2017 – 11th WIOA NSW Water Industry Operations Conference and Exhibition

29 & 30 March 2017 at the Exhibition Park in Canberra

Hosted by: Icon Water and
Prime Sponsors:  Calix, Hach, Ixom and Xylem

The following papers are listed in order of the conference program

Solids handling and disposal at Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre Shane Dyson & Eric Nielsen Icon Water

+Abstract

The Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre (LMWQCC) solids handling process is unique in that it processes solids using the only large Sewage Sludge Incinerators (SSI) in Australia. The other unique fact being that the sterile by-product ash is disposed from site and sold as “Agri Ash” an agricultural soil conditioner.

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Blower technologies and energy efficiency opportunities Jeff Coyle – KAESER Compressors

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The operating principles of today’s Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) are permanently under review against world best practice. Not only does the right treatment selection play a vital role, but the energy efficiency is also of utmost importance with energy consumption a major cost factor during the lifetime cycle of installed equipment. It is no longer good enough to purchase individual components. Plant managers, design engineers and consultants must work together to find world best practice system solutions for today’s needs that flexibility cater for future requirements. With ever increasing energy costs, it is vital to understand the importance of the working principles of compressed air equipment, and its influence on the overall plant performance and lifecycle cost. Knowing that energy is the single highest operating cost in a WWTP, where blowers for aeration play a crucial role, knowledge of the different blower operating principles is important.

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Upgrade to Calala Water Treatment Plant pneumatics and controllers Norm Priestly & Rick Cowley – Tamworth Regional Council

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Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) Mechanical staff were engaged to assess the operation of the Calala Water Treatment filtration control system. The system was comprised of antiquated 240v electric/air solenoids with pneumatic cylinders and was identified to not meet Council’s Work, Health and Safety (WH&S) requirements with a number of quality and operational issues also raised. Based on the assessment a new system was successfully designed and installed by the TRC fitters.

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Journey to discovering DAFF limitations and identifying process improvements at Googong WTP Alice Liao – Icon Water

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Canberra: Stromlo Water Treatment Plant and Googong Water Treatment Plant. Following the Canberra bushfires in 2003, both plants were upgraded simultaneously in 2004. Due to issues outside the control of the project team, process commissioning and
proving of the GWTP Stage 2 Upgrade Project was limited when the plant was prematurely parked.

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Ice Pigging – a targeted approach to mains cleaning Alan Duke – Suez

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Ice Pigging is a relatively new technology in which an ice-slurry is inserted into a main as a liquid and once pressurised, creates a solid ‘pig’ which conforms to the inside of the main offering an alternative to conventional swabbing without the need to do any major modifications to the main. This property allows ice pigging to be utilised for different applications including cleaning transfer and trunk mains with a high sediment content as well as cleaning reticulation networks which experience high numbers of customer complaints due to discoloured water.

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Commissioning of activated sludge plant at the Dubbo Sewerage Treatment Plant Prakashbabu Radhakrishnan – Dubbo Regional Council

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The Dubbo STP Major Upgrade is the third joint venture project built by CCB Envico and Cockram. The upgrade ensures Dubbo has adequate facilities in place to serve the needs of an estimated population of up to 55,000 people in 2035. The new Plant was constructed with the existing STP with a new biological nutrient removal plant.

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Manganese removal at Bathurst WTP David Cashen – Bathurst Regional Council

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Bathurst Regional Council caters for an estimated 40,000 population at any one time and over a period of many years, has suffered due to the naturally occurring minerals Iron and Manganese.

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Dewatering centrifuge optimisation – a better way Lachlan McTaggart – Sydney Water

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The disposal of dewatered biosolids has both significant cost and environmental implications. The varying nature of feed sludge and poor understanding of the dewatering process make it difficult to fully optimise. In addition, the commonly applied one factor at a time optimisation approach is time consuming and only achieves adequate not optimal performance.

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Rehabilitation of Victoria Street Raw Water Pumping Station Geoff Lewis – Federation Council

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The Victoria St water supply pump station pumps water through an in-river gravel media filter bed built for the purpose of providing clean water to the town of Corowa. The gravel filter cannot be easily cleaned and this paper reports on its development, the method of backwashing and the level of success of recent rehabilitation work. It demonstrates the importance of realistic planning to meet customer expectations and the high operational costs associated with projects proposed on low capital expenditure budgets and the importance of good design which considers operational costs as important as capital costs.

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Disinfection of a major trunk main Danny Roberts – Port Macquarie-Hastings Council

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The Southern Arm Trunk Main (SATM) project is a major component of the ongoing augmentation of Port Macquarie-Hastings Councils (PMHC) Bulk Water Scheme. When complete the Southern Arm Trunk Main will provide a direct link between Cowarra Dam and the Camden Haven region. In 2016, construction of a 10.5km section of The Southern Arm Trunk Main was completed in the Bonny Hills area. This paper outlines the planning of the disinfection of this trunk main. This is the largest disinfection task attempted by our Water Treatment Operators and presented many new challenges.

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Learnings from damaged chlorine valves and examples of best practices Dmitri Labachevsky – Ixom

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In early 2016 there have been a number of Chlorine Institute valves that developed a crack and reported by Australian customers. These valves are used on chlorine cylinders and drums. The location of cracks was consistently above the valve seat which made it possible to isolate the leak path by closing the valves. In total there were 5 Chlorine Institute valves that failed, which makes up 0.1% of annual container valve consumption by Ixom. An investigation was performed to identify the mode of failure. It was performed by a team of Ixom Engineers with assistance from ALS Industrial.

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Investigating the benefit of utilising fish in sewage treatment – Best Paper Overall Victoria 2016 Ben Pohlner – Wannon Water

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Wannnon Water has been undertaking a research and development project to determine the impact of fish on the accumulation of sludge in lagoon based sewage treatment plants. Trials have been underway for 7 years in partnership with Deakin University. Tank trials using primary effluent show fish can reduce the total volume of sludge up to 46% over 70 days. Full scale trials are now underway at Hamilton and Port Campbell Water Reclamation Plants (WRP’s) to quantify the impact of fish in primary lagoon systems. This paper gives an outline of the research undertaken, what we currently know, and the potential for this innovative technology in the Water Industry.

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Curlewis Pump Station chlorination upgrade Brock Stone – Gunnedah Shire Council

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In 2016, Gunnedah Shire Council planned a major upgrade to the Curlewis Pump Station and chlorination site. We had to take into consideration that this site is the only water source for Curlewis so an uninterrupted supply would have to be maintained during the build. These bores will more than likely be discontinued in the future due to the hardness of the ground water and a proposed pipeline extending to the village from Gunnedah. The pipeline will be a long term project as it will require pipeline over 15 km in order to provide the village with Quality water however we needed to fix the current problem of the dilapidated building and aging chlorination system regardless of future plans. We also had to recognise and overcome the limited budget that was given for this project.

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Port Macquarie STP sludge dewatering optimisation Wayne Ducat – Port Macquarie-Hastings Council

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This paper outlines the trial of blending activated and digested sludge for treatment at our onsite Dewatering system at the Port Macquarie Wastewater Treatment Facility. The strategy was trialled with a view of implementing permanently as an optimisation opportunity to manage the ever increasing sludge volumes. The trial firstly assessed the compatibility of blended sludge with our existing dewatering system in regards to plant operation, chemical dosing and sludge cake moisture content. It will also convey the viability of permanent implementation into the process.

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Improving operations through better project management Jason Ip – Riverina Water County Council

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This paper outlines the ways in which projects and operations are linked, and how water operators can improve their operations through greater involvement in project management. Projects and operations are often seen as competing objectives that are managed and delivered in different ways. Projects are viewed as the ‘glamourous’ side of the water industry with numerous award ceremonies celebrating multi-million dollar projects. Operations is often only considered when it comes time to analyse an organisation’s performance, with a focus on efficiency and sustainability. Rather than treat projects and operations as two distinct and separate functions, integrating both functions can improve overall outcomes for water utilities.

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Understanding backflow prevention – the things you need to know Peter McLennan – Backflow Prevention Association of Australia

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Design, installation and hydraulics of backflow prevention devices. Understanding the pressure drop and flow restrictions. Backflow prevention devices have become an integral part of the water supply asset. With the protection of the drinking water being paramount, backflow prevention is required by the Plumbing Code at any connection that is subject to being affected by a cross connection. The operation and subsequent restraints backflow prevention devices present is not well understood.

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Implementing and managing Sydney Water’s backflow prevention device register James Milton – Sydney Water

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A progressive policy developed and implemented to manage Sydney Water’s connection requirements for installing and testing backflow containment devices in SydneyWater’s area of operation.

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What is backflow & Queensland backflow prevention Local Government management requirements Stephen Jennison – Moreton Bay Regional Council

Old filters in a new world – an operators perspective Mick Hearn & Justin Miller – Tamworth Regional Council

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Tamworth’s main Conventional Water Treatment Plant [Calala] was commissioned in the 1980’s. The 80 mega litre plant has 12 filters. In 2016 we had numerous concerns of high NTU which affected a number of the filters. We conducted a series of tests on the filters which concluded that we would need to replace the media, and that was just the start of our problems! 

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Incident at Yering Gorge Pumping Station. How what you don’t know can hurt you Best Operator Paper Victoria 2016 –
John de Boer – Melbourne Water

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On the 12th of May, 2015, a sequence events began that, 10 days later, would culminate in a major hydraulic incident leaving the Yering Gorge pumping station critically damaged and exposing the operator on site to significant risk. This event would result in the station being out of operation for two months before partial pumping could be reinstated and a total of eight months before the station would again operate at its full capacity. The ultimate cost of this incident included approximately 10 Gigalitres of lost water harvest and a significant restoration operation costing over $1.2 million.

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Riverina Water’s energy efficiency and cost minimisation journey – the story thus far Mr Jason Ip – Riverina Water County Council

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No mistake, Riverina Water’s journey did not begin easily… As many people would agree, it’s difficult for any organisations to introduce energy cost minimisation programs if they don’t understand the administrative, technical, economic and operational environments in which they operate. Riverina Water’s programmed commenced 3 years ago and Riverina Water is now benefitting from cost savings totalling $0.5M per year. It demonstrates that with a little understanding of energy pricing, tariff structures, and basic electrical theory, organisations can also obtain cost savings with good payback periods.

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