March 2015 Queensland Branch Newsletter

President’s Report by Matt Dawson

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I hope the first quarter of 2015 is treating all of our members well. I’m sure all of our AWA fraternity was thinking of our industry colleagues in Rockhampton and Central Queensland during the recent Tropical Cyclone Marcia event. I’m sure we all understand more than most about the behind the scenes impacts that such events can have on our water and wastewater systems. We can empathise with teams in the region who have been and will be working hard for weeks and maybe months after the event to fully recover their respective systems. As an industry in Queensland we haven’t had any shortage of chances to prove our mettle in recent years, but I’m sure the dedicated professionals in the region will once again prove the resilience of our industry in Queensland.

During the first quarter of 2015, AWA in Queensland has already been busy and will continue to gain momentum with a series of events and meetings:

• Peter Dennis, CEO of Seqwater, kicked off our Knowledge Program with an excellent overview of Seqwater’s history and future.

• The NQWater Conference organising committee is in the process of putting together the program for this year’s event in July in Cairns with the call for abstracts having closed.

• On 11 March we have a fascinating presentation lined up from CSIRO on “What technology will the water industry be buying tomorrow?”

• On the 18 and 19 March AWA will be holding an Innovation Forum in Sydney. This promises to be a ground-breaking event format for AWA and should generate some very interesting outcomes.

• Our Branch Vice President Sandra Hall and I will attend AWA’s twice yearly Strategic Advisory Council meeting with the Board, timed to coincide with the Innovation Forum in March.

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• Also on the 19th March, our Young Water Professionals will be hosting a networking event in Brisbane.

During the first quarter it has also been heartening to welcome support for our events program from two new partners in QUU’s SAS Laboratory and Leadership Management Australasia. For details on the events program, please refer to AWA’s web site, which is the key reference point for upcoming activities (http://www.awa.asn.au/events.aspx?state=qld).

I would like to congratulate our new Government in Queensland and take this opportunity to welcome the new Ministers who will be working with the water industry, particularly the new Minister for Energy and Water Supply, Mark Bailey. The AWA Queensland Branch will be seeking constructive ways to engage with the new Government to represent issues important to our membership.

We also extend our thanks to the previous Minister for Energy and Water Supply, Mark McCardle who helped to create a constructive two way dialogue with AWA and other important industry bodies.

I again encourage all of you to plan ahead for a submission to the Branch Awards program. The submission process will commence in the second quarter, with the awards happening at the Gala Dinner in September. Winners from the Queensland Branch can also continue our fine tradition of featuring prominently in the national awards at OzWater in 2016.

During the second quarter we will also be undertaking a call for papers for QWater, our SEQ Regional Conference, so that is another important opportunity to keep in mind.

As always, please feel free to drop me an email on qldpresident@awa.asn.au with your ideas or comments.

QLD YWP

The QLD Young Water Professional committee has been hard at work over the summer putting together a program of events well suited towards YWPs across the state and in line with the new accreditation process being rolled out across the country. As we speak, our first networking event for the year is going ahead on Thursday, 19th March with a theme based on developing your networks in order to build a successful career in the water industry. We feel that networking is extremely important for YWPs and registration fees have been minimised to lower any financial barriers, which are commonly burdening young professionals. Registration fees for members is $10,

Providing a balance of networking, professional development and industry engagement activities is at the heart of our minds. In doing so we have engaged the YWP profession across the state in a recent survey to seek their views on how we can provide them with the events and information they require to get the most value out of their AWA membership. 47 people completed the survey, which closed on 8th March 2015.

An area to highlight was a lack of understanding about whether the individual regarded themselves as a YWP or not. We will endeavour to clarify this confusion on both an individual and industry group level this year. Other survey outcomes indicated that individuals were likely to attend events that focused on project management skills as well as team leadership & management. In a positive sign, the majority of respondents signaled they were willing to attend a minimum of one event hosted by the YWP committee this year with a heavy emphasis on attending professional development workshops.

The committee looks forward to continually working towards meeting the needs of our membership base however welcomes further feedback as to how we can improve. Any suggestions can be sent to our QLD YWP State President: Charlotte Spliethoff at charlotte.spliethoff@gmail.com

Upcoming events Networking Event – 19th March 2015 Mentoring Program 2014/15 final event - 19th March 2015 - in conjunction with the YWP Networking Event this month. There will be a special presentation for Mentoring Program participants only, prior to the networking evening. Professional Development Workshop – May 2015 - As an outcome of the recent survey we will be running a number of workshops this year. The first workshop is expected to be in a Face-to-face evening workshop in May on Project Management. The second workshop is expected to be on-line around August. Please register your interest for more information by emailing Alycia.Moore@transpac.com.au.

QLD YWP Wateropoly – Keep an eye on the AWA events calendar for more information!

Article by Robert Goedecke

Steve Posselt’s USA Trip Former AWA Queensland Branch President, Steve Posselt has commenced his journey by kayak up the Mississippi River in the USA. Commencing at The Gulf of New Mexico, Steve has just arrived in New Orleans. At the bottom end of the Mississippi he has had to battle strong currents, barges and fog. Alligators are rumoured to lurk in some areas. He intends to continue paddling upstream arriving in Chicago in June. He will then travel across the Great lakes and kayak through Canada to the Hudson Bay arriving there sometime in August. He then plans to travel to England and France and end up at the COP-21 Climate Summit in 30 November 2015. Steve is hoping that his journey will make people more aware of the need for significantly reducing CO2 emissions. To follow Steve’s trip go to the following link

http://kayak4earth.com

Louise Dudley CEO Queensland Urban Utilities

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Ms Louise Dudley is the Chief Executive Officer of Queensland Urban Utilities. Upon graduating from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Commerce, Louise launched her career with KPMG, a world-renowned accounting and advisory firm. After seventeen years with KPMG, followed by a two-and-a-half year tenure with PresCare, Louise joined Brisbane City Council (BCC), where she held a range of senior management positions.

Whilst at BCC, Louise was involved in leading a range of transformational programs, including the transfer of water assets to the Queensland Government as part of water industry reforms in south-east Queensland, and establishing the Council’s Strategic Procurement Function. During her time as Executive Manager, Water Retail, Louise played a key role in the formation of Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU), a $4.3 billion transaction which involved transitioning five local authority water businesses into a single entity.

When QUU was formed in 2010, Louise was appointed Chief Financial Officer and was promoted to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2012.

As CEO, Louise believes it is imperative for all staff – herself included – to have a united vision for the organisation, that vision being for QUU to be recognised for its excellence in water and sewerage services that meet the evolving needs of its customers and enhance its communities. To help support and reinforce this vision, Louise introduced four strategic pillars: customers, shareholders and communities, operational excellence, and people.

An advocate for exceptional customer service, Louise

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is committed to seeing QUU become customer-focused in every part of the organisation. Already, great strides have been taken, including the appointment of dedicated teams to foster strong relationships with various stakeholders.

Louise is keen to see QUU become more efficient in the way it does things, to have a greater commercial focus, and to be more proactive and have a better interface with developers. She says that in the future, QUU will be moving towards being a manager of resources rather than a taker of waste and that there will be more emphasis on achieving positive environmental outcomes. She cites the Beaudesert Nutrient Offset Program and wetland constructions at Helidon and Forest Hill as examples. Louise notes the need for further improvement in safety but is pleased with the significant progress the organisation has achieved in the last two years.

Outside of work, Louise enjoys looking after her house and garden, and spending time with her two daughters and her pets. She is a passionate Brisbane Broncos supporter and regularly attends their local matches at Suncorp Stadium. She enjoys travelling during her holidays and is currently planning a jaunt to Europe later this year.

Louise is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is also a Director on a number of Boards including the Horizon Foundation, and is the Chairperson of the Board for the Water Services Association of Australia.

Col Lewis Business Development Manager Pentair

Col Lewis is one of the most dedicated of our AWA Members. He is a Past President of the Queensland Branch and has always been a consistent supporter of AWA both personally and through his company Pentair. Col is well known for being the person to contact when you want information about pipes. He first joined Tubemakers in 1990 and watched as the business changed hands a number of times over the years. It was taken over by BHP in 1997, Tyco in 1999 and Pentair in2012. Col has now served just over 25 years in this current business in its various forms.

Col graduated from the UNSW in 1979 (completing his studies in 1978). Col spent the first five years as an engineer rapidly gaining experience in a number of different organisations and locations. His first job was with Pioneer Concrete in Sydney. He then joined a construction company T A Mellon in 1980 and then the Public Works Department (PWD) of NSW in 1980. At the PWD he worked in Newcastle for about 12 months then moved to Murwillumbah in northern NSW to work on the Clarrie Hall Dam. He then moved to Gosford Wyong to work on the Gosford Wyong Water supply Scheme. He then moved to Dubbo to work on various water supply and sewerage schemes in western NSW. He worked with the PWD in Dubbo for six years before joining the Dubbo City Council as the Water Supply and Sewerage Engineer. He finally saw his calling and joined Tubemakers in Brisbane in 1990.

Col’s career has been focused on business development since joining Tubemakers and its subsequent companies. He is now the Business Development Manager – Qld/Nth NSW/NT/Export at Pentair. People who know Col will realise that he is very much a people person and one of the benefits of his current job is being able to meet and talk to people.

Col says that one of his most rewarding jobs was working on the Clarrie Hall Dam. This was a big construction job and a fair portion of the work was done by day labour under Col’s management. At one stage he had a team of 50 working for him.

Col’s advice to young graduates is to listen and learn from everyone. He emphasises that the “people in the trenches” have a lot of practical experience that you can learn from if you are prepared to listen.

In his spare time Col’s interests are cycling, surfing and restoring a 1970 mini with his son. It is not unusual for Col to rack up a couple of hundred kilometres on the road on his bike in any one week. He says that he surfs on a “Mal” and surf ski. He enjoys spending time travelling with his wife Beverley visiting and spending time with their married daughter who lives in London and getting together with their two other married children and granddaughter who live in Brisbane.

Peter Dennis, the CEO for Seqwater discussed the “Way Forward” for Seqwater at the AWA Meeting on Wednesday 12th February. Peter noted that South East Queensland had one of the most challenging water supply systems in Australia. He said that it was important that Seqwater

• Connects with customers and becomes a “trusted voice”

• Optimises assets • Learn from the past.

He talked about some of the key issues that have confronted the people of southeast Queensland (and Queensland) over the last ten years – the drought, the two major floods and the catchment degradation. During the drought per capita consumption had to be reduced as the water levels in the dam fell. In fact consumption reduced from 330 L/c/d to 140 L/c/d. During the 2013 Australia Day flood event the Mt Crosby water treatment plants could not treat the high sediment load. The floods had eroded catchments where there was little riparian vegetation, dumping a lot of sediment into the river.

He stated that The Queensland Government invested almost $7 billion in assets during the drought. Seqwater’s total asset value, including all the region’s dams and treatment plants, totals $11.1 billion and the authority carries $9.7 billion in debt. He noted that this would not be sustainable for a private company.

Peter said that Seqwater now had adequate water sources to meet demands for the next 10 years and that no new source investments were required before then, however there was a requirement to invest some $0.5-2.0 billion in dam refurbishment. The “Water Grid” has proven to be very effective and over the last year it has been necessary to transfer water north from Mt Crosby using the grid as levels in North Pine and Baroon Pocket Dam have reduced.

Peter Dennis, CEO Seqwater talks about the “Way Forward” for Seqwater at Technical Meeting on 11 February 2015

In regard to the next source it will be necessary to take people on the journey of understanding the value of different options such as desalination, potable water recycling and new dams. The current high level of water security means there is time to engage with stakeholders and the community on future supply options.

One of the key issues confronting Seqwater is reducing the cost of water to customers. The price path Seqwater inherited would have seen the cost of bulk water increase from $2.30/kL in 2015 to $3.40 in 2020. Seqwater’s people have worked to identify a number of ways that savings can be made and have a target to reduce the cost of water to $2.90/kL at 2020, a saving of $0.60/kL This is a significant saving for customers.

The four main strategies for Seqwater were operational efficiency, connection with customers, information enabled (having the right information available for the people who need it) and strong leadership. This latter point was the glue that holds these strategies together. Some of the “signature” initiatives that will be undertaken by Seqwater in the coming years are:

• A drive to achieve operational excellence • Water security plan – revisiting the 30 year plan • Catchment green print • Asset management refresh • Dam improvement program • Water service provider’s partnership.

In a response to a question on asset management, Peter later stated that Seqwater would focus on the things that will really make a difference. Peter also noted in response to another question that sediment was now the major issue in our rivers and streams and that one of the first problems to address was that there is a problem.

For the Kingaroy plant effluent targets for nutrients are 8mg/L total nitrogen and 2mg/L total phosphorus (long term 50 percentile). As a result of the larger physical size of granules, oxygen penetration is limited by the action of the various heterotrophic and autotrophic organisms. This creates a range of anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic layers within granules. These enable the conditions under which nitrogen is able to be efficiently transported by diffusion without the need for transport to separate reactor compartments. Even when not particularly targeted, extensive biological phosphorus and nitrogen reduction is an intrinsic feature of this technology and in many cases chemical trimming may be eliminated. The Nereda® process will thus enables the treatment plant to comfortably the specified treatment standards.

In operation, the process has been demonstrated to be very robust and also to deliver energy reductions of approximately 30 per cent when compared with conventional activated sludge due to reduced mixing requirements and recycles as a result of the process occurring within a single vessel. Nereda® was initially developed by the Technical University Delft under the leadership of Professor Mark van Loosdrecht and developed by Royal Haskoning DHV together with a number of Dutch Water Boards in a public – private programme known as the Nationaal Nereda Onderzoeks Programma (NNOP). There are now 13 full-scale plants in operation with a further 10 under design or construction in The Netherlands, UK, South Africa, Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Brazil and now Australia. The largest, Jaboãtao, Recife, Brazil will serve an equivalent population of over 850,000ep.

For further information, contact Greg Johnston gregj@aquatecmaxcon.com.au.

Kingaroy Wastewater Treatment Plant

Aquatec Maxcon was recently awarded a contract to deliver a 12,500 ep upgrade to the Kingaroy Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) for South Burnett Regional Council for the tender price of $16.03 m along with some agreed additional items. The project is supported by 10 million Australian dollars in funding from the Queensland Government. This will be the first full scale application in Australia of the Nereda® aerobic granular sludge treatment process. The Aquatec tender was selected after extensive whole of life evaluation against other tenders that offered oxidation ditch technology. The project is expected to be completed in 2016 and will provide the Kingaroy community with Class A recycled water which can be used to irrigate sporting grounds and schools in the area, as well as significantly improve the quality of effluent released from the site, benefiting the local environment. The Nereda® aerobic granular sludge process causes the bacteria in the bioreactor to concentrate naturally into compact granules. These are typically (0.212 – 2) mm in size and exhibit excellent settling properties with a sludge volume index of (30 – 50) compared with the slow settling flocs found in activated sludge which often exhibit SVI’s of (100 – 150).

Nereda® technology uses an optimised cycle in which reactor fill and draw are combined. Influent is distributed into the bottom of the reactor where it reacts with and is adsorbed by the concentrated biomass granules. At the same time, clarified effluent is discharged from the top of the reactor. During the next phase, aeration enables biological oxidation prior to a final settling phase. The excellent settling properties of the granular biomass result in a high specific loading being achieved eliminating the need for secondary clarifiers and associated return activated sludge stations. This substantially reduces the required volume, area and number of concrete structures reducing the capital cost of the treatment plant as a result.

Burgowan Water Treatment Works Upgrade

The Wide Bay Water Corporation (WBWC) is currently finalising the augmentation the Burgowan Water Treatment Plant. To date a number of process improvements have been implemented, the most notably being the installation of an Actiflo® Turbo HCS clarifier supplied by Veolia Water. The use of an Actiflo® Turbo HCS clarifier, for a potable water treatment plant, is an Australian first.

The original plant was constructed in 2005 using an innovative process incorporating an upflow restrained media clarifier followed by ozonation and biologically activated carbon (BAC) filters. The plant had a design capacity of 20 ML/d but only ever achieved about 16 ML/d in good water quality conditions. The main limitation with the plant was the clarifier capacity. This clarifier uses a bed of floating plastic pellets held in place by stainless steel screens to trap and retain the floc. It is designed to operate at much higher loadings than conventional clarifiers (up to 36 m/hr). The clarifier, however, has not been able to handle the intermittent high colour (300-500 HU) and turbidity (>25 NTU) levels in the raw water resulting in the clarifier not effectively removing the solids prior to filtration.

WBWC determined that the plant should be upgraded to 30 ML/d so that it could take the Howard WTP out-of-service so as to provide improved water quality to all customers and provide more capacity to meet anticipated growth to 2031. WBWC’s solution was to provide a high rate Actiflo® Turbo HCS clarifier upstream of the existing clarifier, to replace and increase the capacity of the existing ozone generators and to increase the media depth in the BAC filters to provide adequate EBCT.

The advantage of the Actiflo® Turbo HCS unit was its extremely small footprint (15 sq m), which enabled it to fit within the existing process train without major modifications to the existing plant. The Actiflo® Turbo HCS also significantly reduces the solids loading rate on the upflow clarifiers (thus increasing production).

The capacity of the Ozone/BAC system also required upgrading so as to maintain critical process outcomes with respect to THM reduction. It was determined that the BAC filters would require the addition of extra activated carbon and the ozone generator would require replacement. Having sufficient freeboard the BAC filter media depth was able to be increased from 1.2 m to 2.0 m so as to retain an EBCT at around 15 mins. The ozonator was designed with an ozone/DOC ratio of 0.8 and this provides a maximum dosing rate of up to 5 mg/L.

The Actiflo® Turbo HCS clarifier installation and filter upgrades have been completed and are operating successfully. The ozone generator will be installed later in in the year.

Overall the upgrade to achieve an effective increase in capacity of 14 ML/d has cost of $4 million. This has been a very good outcome for WBWC.

A new book on rainwater tanks entitled “Rainwater Tank Systems for Urban Water Supply Design, Yield, Energy, Health Risks, Economics and Social Perceptions” will be published by the IWA in June 2015. The book presents the findings of extensive Australian research carried out on rainwater tanks as part of the Urban Water Security Research Alliance (A research partnership between the Queensland Government, CSIRO, University of Queensland and Griffith University formed to address a range of water supply option for SEQ).

The book will tell you all you need to know about rainwater tanks in Eastern Australia. It provides unique insights into the expected performance and potential pitfalls of adopting rainwater tank systems in urban areas including:

• modelling tools to estimate yield and optimise sizing of rainwater tanks and roof collection area

• methods to estimate the actual yield (kL/year) and the resulting mains water savings

• post installation physical verification of household rainwater tank systems for design guideline compliance

• rainwater tank pumping configuration and energy consumption • expected chemical and microbial water quality and its

implications for managing public health risks • maintenance and management approaches at the household

scale • the economics of tanks compared with other alternative water

supplies such as sea water desalination plants • implications of rainfall retention in tanks on catchment scale

stormwater runoff characteristics • community acceptance and homeowner attitudes towards tank

installation, maintenance & water use behaviour • A world wide overview of policy drivers for installing rainwater

tanks in urban areas.

The book should be of particular interest to water professionals, planners and urban developers, architects and plumbers seeking to implement sustainable water servicing approaches for residential, industrial and commercial developments.

The book has been authored by 34 Australian authors and edited by Dr Ashok Sharma, Don Begbie and Ted Gardner. Dr. Ashok Sharma is an adjunct professor at Victoria University, Melbourne. Until recently, Ashok was a principal research engineer in the (now disbanded) urban water research group of CSIRO. Don Begbie was the Director of the now defunct Urban Water Security Research Alliance, this following a long career in natural resource management in various Queensland government departments. Don is currently a R&D program manager at the Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. Ted Gardner is a retired urban water scientist from DERM (QG) and CSIRO and an adjunct professor at a number of regional universities in Qld.

The book will be published by the IWA in June 2015 and will be available from the IWA website on the following link:

http://iwapublishing.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=a578d2ab39eceebc7c8842973&id=2f195e0e96&e=01f3a54ce2)

New Book on Rainwater Tanks

Upcoming Events

Thur, 19 March 2015 YWP Networking Event, Brisbane Qld

18-19 March 2015 2015 Water Innovation Forum, Sydney NSW

12-14 May 2015 Ozwater’15, Adelaide South Australia

23-24 July 2015 North Qld Regional Conference, Cairns

Australian Water Association PO Box 1148, Wynnum QLD 4178 Contact Sharon Ible Telephone 07 3396 4880 Mobile 0407 585 052 Email sible@awa.asn.au

This newsletter has been compiled from information supplied; hence AWA cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of any information so supplied or for any loss or damage, which may arise, from errors or omissions.

Thank you to all of the organisations who have sponsored and supported the AWA QLD Branch over the past year:

Editor: Rod Lehmann

We are looking for articles on your projects. Please contact Rod or Sharon Ible