant monitoring, early flood-warning systems, level monitoring/alarms, and infrastructure upgrades. This paper covers how to scope the application requirements, details on frequency spectrum and protocols; followed an application example of a water and wastewater system.

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The presence of Hydrogen Sulphide gas (H2S) in sewers can result in hazardous work environments, odour complaints and accelerated corrosion of assets. In the water industry, we are all familiar with the impacts of H2S gas in sewers, pump station wells, discharge manholes and treatment plants.

H2S gas problems generally occur after the infrastructure has been built. Therefore, operators are typically the front line when odour complaints are received or H2S gas is detected.

This paper discusses the challenges operators face due to H2S gas, how it is generated, how H2S gas corrodes our assets, odour and corrosion examples, accepted removal/treatment technologies, what can be done to reduce H2S gas generation and typical repair techniques.

Controlling H2S gas and repairing corroded infrastructure is achieved by the combined efforts of operators and engineers. Treatment and reduction options can be developed by knowing how much and how often the H2S gas occurs. Examples of H2S gas management are presented. Practical, low cost strategies in reducing H2S gas are also discussed.

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Wujal Wujal community is located approx 4 hours drive north of Cairns (the final houron dirt road) and it has a maximum population of 480 (ABS quotes 354) persons and is in a world heritage delcared area. It is a small community with no industry and a very small rateable base consisting of state housing, a hospital and a police station.

The community sources its water from the Bloomfield River, a supply with extremely variable water quality and high tannins and turbidity loads. In 2006, to protect public health, the government funded the installation of a micro filtration plant capable of producing 21 L/s. This plant was welcomed by the community, as for the first time they could rely on the water quality as suitable for all uses.

Around 4 years later, the reticulation mains and house supply lines were also upgraded from asbestos to 150mm poly and meters were added to the system and houses. At the same time, the STP plant was upgraded from septic tanks to an activated sludge BNR.

At no time had a specific onsite investigation been done into actual water consumption/end uses and more importantly, the ongoing cost of maintaining the systems or methods of controlling costs in the future.

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Sugar syrup is used at Bucasia Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Mackay Qld to assist in the removal of nitrogen from the wastewater. A number of issues have been encountered in its use including the type used, the temperature it is delivered at and process problems and solutions. This will be useful for other operators where sugar syrup is proposed or being used.

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Thermal stratification in water bodies is a major factor that creates a favourable environment for infestations of algal and aquatic weed species. Infestations of algal and aquatic weed species place limitations on the operational integrity and the aesthetic value of a water body.

Thermal stratification can be overcome via the introduction of aerators and/or water circulators. Generally, the aerators and/or water circulators employed are powered by 240 Volt or 415 Volt mains power.

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Landers Shute Advanced Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is situated in the Sunshine Coast hinterland between the townships of Palmwoods and Montville. Landers Shute WTP Stage 1 primarily consisted of conventional WTP technology and commenced operations in 1989 with a design capacity of 87ML/d. Stage 1 utilised some modern, innovative technology with hydro electricity generation on the incoming raw water main, which produced enough power to run the WTP and also export substantial energy benefits to the power grid.

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Horizon Shores is a marina located approximately 50 km from Logan. The marina is not connected to town water and in the past the drinking water was provided by some treated rain water supplemented by significant volumes of potable water that had to be trucked in.

In November 2013, Walker Environmental designed and installed a GE pre-engineered reverse osmosis (RO) plant purchased from Water Equipment Plus. The water source for the RO is brackish ground water, drawn up through water spears which have been drilled into the sand to a depth of 4m. The feed water has an elevated salt level of between 800 and 1,000 ppm. Walker Environmental are now operating the unit for Horizon Shores and the RO is operating reliably to provide 27 kL/d of water to the marina. As trucking water in is expensive, the payback for the project will be less than 12 months.

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In 2009, East Gippsland Water (EGW) made the long term water security decision to build a 20ML per day dissolved air flotation and filtration water treatment plant (WTP) to supply its largest customer base within the Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance region.

Like all major projects, the construction and commissioning of the new WTP was not without its issues. The one that would prove to be the most difficult to solve, extremely frustrating and time consuming for operators, was the operation of the WTP’s washwater facilities, and in particular, the centrifuge. After many months and a great deal of expense in contractor call-outs, employee time and overtime attempting to maintain operation of the centrifuge, EGW contacted a neighbouring water corporation who had a very similar washwater system. They obligingly offered their time, experience and facilities which resulted in some significant findings and recommendations for potential improvements to assist with the operation of our centrifuge.

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Once water leaves a treatment plant and enters a distribution system, the pathway which the water takes and the time it remains in the system can be hard to determine. Water age is a major factor in water quality deterioration within the water distribution system. If water age can be determined, it has the potential to assist operators with the day to day operational decisions they are required to make.

During routine maintenance at Northern Water Treatment Plant (NWTP), the fluoride system was taken offline. Townsville Water decided to use this opportunity to undertake a water age study using fluoride as its chemical tracer; fluoride is suitable as it is chemically stable and its short term absence from treated water is safe as fluoride is not required to disinfect.

The project has had two main benefits for distribution system operation. Firstly, flushing programs have been streamlined to target problem areas; this has resulted in less wastage of water and has allowed staff to approach this task more systematically and purposefully compared to past approaches. Secondly, data collected has been used to model chlorine decay in the region; this information was used to assist with setting limits in Townsville Water’s Drinking Water Quality Management Plan (DWQMP).

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The Rainwater Harvesting Association of Australia presented material to its members in 2013/14 about the state of the industry. The changing nature of rainwater harvesting showed a complex mix of policy, environmental, economic and industry factors at work. By analysing this mix the RHAA committee hopes to identify barriers and opportunities, for the water industry and government policy makers.

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