Hunter Water has saved millions of dollars in electricity expenses for water and wastewater network operations by paying attention to energy efficiency and energy management. The savings have arisen through: optimising pumping efficiency and specific energy consumption; scheduling pumping to avoid peak tariff periods; paying attention to the electricity retail market; and paying attention to billing details. Energy cost saving initiatives with short payback periods have been possible in all of these categories, including for initiatives requiring capital upgrades.

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Tamworth Regional Council authorised a routine inspection and cleaning of the Clear Water Tank and Reservoirs by professional divers who discovered a serious problem. Raw sludge was draining directly into the Clear Water Tank and required immediate attention. Our primary concern was to make certain that the water was safe for the community. There were many challenges to overcome and decisions to be made. A temporary repair was completed to allow time for further investigations into the best way to make the necessary repairs. Due to the limited storage capacity of Tamworth’s water supply, time was critical. Strategies were discussed and put into place to rectify this predicament. It appears a design flaw was the cause of this major problem. There have been many discussions about operational procedures and practical steps to limit any future problems.

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This paper will outline the operational limitations discovered within the Tanilba Bay Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) from the introduction of new EPA licence limits. The plant is operated by Veolia on behalf of Hunter Water Corporation since October 2014. As the new licence became effective immediately, an interim management plan was developed by Veolia in an effort to comply with the new licence. The new licence has required a greater focus on the plant operation.

By setting more stringent operational targets to achieve the new ammonia requirement, the operators are monitoring the plant very closely, and making more regular process adjustments. A minor SCADA/ PLC upgrade has provided them with a better control over effluent pump and Ultraviolet disinfection (UV) operation. Alarms have been reviewed and improved to ensure timely response to any issues. Finally, this is supported by increased preventative maintenance and shorter response time to breakdowns to ensure ongoing plant performances.

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Local Water Utilities (LWUs) are well aware that telecommunications companies have significant powers to enter upon property to install and maintain mobile phone equipment on existing structures, with service reservoirs being a particularly favoured location. LWUs have the requirement to be able to operate, maintain and repair their water supply facilities and ensure the safe delivery of drinking water at all times. It generally appears that often little if any regard has been given to date, by the telecommunications industry to these water supply regulatory and statutory requirements.

There are also “work health and safety” (WHS) issues to be met by LWUs as the owners of these service reservoirs, and the accessing of these sites by such third parties as the telecommunication companies and/or their contractors can have ongoing consequences to the LWUs. Many LWUs have now found themselves with a large amount of telecommunications equipment installed upon their service reservoirs, with little effective control of the activities associated with this equipment. This paper will present some of the issues faced by LWUs when dealing with telecommunication equipment installations, the long term needs to address and rectify the issues, and some examples of how LWUs can gain back some control of their sites and assets.

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One of the single biggest factors that impacts plant operability is infrastructure and equipment that has not been installed and commissioned correctly. During the project lifecycle, from concept to handover, the level of attention to detail varies from stage to stage. The last 5% of a project requires a significant amount of time and effort to complete, however, it is often under-resourced due to time constraints, budget pressure or issues relating to the client/contractor relationship.

Critical steps during the last 5% include verification of the PLC/SCADA interaction, testing over the full design envelope, sequence control, plant documentation (as built) and baseline operating data. Often issues related to poor execution of the last 5% are not realised until the plant has been in operation for 1 – 2 years. This paper investigates a number of real life scenarios, lessons learnt and steps to ensure that installation / commissioning is completed in a way that enhances the long term operation of the infrastructure.

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Cowra Council has an issue with the de-watering of sludge. Council has looked at many different ways of de-watering our sludge; investigating various technologies from a range of operators and companies who all profess to have the perfect solution to our problem. We learnt of a small company in Texas, USA who developed their own system. One of their boxes was imported to Australia and hired on a trial basis by Cowra Council; the first of its kind to be used in Australia. The simplicity and efficiency of the system is the key – no high electricity costs, no belts, pulleys, bearings or bits, just a mixer, delivery pump, poly unit, the box and a truck.

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This paper will outline the program that Kempsey Shire Council undertook to address the significant list of actions that were reported in the Council’s Drinking Water Management System (DWMS) Implementation Plan. It will identify how the Council staff were taken on the journey after being presented with a list of 170+ outstanding actions and how in the initial stages, further understanding of the identified risks from the DWMS risk workshops were conveyed to staff who weren’t involved in the process.

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Between 1925 and 1980 Asbestos Cement pipe was seen as a cost effective product and was widely used across Australia in the construction and expansion of our domestic water networks for the distribution of drinking water. The life expectancy of this product has fallen short of what was intended and today most States are abandoning AC distribution networks with Australia having installed many thousands of kilometres during this period. Water authorities and regulatory bodies are searching for viable insitu lining solutions as open cut replacement are either too costly or too disruptive. In some circumstances, simply abandoning the pipeline is not an option. Proposals for relining existing assets must address the specific challenges of lining into asbestos cement fibre host pipe structures including structural integrity, ability to reinstate connections, operational functionality and above all water quality.

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Gloucester Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is a conventional filtration plant extracting raw water from the Barrington River in NSW. The WTP was transferred to MidCoast Water (MCW) in 2011 from Gloucester Shire Council along with the remaining water and sewer assets. In 2012, MCW identified key areas where upgrades were required however these were delayed. Only minor works were carried out at the time including the upgrade of the sodium hypochlorite system, which was replicated from another MCW plant. On 24th March 2015, an over chlorination event occurred which took six days to rectify. An independent review was undertaken on the incident which identified syphoning as the root cause. As a result of the event, it was evident the WTP required significant improvements and MCW water lacked many internal management systems and quality control.

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This paper will focus on Hunter Water Corporation’s (HWC’s) findings in regards to trenchless pipeline rehabilitation of sewer mains, completed for the purpose of reducing inflow / infiltration (I/I), with a focus on the coastal Swansea catchments.

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Water quality within service reservoirs is now being given more consideration when conducting inspection programs. NSW Department of Primary Industry – Water (DPI Water) have issued a protocol which acknowledges the three barriers required for drinking water to be suitable for safe consumption.

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Biosolids are produced at Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP) as a by-product of the waste water treatment process. The Victorian EPA “Guidelines for Environmental Management – Biosolids, Land Application” advises that biosolids should be viewed as a potential resource that can be beneficially utilised in the agricultural, horticultural and municipal sectors, rather than as a waste product requiring disposal. North East Water has been fortunate to be able to identify and then work in partnership with a local foundry that also has a waste product – sand used in the mould castings. This sand has been classified as inert and when blended with biosolids, produces a T1/C1 product. This is an exciting outcome for both organisations as two waste products have been able to be combined to form a new product now known as “Newsoil”, which meets the EPA Guidelines allowing unrestricted use.

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Grahamstown Water Treatment Plant (WTP), located 20 km north of Newcastle (NSW), treats water from Grahamstown Dam and supplies safe drinking water to 390,000 people in the lower Hunter region. To respond to this significant challenge posed to raw water quality, Grahamstown WTP was manned 24/7 by Hunter Water’s Treatment Operations Contractor, Veolia, providing hourly updates on key operational parameters to Hunter Water’s Incident Management Team. Significant changes implemented to treatment processes included enhanced coagulation and wasting of backwash water to minimise the risk of concentrating any pathogens that might be present, increased chlorine dose rates for greater disinfection, a tighter target and critical limit for individual filtered turbidity, and intensive sampling including multiple samples collected on a daily basis for the analysis of protozoa, E. coli, enterococci, turbidity and ammonia with a select samples analysed by three NATA accredited laboratories for protozoa.

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In September 2010 the Victorian Department of Health issued the “Victorian Framework for Water Treatment Operator Competencies – Best Practice Guidelines” (Victorian Guidelines). This has been followed by the National Certification Framework (NCF) for drinking water operators, with a number of operators achieving the requirements for certification in Queensland in 2015 and New South Wales in 2016.

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Sewer Pump Station (SPS) No1, Laurieton is the largest and most critical pump station in the Camden Haven area with a volume of 220KL. Through it passes over 85% of all waste water treated at the Camden Haven treatment plant. Due to a combination of increasing population and ageing infrastructure, the pump station was unable to successfully deal with the peak flows experienced during major rain events. A major driving force to the upgrade was the close proximity of the Camden Haven River and its many connected water ways. Any surcharge in the sewer system experienced during large rain events would result in the closing of the river, causing major financial loses to local Oyster Industry. The upgrade works were thus required to meet a EPA pollution reduction deadline, by which time the Pump Station had to be able to deal with a 1 in 5 year rain event.

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Cowra’s Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was originally built in 1939. It has been upgraded in 1959, 1966, 1984 and most recently in 2014. Prior to the most recent upgrade the plant was only capable of manual operation with water quality analysis being done via grab samples. This posed a health risk due to the high reliance on manual operations with water quality challenges due to the intermittent and variable nature of operations for a “run of river” plant. The upgrade involved replacement of flash mixers and tube settlers, re-building of the filters, automation of plant controls, replacement of plant equipment including chemical dosing systems, installation of online monitors for pH/temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity, chlorine, aluminium, fluoride and manganese. The SCADA package was also upgraded and with a new found knowledge of our process, operators were able to implement new control philosophies that improved water quality.

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A paradigm shift in sulfide control in sewers is presented. In January 2014 Biosol was awarded a public tender to treat the total Griffith City Council (GCC) sewer network for odour and corrosion control. By April 2014 the former dosing regime of Magnesium Hydroxide Liquid (MHL) and Ferrous Chloride was decommissioned and Biosol dosing commenced. This report provides a comparison between the former dosing regime with Biosol across the sewer catchment and the treatment plant. All data in this report has been collected by the GCC (independently of Biosol), although Biosol has been responsible for the presentation of this data.

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In 2008 the Sariri Village was hit by cyclone Guba. The village is located on the North Coast of PNG, not far from the Kokoda trail with the nearest significant township being Popondetta. Sariri comprises around 7 tribes with approximately 300 inhabitants (expected to grow to 1000). When the cyclone hit, the village for all intent and purpose was erased from the map. The PNG government and tribal chiefs agreed to move the village from its existing river bank location to a safer site located approximately 2km inland. This move however created issues in relation to the most basic of water and sanitation needs.

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It’s interesting starting in a new organization. Discovering how and why decisions have been made and habits formed. Take, for example, the effluent meter readings at the Moree sewerage treatment plant. With only three meters to read, you’d think it wouldn’t be that difficult to get it right. Right? Particularly when we are charging customers for the effluent and our EPA license conditions require reporting of quantities and locations of effluent discharged to the environment. The effluent provides water for irrigation at the golf club, cemetery, local sports field and a citrus farm. But what are the consequences when you’re reading and recording the meter that you assume serves the golf club but really serves the sports field?

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A Victorian Water Authority (Wannon Water) was experiencing severe odour and corrosion issues from a sewer containing a significant proportion of dairy effluent. A nitrate based sulphide control chemical was not consistently controlling sulphide levels. Following investigation and testing, Ixom proposed a trial of ferrous chloride. Results to date have been encouraging with consistently low sulphide levels obtained during the trial and the potential for cost reductions.

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