Volume 36 No 5 AUGUST 2009
AWA JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION
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water
Journal of the Australian Water Association ISSN 0310-0367
Volume 36 No 5 August 2009
contents REGULAR FEATURES From the AWA President
An Association with a Plan
From the AWA Chief Executive There is no 'S' in Water My Point of View
4
P Robinson
T Mollenkopf 5 G Moore 6
Crosscurrent
Science Adopts a New Definition of Seawater - see page 16
8
Aquaphemera
R Knee 14
Industry News
16
AWA News
20
Events Calendar
29
FEATURE REPORTS Addressing Skills Shortages in the Water Sector Fiona Mackenzie
30
IWA Water Loss Reported by BOP Media Services for Wide Bay Water Corporation
31
Singapore International Water Week Grows in Presence and Prestige Reported by John Poon
34
Creating Water Sensitive Cities In Australia Sharon Phillips, International Water Centre 40 The Urban Water Security Research Alliance - Leading Urban Water Research in South-east Queensland Don Begbie, Director, Urban Water Security Research Alliance I AWA CONTACT DETAI~ Australian Water Association ABN 78 096 035 773 Level 6, 655 Pacific Hwy, PO Box 222, St Leonards NSW 1590 Tel: +61 2 9436 0055 Fax: +61 2 9436 0155 Email: info@awa.asn.au Web: www.awa.asn.au DISCLAIMER Australian Water Association assumes no responsibility for opinion or statements of facts expressed by contributors or advertisers.
I COPYRIGHT AWA Water Journal is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any format without written permission of the AWA. To seek permission to reproduce Water Journal materials, send your request to media@awa.asn.au
WATER JOURNAL MISSION STATEMENT 'To provide a journal that interests and informs on water matters, Australian and international, covering technological, environmental, economic and social aspects, and to provide a repository of useful refereed papers.'
I
PU BLISH DATES Water Journal is published eight times per year: February, March, May, June, August, September, November and December. EDITORIAL BOARD Chair: Frank R Bishop; Dr Bruce Anderson, AECOM; Dr Terry Anderson, Consultant SEWL; Michael Chapman, GHD; Robert Ford, Central Highlands Water (rtd); Anthony Gibson, Ecowise; Dr Brian Labza, Vic Health; Dr Robbert van Dorschot, GHD; John Poon, CH2M Hill; David Power, BECA Consultants; Professor Felicity Roddick, AMIT University; Dr Ashok Sharma, CSIRO; and E A (Bob) Swinton, Technical Editor.
44 IWA Water Loss - see page 31
information and letters to the editor. Acceptance of editorial submissions is at the discretion of the editor and editorial board. • Technical Papers and Features Bob Swinton, Technical Editor, Water Journal- bswinton@bigpond.net.au AND journal@awa.asn.au Papers 3,000-4,000 words and graphics; or topical articles of up to 2,000 words relating to all areas of the water cycle and water business. Submissions are tabled at monthly editorial board meetings and where appropriate are assigned referees. Referee comments will be forwarded to the principal author for further action. Authors should be mindful that Water Journal is published in a 3 column 'magazine' format rather than the full-page format of Word documents. Graphics should be set up so that they will still be clearly legible when reduced to two-column size (about 12cm wide). Tables and figures need to be numbered with the appropriate reference in the text e.g. see Figure 1, not just placed in the text with a (see below) reference as they may end up anywhere on the page when typeset. • Industry News, Opinion pieces and Media Releases Edie Nyers, Editor, Water Journal- journal@awa.asn.au • Water Business and Product News Brian Rault, National Sales and Advertising Manager, Hallmark Editions - brian.rault@halledit.com.au
ADVERTISING Advertisements are included as an information service to readers and are reviewed before publication to ensure relevance to the water sector and objectives of the AWA. Brian Rault, National Sales and Advertising Manager, Hallmark Editions - brian.rault@halledit.com.au Tel: +61 3 8534 5014
EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS Water Journal
AWA BOOKSHOP Copies of Water Journal, including back issues, are available from the AWA Bookshop for $12.50 plus postage and handling. Email: bookshop@awa.asn.au
welcomes editorial submissions for technical and topical articles, news, opinion pieces, business
PUBLISHER Hallmark Editions, PO Box 84, Hampton, Vic 3188 Tel: 61 3 8534 5000 Fax: 61 3 9530 8911 Email: hallmark.editions@halledit.com.au
In May, an underwater photo shoot involving real water sector employees was created for the new 'careers in water' advertising campaign, and to demonstrate the breadth of roles within the water industry. Visit t he H20z website (www.h2oz.org.au) for more information and to view out the underwater 'making of' video. See page 30 for more on the skills in water work being hosted by the AWA.
water AUGUST 2009
1
water
Journal of the Australian Water Association ISSN 0310-0367
Performance of Fillet Welded Joints in Water Pipelines - see page 78
Volume 36 No 5 August 2009
contents
Alliance Delivery Experience - Race Against the Drought - see page 88
TECHNICAL FEATURES ( [@ INDICATES THE PAPER HAS BEEN REFEREED) DISINFECTION
[ii Chlorine or Chloramine for Drinking Water Disinfection? Choice based on modelling and measurements in real distribution systems
I Fisher, G Kastl, B Fayle, A Sathasivan
52
F Papworth
64
C Massey, S Lansley, B McAtee
73
R Heywood, S Bartleet, S Brady
78
M Giesemann
81
C Berry, P Anusas
88
PTracey
92
M Cave, J Ricketts, L Gallop
94
J Morran, M Whittle, J Leach, M Harris
99
ASSET FAILURES
[Ji] Concrete Durability Design for Desalination Plants A variety of severe and novel exposures not catered for by Australian Codes
Resilient Business Continuity Plans Plan to "take a lickin' and keep on tickin '"
[i] Performance of Fillet Welded Joints in Water Pipelines As pipe diameters and pressures increase, are we still safe? PROJECT DELIVERY
[II Performance Based Contract for an MFRO Plant Appropriate allocation of risks
Alliance Delivery Experience - the Race Against the Drought Experiences with the Western Pipeline in SE Queensland
The Southern Regional Water Pipeline Alliance One team - one goal
[II The Case of Alliances v PPPs The lawyers' perspective WATER QUALITY
A New Source of NOMA in Potable Water Supplies And the suspect is ... rubber WATER BUSINESS
New Products and Business Information. Features: Sewerage Systems; Sludge Management & Biosolids
102
Advertisers' Index
112
2 AUGUST 2009 water
my point of view
Trees Earn Their Water Dr Gregory M Moore, until 2007, was Principal of Burnley College of the Institute of Land Food Resources at Melbourne University and Head of the School of Resource Management. Greg has a specific interest in all aspects of arboriculture, the scientific study of the cultivation and management of trees. He chairs the National Trust of Victoria's Register of Significant Trees and is a member of the Board of Greening Australia (Victoria). He continues to pursue an active research profile in any matters that relate to trees in the urban environment and revegetation. Email: gmoore@unimelb.edu.au I am writing as a so-cal led expert on urban trees and landscapes, and I have a terrible confession to make; that trees, turf and landscape use water. At a time of such prolonged chronic drought in southern Australia many would say "what ratters", when there are so many other things that water is needed for! Better than most I understand the importance and real value of water, and so I fully support the effective and efficient use of it. I love mulch with irrigation under it and I support early morning irrigation regimes because they make sense. I do not long for the days of profligate water use and year-round emerald green lawns. Our environment simply cannot sustain such an approach. But let us consider a few facts. 10 years ago gardens, parks and ovals (largely consisting of that now notorious villain, turf} consu med about 12% of Victoria's water. Now it is about 9% or less. This is a dramatic 25% red uction, but the Law of Diminishing Returns tells us that you can squeeze all you like and you won 't get much more saving from this sector. So I ask, "What about some similar savings from the other 90%"? Urban trees and landscapes have been wonderfully silent assets in our cities for decades and even centuries. I am worried that if we manage our urban trees and landscapes only through the prism of water, we get a distorted view. We have to take a broader view and execute a proper cost benefit analysis of these wonderful assets. If urban trees and landscapes are assets we need to expend resources - labour, energy, and yes, even water - on their proper management. I can almost hear you gasping, "Surely not water now in this drought?"! There are better uses of water: drinking, hygiene, health and safe food. All true, but have we forgotten the benefits that properly managed urban trees and landscapes provide? What is the value of shade provided by trees that drop temperatures by up to 8°C, reduce air conditioner use and reduce carbon emissions? In the United States the answers are 12-15% and US$23-83 per annum. What is the value of reduced wind speeds (10%) under climate change when winds will be stronger? What is the value of the pollutants removed from the air (US$1 0mill in NY in 1994)? Planting 11 million trees in the LA basin saves US$50 million per annum on air conditioning bills. In Austral ia, the only economic study of its kind notes that an Adelaide street tree provides a minimum annual benefit of about $200 per year. If you consider the val ue to the City of Melbourne of its 70 thousand public trees it would be about $14 million. Other studies show a cost to benefit ratio of 1 to 6 in favour of urban trees and landscapes. There is also the role of vegetation under a changed climate in holding and absorbing water during more intense rainfall events. What is the value in reducing 6 AUGUST 2009 water
localised flooding? So if we lose our urban trees and landscapes because we don't think they are worthy of some of our resources we could pay a very high price indeed. We won't know what we have lost till it's gone. I could go on for pages about the benefits of urban trees and landscapes. I haven't mentioned how gardens improve human heath, extend life spans, reduce violence and vandalism, lower blood pressure and save a truck load on medical, social and infrastructure costs, because I know that you know of these benefits. And isn't it lucky that as we let turf in our parks and ovals die we don't have a problem with kids lacking exercise and becoming obese. Because if we did, we might be paying a higher price than we ever dreamed possible. Natural turf is often a more sustainable option than artificial turf if you consider the bigger picture and the latter's fossil fuel chemical base and embedded energy. Turf is quite a complex ecosystem and has a significant effect on temperatu re and the heat island effect, and if properly managed also sequest ers considerable carbon. Perhaps it is not the villain that many think when they consider only the water component of a more complex equation. Take this example: In a small backyard, the lawn (8m x 4m) has been replaced with artificial turf at a cost of $6000. The owner is ageing and has heard that lawn is not good for water use or the environment. The artificial turf is made from fossil fuel, imported from overseas and has high embedded energy. The purchase and installation of a locally made 5000L tank would have cost $1200 and would provide water for such a small lawn year round. The owner misses the birds that used to come fossicking in the lawn. Australian cities are often State biodiversity hot spots. The parks, gardens, streets and front and backyards provide a diverse range of plant species that generate a myriad of habitats and niches for wildlife. High density urban development and inner city renewal make it virtually impossible to grow trees in places that were once green and leafy. We rarely ever see the real costs of such developments. So Australians should not feel guilty about using a precious resource like water on our urban trees and landscapes. However, we are among the world's worst per capita produces of carbon dioxide and anything we can do to reduce our carbon footpri nt is worthwhile. If we let our urban trees and landscapes die, we release carbon into the atmosphere, making the greenhouse effect worse. In the inner City of Melbourne there is about 1 million tonnes of carbon sequestered in the trees alone. The issue is not about trees or drinking, or trees and hygiene or even trees and industry. It is about using a valuable resource sustainably and effectively to capture the maximum of benefits, including environmental benefits that make our cities liveable.
crosscurrent
National
-
•
The Minister for Climate Change and Water released a report which finds that climate change is happening faster than earlier thought and the risks are more serious. A key finding of the report is the need for effective reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the risk of crossi ng dangerous thresholds in the climate system.
Following a decision by the Bundanoon community in the NSW southern highlands to ban local shops selling plastic bottles of water, the ACT Greens sought a briefing with the Government about the use of bottled water in the public service. The NSW State Government also moved to limit commercially bottled water in all government departments and agencies.
Australia's farms dropped their irrigation water usage by almost one fifth during 2007-08, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This brings irrigation water use to a new low and comes on the back of a drop of nearly one third in the preceding year. Most of this decrease was due to less irrigation on pasture and crops grown for grazing , hay and silage, and cotton and rice crops.
A number of water managers and scientists expressed concern at budget cuts to irrigation and environment research in the face of climate change and water shortages. The closure of Land and Water Australia, and of the CRC for Irrigation Futures next year is likely to leave a significant gap in research innovation for sustainable agriculture and the management of water.
The nation's first Online Water Data system should be available next year, with SMS Management and Technology winning a $2.5 million contract to build the first stage of IT infrastructure. The Austral ian Water Resources Information System, to be hosted by the Bureau of Meteorology, will consolidate water data from over 240 reporting agencies into a central repository.
The federal government purchased almost 240 gigalitres of water entitlements for $303 million from Twynam Agricultural Group. This followed seven billion litres of water purchased from allocations against entitlements held by Toorale Station on the junction of the Darling and Warrego rivers. The water will be used for environmental flows to the Murray-Darling Basin, bringing the total amount of water purchased by the Rudd Government (to July 2009) to 297 gigalitres of water entitlements.
The Federal Government released draft regulations for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, including the first tranche of activities that will be eligible for assistance under the emissions intensive, trade exposed (EITE) assistance program. Public submissions on the draft regulations are invited before 14 August 2009.
Two new stakeholder reference panels will provide advice to the Australian Government on water recovery and water
8 AUGUST 2009 water
efficiency issues. The Water Recovery and Environmental Use and the National Irrigation Efficiency Stakeholder Reference Panels will allow feedback on rural water issues arising from the roll-out of the Government's Water for the Future initiative.
Guidelines for funding applications were released by DEWHA to assist local counci ls in the Murray-Darling Basin develop plans that help prepare their communities for the impacts of climate change. The initiative, part of the $200 million Strengthening Basin Communities, will be reimbursed based on actual costs incurred up to a maximum of $200,000 per local government area.
Funding to accelerate work on environmental and sustainable farming projects was announced, with $403 million committed under the Caring for Our Country program. This includes $51.8 million to help deliver on protection of the Great Barrier Reef and funding to help protect Ramsar wetlands.
Australian Capital Territory • ACTEW has taken a step towards t he construction of the Enlarged Cotter Dam with the lodgement of a Development Application with the ACT Planning and Land Authority. If approved, the completed Cotter Dam extension will increase the Territory's total water storage capacity by 30 per cent and significantly boost the security of Canberra's water supply. Construction on the $240 million project is expected to begin at the end of the year.
Following advice from ACT Health, Lake Burley Griffin was closed due to high concentrations of toxic blue-green algae, with the water deemed unsafe for activities including swimming, bathing, canoeing, boating and rowing. The National Capital Authority (NGA) commissioned a scientific study into the increase in blue-green algal blooms on Lake Burley Griffin this year.
ACTEW Corporation announced a strategy to reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions during the construction and operation of the ACT reg ion's new water supply infrastruct ure projects. It includes the use of biodiesel to reduce greenhouse emissions, the planned construction of a hydro generator for energy recovery and a commitment to purchasing permanent carbon sink forestry offsets in Australia.
ACTEW set the autumn domestic water usage target at 122ML per day and reminded residents to exercise care in their use of water.
New South Wales NSW Minister for Water Phillip Costa requested that NSW water agencies place an embargo on environmental water trading, with the Minister arguing that New South Wales is carrying the burden for other states, with 97 per cent of the purchases coming out of the State.
regular features
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crosscurrent A burst water main sparked a small landslide in Sydney's east, forcing the closu re of a local school, a gas leak and toppled power poles. A Sydney Water spokesperson said while the cause of the burst water main was not known, it could have broken for a number of reasons, including age, local soil conditions, traffic imparts, temperature changes and more.
\PART announced its final determination of the prices that the Sydney Catchment Authority charges Sydney Water and its other cust omers to supply water fro m it s dams for the period 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2012. As a result, water bills for Sydney households for the 2009/10 year will increase on average by $7 per annum and a total of $16 per annum plus inflation by 2011/12. This amounts to a 1.6% increase plus inflation in the typical household bill for wat er and sewerage by 2011 / 12.
Sydney Wat er ro lled out its new ' BIZFIX' campaign, a program of installing water efficient devices to businesses' t aps and toilets, announced by MD Kerry Schott on World Environment Day.
The NSW Dept of Water and Climate Change has developed a new Diffuse Source Water Pollution Strategy, which for t he first time provides a framework for coordinating efforts in reduci ng diffuse source water pollution.
$61.7 million was allocated towards the continuation of the NSW Country Towns Water Supply and Sewerage Program. St ate Water wil l also spend $56.8 million on works to increase the capacity and improve safety of dams under their management.
The Queensland government apologised to about 400 households in Brisbane after it piped drinking water containing about 13 times the maximum recommended dosage of fluoride. An independent report found a combination of mechanical and human error caused the overdose.
State of the art technology to harness energy from ocean waves was launched in Moreton Bay, QLD. The State Government has invested $160,000 to trial Advanced Wave Power's commercial versions, which are currently aimed at small scale generation.
A compliance report on the $1.2 billion Gold Coast desalination plant at Tugun identified a number of major noncompliances at the plant. The plant is currently operating at 33% capacity and issues with the permeate and pot able water tanks , electric motors, diffuser head, marine tunnel and intake and outlet shafts unresolved.
Queensland's Local Government Minister announced $224,663 in funding for Banana Shire Council's recycled water project. Unlike much of the state, the Banana Shire has remained in drought.
A QLD taskforce wi ll examine another case of Noosa fish abnormalities, after a fish hatchery reported abn ormalities including more two-headed embryos and a three-headed embryo. The case will be investigated by the Noosa Fish Health Investigation Taskforce.
South Australia Water restrict ions across greater Sydney were eased , with new wat er wise rules replacing the previous tougher restrictions. The ru les reinforce the importance of using water responsibly and minimising waste.
Queensland The OLD Government agreed in principle t o adopt urban water reform measures proposed by Councils in South East Queensland, specifically in respect of the delivery of retail and distribution services. The COMSEQ model sees a smaller number of wat er entities servicing a larger area. The proposed reform model will see the composition of three new entities: Brisbane, Scenic Rim ; Gold Coast, Logan, Redlands; and Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Somerset, Lockyer.
The combined level of south-east Queensland's three major dams passed 75 per cent for the fi rst time in more than seven years. North Pine Dam remained at 100%, prompting SEQ Water to release water from it three times in two months.
SEQ Water director Mary Boydell will take over as the new Commissioner for the restructured Queensland Water Commission (QWC) next month. There wil l be one comm issioner instead of three, and some responsibilities will be transferred to Government departments. http://www.abc.net.au/news/st ories/ 2009/06/19/2602937 .htm?site=news
10 AUGUST 2009 water
The latest round of environment al watering for South Australian wetlands occurred at Murbpook Lagoon and Paiwalla Wetland. The lagoon has been dry since 2004 when it became disconnected from the main river channel due to lower river levels. The two sites will receive 1,400 million litres and 131 million litres consec utively. The watering aims to maintain the health of the River Red Gums and Coobahs and halt further salinisation of the wetland bed.
SA Wat er residential customers will receive quarterly bills for water use starting 1 July, following t he passage of new legislation through State Parliament.
The SA State Government has outlined its plan to guarantee South Australia's future water security to 2050 and beyond. Titled Wat er For Good, the plan outlines strategies to secure water supplies and new actions such as substantially increasing stormwater capture and reuse, new rebates for wat er saving devices, and a state-wide desalination policy. The plan also includes the appointment of an independent regulator to oversee service standards and pricing and introducing legislation to foster competition.
The SA State Govern ment put forward a bid valued at $145.1 million for seven stormwater projects across the metropolitan area. These projects will harvest up to 8090 million litres of
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Tasmania
gigalitres of water a year from the Goulburn River from 2010 have "proven to be wrong ", during a freedom-of-information tribunal hearing into the billion-dollar north-south pipeline. http://www.theage.com.au/news/ opinion/ water-policy-deliversscary-possibilities/ 2009/06/24/ 1245522879698.html
From 1 July 2009, the Tasmanian Water industry has had a 'face lift'. Water and sewerage are no longer controlled from within the local councils, although stormwater remains at council level. The three new corporations are Southern Water, Ben Lomond Water and Cradle Mountain Water.
The $97 million Tarago Water Treatment Plant in Victoria was officially opened. The new plant has the capacity to treat up to 25 billion litres of water a year. Melbourne Water stopped using untreated water from the Tarago Reservoir in 1994 when it became unsuitable for drinking.
Victoria The Victorian State Government rejected two large-scale recycled water projects after a business case found the projects, at Latrobe Valley and Yarra River, would have cost up to $3.8 billion. The Government committed to a business case into two large-scale recycled water projects in June 2007, but has stated it will now instead focus on localised recycled water projects.
Water Minister Tim Holding announced the Brumby Government has chosen an alternative site for the pipeline booster pump station for the Victorian Desalination Project. A new site on t he corner of Pound Road and McCormacks Road in Cardinia will take the place of the Ballarto Road site originally proposed in the Environment Effects Statement (EES).
The Victorian Government released a set of guidelines for calculating, applying and allocating water savings generated from Victoria's irrigation modernisation projects. The new Water Savings Protocol will allow water savings to be calculated in a consistent and transparent manner, and will apply to all existing and future irrigation modernisation projects in the state.
The Victorian and federal governments, with the assistance of the Victorian Farmers' Federation, struck a deal to lift the state's irrigation cap in some cases to facilitate the commonwealth's $3.1 billion environmental water buyback, enabling several groups of farmers in the north of the state to sell their water rights - worth a total of $64 million at current prices. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197 ,2557301411949,00.html
The right of Melbourne Water to legally enter private land has been confirmed in a ruling handed down in an obstruction case against a landowner who obstructed Melbourne Water contractors as they carried out preliminary works on a Yea property in September 2008 as part of the Sugarloaf Pipeline Project.
Victorian household water bills will rise between 51 and 64 percent over the next four years, following approval by the State's independent regulator.
Victoria's top water adviser has admitted that the assumptions underlying the Government's promise to pump 75
The Victorian Government will build a $5 million 11 km pipeline to connect Wonthaggi, lnverloch and Cape Patterson to the desalination plant. It will have the capacity to transfer up to 10 million litres a day.
Western Australia The Water Corporation expressed disappointment in an Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) recommendation to Government that dissolved oxygen 'trigger' levels in Cockburn Sound should remain in place, forcing the shut down of the Perth Seawater desalination plant whenever the levels drop below a certain level. Chief Executive Sue Murphy indicated that it was possible the Corporation would exercise its option to appeal the recommended conditions.
The WA Department of Environment and Conservation revealed that a chemical called trichlorethene had been leaking into the Helena River in Perth's hills. The toxic pollutant leached from the Bellevue Waste Control site, which was destroyed by fire eight years ago.
The Federal Environment Department has given conditional approval to the Southern Seawater Desalination Project at Binningup in WA, with 23 conditions imposed on the project to minimise impacts on nationally threatened and migratory species. The approval conditions include a requirement to preserve and revegetate nearly 47ha of habitat at the plant site.
A drinking water source protection plan was released by the WA Dept of Water, which aims to ensure t he availability of safe, good quality drinking water for New Norcia. The plan outlines the location of the drinking water reserve, existing and future usage of the water source and potential sources of contamination.
Perth households demanded almost two thirds more drinking water than business and commercial in 2008, according to the latest figures from Water Corporation. In Perth, 87 billion litres were used outside in gardens and 97 billion litres was for inside uses such as washing and cooking.
The $415 million expansion of the Ord River irrigation area has been formalised. The four year project is designed to double the Ord agricultural zone to 28,000 ha. The first crops are expected to be grown within three years in the newly irrigated
water AUGUST 2009
13
crosscurrent areas, with farmers expected to choose a variety of produce, including chia oil seed, c otton and rice. (The West) (WA Department of Premier & Cabinet)
Industry News TRAN SFIELD SERVICES announced a new $50 million fouryear contract with South East Water to upgrade three wast ewater treatment plants to water recycling plants in Victoria. Transfield will provide sustaining capital works, operations and maintenance services in an alliance with AECOM which will manage approvals and provide design services. The plants are part of SE Water's program to meet the Victorian Government's Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy.
AQUAPHEMERA The new Murray Darling Basin Authority published in June The Basin Plan A Concept Statement (www. mdba.gov.au/ basin_plan/concept-st atement). The document outlines the main c omponents and functions proposed to be incorporated in the final Plan due in 2011 . These include: • Environmentally sustainable diversions limits (SOL) on surface and groundwater to be set and enforced. SDLs to vary each year with availability of water and the effects of climate change. The CSIRO Sustainable Yields project wi ll assist. SDLs are likely t o be set below current levels. • A water quality and salinity management plan setting environmental, water quality and salinity objectives. • An environmental watering plan to restore and sustain wetlands and other environmental assets to sustainable levels of health. • Efficient water trading regimes including removing barriers; and • Requirements to be met by State water resources plans w ith Stat es retaining responsibility for securing wat er for critical human needs. The NWC will audit the effectiveness of implementation of the Basin Plan, the State water resources plans and review the two sub plans, each 5 years. State water resource plans, consistent with the Basin Plan, will commence in all States in 2014, except for Victoria 201 9. Sharing reduct ions in water will be borne by water entitlement holders if reductions are due to long term climate change, or events such as bushfires and drought; by Government s as a result of policy changes; and both if the reduction results from improved knowledge about the sustainable diversions. A massive challenge for Rob Freeman and his team. But less of a challenge if they focus on the best outcome, a balance bet ween the equally critical economic, social and environmental demands, then worry about the transition. Unlike the current Cap where over-licensed areas expect full allocations and low water users have to make up the difference. - Ross Knee
14 AUGUST 2009
water
Overarching tech nical standards for plumbing and drainage regulation in Australia have been deve loped by St and ards Australia. Standards for installation are prescribed in the Australian/ New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 3500 Plumbing and drainage, and technical specifications for products are set out in Australian Standard AS 5200 Technical specification for plumbing and drainage products - Procedures for certification of plumbing and drainage products.
CREATIVE WATER TECH NOLOGY won INNOVIC's International Next Big Thing Award 2009. Inventor Stephen Shelly conceived the idea of Creative Water Technology w hich can clean waste water with contam inant levels of more than 300,000ppm. Traditionally waste contaminat ed at that extent would otherwise have to be stored or chemically treated at ten times the cost. http://www.nextbigthingaward.com/
After 13 years of operation, Clearwater Tech nology Pty Ltd changed its name to AQUACELL Pty Ltd to more accurately reflect its core business as the provider of Aquacell water recycling solutions. Company ownership, ABN and all business operations remain unchanged.
Coomes Consulting Group rebranded to CPG AUSTRALIA Pty Ltd, uniting with their New Zealand and Singapore based sister companies. CPG offers specialised services in the water, transport, resources, energy, building, urban development and agribusiness sectors, with an international network of over 3500 professionals across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
CST Wastewater Solutions is partnering with Global Water Engineering (GWE) to deliver and install a an extended wastewater treatment system for Pacific Beverages' new Bluetongue brewery in New South Wales, while at the same time providing renewable energy for the brewery. The $120 million state-of-the-art brewery will eventually have an annual capacity of 150 million litres, making it the state's second largest.
Member News • PETER FAGAN has been promoted to the position of AsiaPacific Sustainability Practice Leader for global engineeri ng consulting firm MWH after more than 35 years' experience.
• JOHN PIVAC has been appointed National Sales Manager for Philmac wh ich designs, manufactures and distributes water management products from its Adelaide base.
• BENJAM IN NEWMAN FINK died on 2 June after a long illness.
• Sir JOHN HOLLAND, founder of the firm that bears his name and now one of the largest civil firms in Australia, also passed away.
• The Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) moved their Sydney office and are now located at 9 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
crosscurrent • SMART WATERMARK moved to the new WSAA Sydney office at Suite 1, Level 30, 9 Castlereagh Street, Sydney 2001. GPO Box 915, Sydney South, 2001.
• Curtin University of Technology appointed former WA Water Corporation Chief Executive Officer DR. JIM GILL as Chancellor. His appointment will be effective from early next year. Dr Gill succeeds Gordon Martin, Executive Chairman of Coogee Chemicals, who has been Chancellor since 2006.
• SMEC welcomed KAY WHITE to the position of Senior Process Engineer with the Company's Water and Environment Group in Melbourne. With over 25 years in wastewater treatment process design, Kay adds considerable experience to the growing capabilities of the Group.
• WATER FUTURES, a specialist water quality consulting company, appointed DR THERESE FLAPPER as co-Director. Therese brings experience in wastewater and recycled water, complimenting the team's strengths in drinking water and catchment management. MARIA ERIKSSON-SCOTT has also joined the team as Environmental Consultant.
• The World Technology Network nominated DEAN CAMERON for the 2009 World Technology Award for The Environment for the Biolytix Technology. The award is sponsored by Time Magazine, among others, and is for "doing the work of greatest likely long-term significance".
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• MWH appointed three professionals to technical roles within its Queensland offices. IAN BILKEY joins MWH as Transportation Design Manager in the firm's Sunshine Coast office. Prior to joining MWH, he worked for local government over the past 12 years in senior construction management roles. PETER COM INO joins MWH as Integrated Water and Catchment Management Team Leader in the firm's Brisbane office. He has more than 20 years of experience in stormwater management and hydraulic modelling. IAN MUNRO Ian Munro is a civil engineer with 22 years of experience and joins MWH as Transportation Design Manager also in the firm 's Gold Coast office.
• GAIL REARDON joined the AWA as Victorian Branch Manager. Until recently Gail held the position of Executive Officer with Disability Professionals Victoria. She brings significant experience in events management and association management, where she has successfully undertaken the planning, organisation and delivery of conferences, think tanks, networking and social events for members.
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industry news Science Adopts a New Definition of Seawater The world's peak ocean science body has adopted a new definition of seawater developed by Australian, German and US scientists to make climate projections more accurate. In Paris late last month the General Assembly of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) accepted the case for the introduction of a new international thermodynamic description of seawater, cast in terms of a new salinity variable called Absolute Salinity. Hobart-based CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientist, Dr Trevor McDougall, made the case during his presentation of the Bruun Memorial Lecture to the Paris meeting. "Scientists will now have an accurate measure of the heat content of seawater for inclusion in ocean models and climate projections," Dr McDougall says. "Variations in salinity and heat influence ocean currents and measuring those variations are central to quantifying the ocean's role in climate change. The new values for salinity, density and heat content should be in widespread use within 18 months." Marine scientists have been searching for the 'magic formula' for measuring salinity - which varies from ocean to ocean and between tropical, temperate and polar regions - for more than 150 years. "These variations in salinity and temperature are responsible for driving deep ocean currents and the major vertical overturning circulations of the world's oceans, which transfer ocean heat towards the Arctic and Antarctic regions, " Dr McDougall says. Salinity, comprising the salts washed from rocks, is measured using t he conductivity of seawater - a technique which assumes that the composition of salt in seawater is the same in all the world's oceans.
The new approach, involving Absolute Salinity, takes into account the changes in the composition of seasalt between different ocean basins which, while small, are a factor of about 1O larger than the accuracy with which scientists can measure salinity at sea. Until the new description of seawater is widely adopted, ocean models will continue to assume that the heat content of seawater is proportional to a particular temperature variable called "potential temperature". "The new description allows scientists to calculate t he errors involved by using this approximat ion while also presenting a much more accurate measure of the heat content of seawater, namely Conservative Temperature," Dr McDougall says. "The difference is mostly less than 1° Cat the sea surface, but it is important to correct for these biases in ocean models." The Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research is a partnership between CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.
South Australia's Plan for a Secure Water Future
• Introducing legislation to foster a competitive water industry and allowing third-party access to government water infrastructure.
The State Government has outlined its plan to guarantee South Australia's future water security to 2050 and beyond, diversify our water supplies and reduce reliance on the River Murray.
Stormwater will play a larger role in diversifying water supplies and in partnership with local government.
Premier Mike Rann and Minister for Water Security Karlene Maywald launched the plan, titled Water for Good, in Adelaide before 200 industry, government and community representatives in July. The plan outlines more than 90 strategies to secure wat er supplies with more than 60 new actions such as: • Substantially increasing current stormwater capture and reuse across South Australia, with a target to recycle up to 75 billion litres a year in the long term • New rebates for water saving devices to further encourage water efficiency • A state-wide desalination policy to guide future plant proposals • Appointing an independent regulator to oversee service standards and pricing for monopoly water and wastewater suppliers while retaining government ownership of water infrastructure
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According to Minister Maywald, the Stormwater Management Authority appointed independent consultants during development of the plan to determine where further stormwater capture and reuse could be feasibly established. "These investigations found in the metropolitan area it is technically feasible to capture 60 billion litres of stormwater. The plan also targets up to 15 billion litres in regional SA in the longer term. With projects currently in operation, under construction or being scoped, we will harvest about 20 billion litres by 2013. The plan estimates an extra 42 billion litres can be captured for up to $700m in the long term." From September, new rebates will be offered to encourage water efficiency including $150 for hot water reci rcu lators and $200 for covers and rollers for existing swimming pools. Garden goods rebates wil l increase from $50 to $100 for a range of products, including rainwater diverters, and washing machine rebates will apply to 4.5-star rated machines, up from 4-stars. This adds to existi ng rebates for low-flow showerheads, dual-flush toilets, rainwater tanks and home water audits.
For more information visit http://www.waterforgood.sa.gov.au!
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industry news Vale Benjamin (Ben} Newman Fink, Consulting Engineer 7-8-1924 to 2-6-2009 Ben Fink, who passed away in early June this year after a long illness, could safely be described as one of t he founding fathers of t he profession of consulting engineering in Australia. Yet Ben came from relatively humble origins, arriving w ith his family as a migrant from Poland in strife-torn Europe as a nineyear-old boy in 1933. He was the first in his family to learn to speak English on arrival and int erpreted for his parents d uring regular family outings. Educated at University High School, at that time one of only three state high schools in Victoria teaching to Year 12, Ben graduated in civil engineering at the University of Melbourne and worked briefly with the MMBW (now Melbourne Water) and the CAB (now VicRoads) . In 1948, Ben Fink joined the consulting engineering firm of Gutteridge Haskins & Davey (GHD) and remained with the firm until his retirement in 1990 - a period of 42 years. Today, much of the growth of GHD as an international firm with more than 6000 staff derives from the foundations laid by Ben. GHD had scaled down its operations during the 1939-45 World War as many of its staff entered military service. Bernard Callinan (later Sir Bernard) - himself a distinguished army officer and engineer - recruited Ben Fink to assist him in the chall enge of re-building the southern operations of the firm. Ben rose rapidly w ithin the Melbourne Office becoming Office Manager in 1960 at the age of 35. He served as a GHD Partner/Director from 1965, was Managing Director from 1978 to 1986 and Chairman from 1986 until his retirement in 1990. During his long career with GHD, Ben was responsible for numerous innovations in water and wast ewater engineering throughout Victoria and, via his role as consultant and adviser to numerous local authorities, the delivery of healthy water supplies and sewerage systems to many hundreds of thousands of Victorians - spanning some 45 cities and towns. His innovations extended t o inverted syphons, prestressed concrete bridge design, wet-well pumping stations using submersible pumps, lagoon treatment plants and numerous construction advancements to achieve affordable cost-effective infrastructure delivery. From graduation, Ben Fink was determined to create, by his own example, a major technical and ethical change in engineering attitudes: firstly towards building infrastructure for rapidly expanding post-war urban commun ities and country centres in urgent need of these services, and then later towards innovative engineering practice as a whole.
Fist Stage of Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant Completed The first phase of the Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant (SCNP) in Singapore was completed on schedule and has began commercial operations. The plant uses the main advanced water treatment process steps of micro-filtration (MF), reverse osmosis (RO) and ultraviolet radiation to produce NEWater, high-grade reclaimed water. This ultra-clean water is mainly supp lied to industrial and commercial customers including water fabrication plants. When completed in 2010, the plant will supply 15 per cent of Singapore's current water needs.
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In addition to major contributions to the health and amenity of many Australian communities through development of low-cost water and wastewater technologies, and new bridge and tower construction techniques, he also rationalised and optimised numerous industrial bu ilding projects - especially in the food industry. His credo, throughout his professional career, and imbued in the many engineers he trained and mentored, was: "We must utilise all aspects of our theoretical training, backed up by our own initiative, research and progressive experience, to provide infrastructure of higher quality and constructability with much lower operating costs but at greatly reduced capital requirement. Our objective is the use of our skills to provide the greatest number of outer-urban and cou ntry homes with best practical quality infrastructure available within the constraints of sector funding. " During some 30 years when Ben managed the Victorian GHD practice, he was mentor by example and guidance, to the many young engineers who joined GHD over t hat period. His influence on the way those engineers practised their profession and on influencing others whether or not with GHD, has left a legacy of a very far-reaching and profound effect on the status of the profession of engineering.
Tom Fricke & Alan Longstaff
The design of t he SCNP reduces land use and minimises construction costs by placing the main NEWater facilities on the roof of t he Changi Water Reclamation Plant (CWRP). Treated used water from the CWRP will be piped directly to t he SCNP as feedwater, minimising the extent of pipework for conveyance. Current capacity of the plant stands at 69 MLD or 169,000 m 3/day, with a full capacity of 228 MLD or 228,000 m3/day w hen it is completed. The Sembcorp Changi NEWater Plant is Singapore's fifth and largest NEWater plant. Together the five NEWater plants will meet 30 per cent of Singapore's current water needs by 2010.
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Curran, Suzy Goldsmith, Dominique Halloran, Sonali Kalansuriya, Andrew Mansour, Mark Sheffield, Robet van der Wilk WA Farah Adeeb, David Armstrong, Theodore Bazen, Philip Bradder, Keith Brown, Fern Burgess, Steve Fox, Bruce Franklin, Dennis Gibson, Jorg lmberger, Sally Johnston, Scott McPhee, Veronica Swamy, John Talbot, Steven Tay, Ines Zegoulli
NSW Monique Retamal, Nicole Thornton TAS Storm Holwill VIC Michael Poustie, Yu Shuang
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National Committee Australia
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ACT Bruce Gray, Ann Milligan NSW John Anderson, Anthony Cavenagh, Timothy Clune, Paul Collins, Robert Du Tait, Natalie Marshall, Mark Nykiel, Ravi Patil, Jacqui Perkins, Kala Senathirajah, Phill Snowball, Jennifer Vella, Michael Young, Chuanlin (Julie) Zhang NT Peter Jolly, Richard Weinmann OLD Andrew Alexander, Robert Fulton, Toby Lawson, Stephen Petrie, Damien Sharland, Rodney Stewart, Kelvin Woods SA Bill Fuller TAS Michael Burdon VIC Ann Allworth, David Bubner, Luke
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OLD Andrew Allinson, Andrew Hosking SA Rhys Anderson, May Chen, Jack Forster VIC Niruma Akther WA Mark Roe
If you think some new activity would enhance the membership package please contact us on our national local call number 1300 361 426 or submit your suggestion via email to membership@awa.asn.au.
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awa news
Specialist Networks Working for You Laura Evanson, AWA National Specialist Networks Coordinator Updated Website Pages One of the areas that YWPs had identified for improvement was the network's presence on the website. To this end, the NRC undertook to work with AWA staff to improve the appearance, content and functionality of their space. Whilst these pages will inevitably conti nue to be a work in progress, the new look is now in place and wi ll hopefu lly allow those interested to more easily access the information they're looking for.
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Launch of AWA's Water Quality Monitoring & Analysis Specialist Network
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A similar approach has been taken to the other specialist network pages, which have all gone through a bit of an overhaul and restructure. Again, we will continue to add more content to these pages as time goes by, but if there is something you think would be particularly useful to have on there, or wou ld like to make any comments, please send your feedback to networks@awa.asn.au
National Specialist Network Convenor's Meeting
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AWA's newest specialist network, Water Quality Monitoring and Analysis, was officially launched by Dr Nicholas Crosbie (Melbourne Water) at the IWA Instrumentation Control and Automation Conference in Cairns in June (http://www.iwa-ica2009.org/). Presentations at ICA2009 were well aligned with the goals of the network, with our IWA colleagues showcasing current developments in the use of online instrumentation and advanced control to deliver better product, often with significant cost savings.
The AWA Water Quality Monitoring and Analysis Specialist Network aims to foster technical expertise in water quality monitoring and analysis, from source to product.
You may recall that last August we held a simultaneous call for committee members for all of the national specialist networks. This provided the opportunity to both build the strength and breadth of existing committees, and give members the chance to become actively involved with AWA.
For more information or to join this Specialist Network, visit www.awa.asn.au/networksl wqma.
In November 2008, we ran the 1st National Convener's Meeting in Sydney, an event which brought together coconvenor's, AWA staff, AWA Branch Presidents and Board Members. The session allowed us to make sure that everyone fully understood the role of the networks within AWA's Strateg ic Plan , the opportunity to workshop ideas for what the networks could achieve and how they'd go about doing it, and of course to make those vital connections around the country.
AWA's Source Management (formerly Liquid Trade Waste) Specialist Network will be holding their first National Conference next month in Melbourne. The event, sponsored by South East Water, will bring together those work ing in the field from around the country for the first time. As well as hearing about some of the latest developments in the field , delegates will also be able to see firsthand some of the newest products at the trade exhibition, as well witnessing technology in action on the techn ical site tour.
This year's event will take place on 8th October, and as it wi ll involve a few of the same faces, will take on a slightly different format to last year. The outcomes from this meeting will be communicated shortly afterwards.
New Support Staff As those of you I've been in contact with over the last few months will be aware, I'm expecting my first baby at the end of August and wi ll have already started my 12 months maternity leave by the time you read this article. During this time, my role will be filled by Lyndell St one. Lyndell brings to AWA a wealth of experience within the water industry, having spent several years working for Sydney Water, the Queensland EPA, and more recently, in the agricultural sector. Lyndell officially started on 15 July. I have no doubt that Lyndell will be doing some great work with networks over the next 12 months and I look forward to seeing what has been achieved when I return. You can get in touch with Lyndell by email lstone@awa.asn.au or on 02 9467 8417.
Inaugural AWA National Source Management Conference
The event's Keynote Speakers wi ll be Gary Bickford (ACTEW Corporation) and Ross Young (WSAA), alongside a range of speakers from across the field. Further details of the program are available online and registrations are now open. Go to www.awa.asn.au/eventsl nsmc for more information.
YWP Network - Strategic Plan The latest version of the YWP Strategic Plan is a review of the original that was released in mid-2007, and has been completely written by the YWP National Representative Committee (NRC), in consultation with the branch based YWP committees. Its intent is to clearly demonstrate the objectives of the YWPs, and link those with AWA's own overall objectives. The YWPs collectively were so successful in achieving the aims set out in the original version of the plan, that the review was conducted in order look at what more could be done. The plan has already been sent directly to members of the YWP network and can be viewed online at www.awa.asn.au/ywp.
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awa news
National Water Week Securing Our Water Future
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18-24 October 2009 National Water Week is your opportunity to get involved in a national event to increase awareness about the fragile nature of our water resources and the need to manage and diversify our water sources. This year's theme "SECURING OUR WATER FUTURE" provides an opportunity for water utilities, government agencies, councils, environmental groups and businesses to explore actions and activities around the key messages: • Our water comes from a number of different sources • Water supplies are limited • We all share water • We're all responsible for our water future. Hosted by the Australian Water Association in partnership with the National Water Commission, National Water Week 2009 again invites you to get involved. There are a range of resources available to help you get involved, including the annual
National Water Week logo and post er, web banners and buttons, event organisers resources and more. The events calendar is now available and we would like to invite you to reg ister your event now www.nationalwaterweek.org.au. There are several ways that you can stay up to date with what's on offer to assist you in taking part in National Water Week 2009. 1. Become a fan of National Water Week on Facebook (and invite your friends to join us!) 2. Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/waterweek 3. Sign up for our newsletter at www.nationalwaterweek.org.au Don't miss out on being a part of Australia's premier national water awareness program.
•~H, many users, enr yone'• respo11.1ibility WWW.HATIOHALWATERWEEK.ORG.AU
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AWA Master Class: Disposal and Reuse of Water Treatment Wastes Have you ever attended an AWA Master Class? If not, you may be missing an opportunity. Specifically intended for water industry professionals who have spent a few years in the industry and are keen to progress in the next stage of their career, these classes tackle the more testing management or technical issues that are likely to arise in a senior role. There are limits on the number of attendees because these classes are all about sharing knowledge, learning from other class members as well as the presenters and building network contacts. The last class, Project Management for Water Infrastructure, was particularly well received. The next class is scheduled for 1-2 December will be in Sydney. This Class has a technical focus and addresses a major problem area affecting all water and wastewater utilities - how to deal with water treatment wastes and by-products. No longer is it simply a matter of trucking the unwanted material to a landfill or a trade waste repository. Ocean discharge is frowned on in many jurisdictions while costs, fewer landfill sites and
2 4 AUGUST 2009 water
environmental concerns are forcing plant managers to rethink their practices. Hence t he December Master Class will look at the available options. Day 1 will focus on drinking water treatment sludges (alums, ferric and polymer sludges) and the brine from drinking water desalination plants. Day 2 will target wastewater treatment plant wastes and byproducts. This last will target biogas capture and the use of high rate algal ponds for energy production, the sustainable production of electricity form anaerobic digesters and of course , biosolids reuse beyond just land application. Speakers include Professor Howard Fallowfield (Flinders University), Paul Darvodelsky (emissions capture), M ichael Boake (foulants on membrane systems) and Dr Georgina Kelly (accounting for soil carbon). This Master Class is likely to fill quickly so if you are interested in attending, please visit the website www.awa.asn.au/events.
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awa news Young Water Professionals (YWP) Update
Erin Cini AWA YWP National Committee President One of the outcomes of the YWP Workshop at Ozwater '09 was to instigate training for sustainability leadership to enable young water professionals and more experienced members of the water industry to learn the skills to become agents for change within their organisations and communities. I am pleased to announce that, in conjunction with AWA's Sustainability Specialist Network, we have been able to create a half-day workshop series that will start the process of building self awareness, recognise which leadership behaviours are critical and when to use them, and build a developmental plan to begin the process of becoming a more effective sustainability change agent. The sessions will be held in Sydney (13 August), Adelaide (15 October), Melbourne (19 November), Brisbane (18 Feb 2010) and Perth (26 March 2010). See www.awa.asn .au/events for more details.
who took the YWPs on a journey of discovery into the future of AWA YWPs in WA. So not only was there "mingling", YWPs also got to contribute to the direction of the YWP network, so we all get the most out of the future events, functions, workshops and learning opportunities. The Victorian committee will host a seminar on Career Options and Opportunities in the Water Industry on 6th August as part of their Professional Development Seminar series. The speaker line up includes representation from the Victorian government, water companies, consultants and technology and service providers. The aim of the event is t o promote the variety of options and opportunities available t o young people within the water industry. The NSW YWP committee Annual Evening Water Seminar Series kicks off this Wednesday 26 August. Like in previous years, this year's series brings together industry experts in a semi-formal environment to address common themes faced by today's water sect or. Queensland YWPs wil l be holding a technical tour to Gibson Island Advanced Water Treatment Plant in September - keep an eye out for announcements in the coming months. Call for papers for the /WA International YWP Conference that is to be held in Sydney from the 5-7 July 2010 is now open. Papers are due on the 27 September. I encourage all AWA YWPs to submit a paper - this is a great opportunity t o show off the project or research work you have recently been undertaking and to practice (and improve) your writing and public speaking ski lls.
The AWA YWP National Representative Committee (NRC) has recently released the YW P 2009-2010 Strategic Plan which sets out our objectives for local events and national programs over the coming year. It is available at the AWA YWP website, along with the latest YWP Newsletter which was released in late July. Have you ever considered using your skills to help others? The Victorian YW Ps held a Volunteering in Water: At Home and Abroad seminar in Melbourne on 4 July, showcasing different volunt eering opportunities available to YWP's and was considered a great success, with a diverse line-up of speakers giving top-notch presentations about opportunities, ranging from office support for local organisations, vol unteering on local water projects in Victoria and indigenous projects throughout Australia, and as far flung as overseas field placements.
A number of stat e and territory YWP Awards are opening soon for nominations - please contact your local YWP committee or AWA Branch Manager for further details and get your nominations in (or nominate someone you think is an outst anding YWP). Many local AWA YWP committees hold their elections at this time of year, so it is a great time to join a committee. Our YWP Committees hold monthly meetings and will give you the opportunity t o gain skills, increase your knowledge and to create networks within the water industry with other young professionals as well as experienced members of the water industry.
Young and seasoned NSW water professionals were paired together to begin their mentoring partnership during the mentoring "egg and toast" breakfast held on Thursday 18 June at Bovis Lend Lease in Sydney.
At the time of writing, NSW had elected their new committee, cong ratulations to Kate Miles who is the new NSW Chair, replacing Andrew Kable. I would also like to welcome Javier Valderrama who has been elected as the NSW NRC Representative, and to ext end my appreciation to Lee-Anne Carmody the outgoing NSW Rep, who over the last two years has contributed immensely to national AWA YWP programs, particularly the mentoring program.
The WA committee held the Mid-year Mingle at the Leederville Hotel, the event was facilitated by SRD Consulting,
If you are interested in getting involved in YWPs send an email to your local committee and attend a meeting!
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awa news EVENTS CALENDAR This list is correct at the time of printing. Please check the AWA online events calendar for up-to-date listings and booking information at www.awa.asn.au/events AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
Thu , 06 Aug 2009 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 Thu , 13 Aug 2009 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 Sat, 22 Aug 2009 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 Wed , 26 Aug 2009 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 Thu, 02 Sep 2009 Sun, 06 Sep 2009 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 Thu , 10 Sep 2009 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 Sat, 12 Sep 2009 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 Wed , 23 Sep 2009 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 Thu , 24 Sep 2009 Fri, 25 Sep 2009 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 Wed , 07 Oct 2009 Wed , 07 Oct 2009 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 Mon , 12 Oct 2009 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 Wed , 21 Oct 2009 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 Wed , 21 Oct 2009 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 Wed, 28 Oct 2009
NT Technical Meeting (Lunch), Darwin NT YWP - A Look At the Different Job Options in Water, Victoria VIC Sustainability Implementation: Actions and Tools for Change, Sydney NSW Change Agent Training, Sydney NSW Heads of Water Gala Dinner, Sydney NSW Regional / Operators Conference, Adelaide SA 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm, Stockholm Sweden OLD Monthly Technical Meeting, Brisbane OLD 47th Victorian Branch Annual Dinner, Victoria VIC YWP Tour of Mount Stromlo, Canberra ACT YWP - Water Seminar Series 1, Sydney NSW NO Regional Water '09, Cairns OLD Untangling Water Regulation - Afternoon Seminar, Perth WA History of Water in Tasmania, Hobart TAS SA Branch Committee Meeting, Adelaide SA NT Branch Committee Meeting, Darwin NT YWP Forum, Adelaide SA OLD Branch Committee Meeting, Brisbane OLD 1st IWA Development Congress, Mexico City, Mexico National Source Management Conference 2009, Melbourne VIC Desalination - An Update on Projects and Technology, Melbourne VIC OLD Monthly Technical Meeting, Brisbane OLD Charity Fishing Day, Darwin NT ACT 2009 AWA National Awards Night, Canberra ACT IWA Reuse 09, Brisbane OLD NZWWA's 51st Annual Conference and Expo, Rotorua, New Zealand Austral ian Water Industry Essentials, Melbourne VIC YWP - Water Seminar Series 2, Sydney NSW Monthly Tech Meeting: Talking Trade Waste, Hobart TAS NT Branch Committee Meeting, Darwin NT OLD Branch Committee Meeting, Brisbane OLD SA Branch Committee Meeting, Adelaide SA WEFTEC.09 - 82nd Annual Technical Exhibition & Conference, Orlando USA SA Branch Comm ittee Meet ing, Adelaide SA Debate on the Lake / Environmental Series, Canberra ACT Sustainability Implementation: Actions and Tools for Change, Adelaide SA OLD Monthly Technical Meeting, Brisbane OLD Change Agent Training, Adelaide SA ASPIRE 2009, Taipei, Taiwan YWP BBQ on the Lake, Canberra ACT 12th NSW Engineers-Operators /Regional Conference, Port Macquarie NSW YWP - Research and Innovation in Water, Melbourne VIC Through the Pipes - A Guided Tour of Hobart Rivulet, Hobart TAS SA Technical Meeting, Adelaide SA Victorian Water Catchment Area - Guided Walking Tour, Melbourne VIC Water in the Bush, Darwin NT IWA Efficient 2009, Sydney NSW YWP - Water Seminar Series 3, Sydney NSW
water
AUGUST 2009 29
feature article - water sector skills
Addressing Skills Shortages in the Water Sector Fiona Mackenzie, AWA Industry Programs Coordinator The H 20z careers in water campaign commenced in January, so it's a good time to provide an update on the establishment of this new water industry brand. For those of you who may not know, the H2Oz careers in water campaign, hosted by AWA, seeks to attract people to the water industry and position the water industry as a 'sector of choice'. This industry-wide campaign is an important part of a strategy to reduce skills shortages in the industry, retain skills and build water industry careers. There are currently 30 subscribing organisations that are actively supporting and taking advantage of this unique industry initiative. Since January t here have been a number of achievements:
NEW Victorian Water Centre To Top Up Industry Skills A new training facility at Chisholm Institute of TAFEs Cranbourne Campus will train about 2500 workers for a number of key Victorian Government water projects. Officially open in May, the Water Industry Specialist Training Centre will train the workers over the next three years in skills ranging from Civi l Construction to Water Operations, including water testing and water treatment.
• The website (www.h2oz.org.au) went live and into the public domain to coincide with the Ozwater '09 conference in March • H2 Oz templates and marketing materials have been designed and printed. These have included illustrative organisation brochures, postcards, booth flags, career flyers and carry bags to name a few. • There have been numerous opportunities for promotion of the H2 Oz careers in water brand via presentations and booths at career fairs. The H2 Oz brand featured at the AWA Ozwater '09 Conference (Melbourne), Charles Darwin Uni Fair and Careers Information Seminar (Darwin), Engineeri ng Careers Fair (Melbourne) and the University of NSW Career Seminar (Sydney). • H2 Oz appeared in the daily news at t he AWA Ozwater '09 Conference, and we've also gained some exposure in the mainstream media, such as The Age in Melbourne. The custom designed recru itment system was completed in July. This allows subscribing organisations to advertise positions and for candidates to submit their resume to be placed within a pool of candidates interested in a water career. Hopefully the front cover of this issue of Water caught your eye! In May an underwater photo shoot and underwater 'the making of' vid eo were compl eted. Th is involved real water sector employees and we created tailored images to help show the breadth roles within the water industry. Visit the H2Oz website (www.h2oz.org.au) to check out the amazing underwater video 'the making of'!
The centre will link with the water industry to deliver specialist training tailored to meet the existing and emerging skills demands of Victoria's water companies, and has already established close links with water companies as well the two consortia bidding to manage the Victorian desalination plant at Wonthaggi.
The H2Oz website will be progressing over the next two months to include informative and att ractive water industry career material. An important component will be information on how to get started in the industry, and will contain job profiles and course information for students and recent graduates.
The Water Industry Specialist Training Centre features a 100,000 litre water storage tank, from which water will be used for horticulture purposes before being fed into wetlands where students will carry out tests.
If you r organisation would like to get involved in the H2Oz careers in water campaign, please check out our fantastic water industry career website www.h2oz.org.au or contact Fiona on: 02 9467 8429 or fmackenzie@awa.asn.au.
Key skills initiatives in the Victorian 2009 State Budget included: • $25 million to extend the Apprenticeship/Traineeship Completion Bonus program for another 12 months; • $3 million to plan and design an Aviation Training Academy to be based at Melbourne Airport; • $66.9 million towards a new student management system to begin a landmark upgrade of administrative systems across TAFEs; and • $13.8 million for a new Skills to Transition program to support the securing of training places for up to 6400 Victorian workers who want to retrain or who are in industry transition.
30 AUGUST 2009 water
feature articles
feature article - conference report
IWA Water Loss, Cape Town, April 2009 Reported by BOP Media Services for Wide Bay Water Corporati on More than 450 delegates from 60 countries bookedout the IWA conferenc e in Cape Town in April to learn about new techniques to staunc h the flow of lost water. It w as c haired by Ron nie McKenzie, of Cape Town, on behalf of Tim Waldron, CEO of Wide Bay Water, who was unable to attend through illness. Papers covered wat er loss reduction strategies from Bhaktapur, Nepal, Eda Ranu in Papua New Guinea t o Australia and South Africa. Water t heft is a challenge for major c ities in Colombia; sophist icated metering of consumers in Hervey Bay, Australia, can detect an unnot iced faulty washer in a private home. Unmetered water loss is an international headache throbbing painfully in cities such as Blantyre, Malawi, where 53% of wat er pumped from reservoirs disappeared - 90% was estimated t o have spurted t hrough pipe bursts and leakage. Some water authorities with c ritical leakage and unauthorised use lose between 70 % and 80% of wat er between reservoir and tap. Delicate balanci ng of water pressure in pipes is a key t actic. Calibrated by specialist engineers and used in developed nations with fluid precision, sophisticated pressure balancing staved off the digging up of mains under an anc ient tourist town in Tuscany.
Wide Bay Water Acting CEO David Wiskar (right) discussing pressure management with a team of workmen at Cape Town's Mitchell Plains water pressure management station. The system is the third biggest pressure-managed district meter area in the world.
Only about 10% of the world 's water authorit ies were really us ing high -level water loss management techniques. W ater loss was often ignored in c ities even in developed countries and needed to be addressed in developed nations. "Th e important role which water loss management can play in developing countries to break the poverty cycle is astonishing."
Roland Liemberger, an Aust rian work ing with t he Miya group, says t he loss is unbelievable. He is now based in Manila, where the world's largest si ngle water-saving project has started. " Politicians like to go to cut ribbons at openings of 10 million dollar treatment plants. However they are less enthusiast ic about plugging leaks and putting in meters but the big savings are t here both in money and water." T he Manila project started last year would curb losses estimated at 1.5 million cubic metres a day.
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water AUGUST 2009 3 1
feature article - conference report They are losing enough treated water to supply four cities the size of his native Vienna. He said astonishing results in water savings had been achi eved in countries such as India, where 185,000 people near Bangalore had a system delivering water for only one hou r per week or a few hours every couple of days. When the leaks were plugged and customers metered, water was delivered 24 hours a day but the total water demand was less than before.
Mr Bambous Charalambous, past president of the Task Force, warned that climate change was likely to cause conflict as water became one of t he limiting resources of the century. He is chillingly aware of the critical water shortages the world could face in days of climate change Climate change had struck early in places such as Cyprus, delivering a fourth successive year of severe drought. The reservoirs have run out in his picturesque home town of Lemesos. Tankers arrive daily from Greece to deliver water to the 170,000 residents .. Three times a week water runs out their taps for about 16 hours. The town's water supply distribution system is managed carefully in a stringent regime which the International Water Loss Task Force says should be practised around t he globe. US water companies need to stop fudgi ng figures and admit their real water losses says Ch icago-based water efficiency advocate Mary Ann Dickinson. She said envi ronmentconscious consumers irritated by wasted water gushing from burst mains would be irate if they realised they were seeing only the tip of the iceberg. They see less than 10% of the water lost by utilities. The rest of the waste comes from leaks underground not seen by people who are paying the rates bills. She criticised US compan ies for not playing a stronger leadership role. Everyone in the US is saying they don't have leaks. They are fussing with their figures and coming up with ridiculous claims of only 6% water losses. They are just guessing and deliberately reporting results to keep t he customers happy. Canadian Ken Brothers, another former chairman of the task force, said utilities leaked more in global distribution systems each day than was needed to supply everyone on the p lanet. Management inertia and resistance to change is responsible. We have the knowledge to cut losses - t here's no question we can deliver the goods. It's a no brainer but success stories are few and far between because of lack of leadership. Leaks of potable water in US and Canada alone were estimated to be 20 billion litres a day. Investment in metering and leak prevention strategies had proven to be profitable but resistance to change was rampant. I think t here is some embarrassment out there - people don't want to admit t hey have been doing t he wrong t hing," Mr Brothers said. Apart from the fiscal gains, water utilities also needed to consider the environmental need to be responsible with their distribution.
32 AUGUST 2009 water
The world has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Water was cheap back then. Treatment was lower. The whole service was under- priced and under-valued. It is no longer a cheap commodity. Australia is now a world leader in controlling leakage from water distribution systems said UK water loss specialist Allan Lambert. It wasn't necessari ly so f ive or six years ago. It's happened because of the way it's responded to drought. Mr Lambert, founder of t he International Water Association Water Loss Task Force, singled out Wide Bay Water Corporation in Hervey Bay as among the best in the world at reducing water losses. He said the task force had an International Loss Index (ILi) that had a base rating of 1, accepting that some losses were inevitable in utilities. " Wide Bay Water and about 30 other companies in Australia now have ranki ngs of minus 1." Latest data showed 80% of Australian wat er utilities had a factor of less than 2 under t he ILi - rated as Grade A under the World Bank Institute. WBW Acting CEO David Wiskar said Hervey Bay had played a strong role in ensuring the Australian water industry was the world's best, training and raising awareness in the market place. "We have also worked actively with a number of Australian companies to reduce losses. A good example is the Gold Coast where we helped reduce losses from 164 litres per connection per day to 4 litres, taking the ILi from 2.5 to just over 1." Wide Bay Water had also played a key role in encouraging best practice t hrough government legislation, creating an industry that had d irect economic benefits to the Fraser Coast in jobs and supplies. About $7 million now come in from external sources. Mr Lambert said people in A ustralia tended not to realise how well they were doing in conserving water losses in distribution networks, a field coming under increasing scrutiny as t he world grows nervous about dwindling supplies and growing demand. Sophisticated advances in managing pipe pressures, detect ing leaks and closely monitoring meters were being made around the world but Aust ralia was leading the way. Chicago- based water loss advocate Mary Ann Dickinson has also singled out Australia as a top performer in averting water losses, saying Wide Bay Water in Hervey Bay and Yarra Water in Melbourne had outstandi ng records on an international scale.
Tim Waldron, chairman of the International Water Association Water Loss Task Force, was unable to attend the Cape Town conference but is driving ahead with the mission of raising global awareness of the prob lem of serious loss between reservoir and tap in a world facing critical water shortages. For a list of presentations and relevant papers, email Sammiep@widebaywater.qld.gov.au
feature articles
feature article
Creating Water Sensitive Cities In Australia Sharon Phillips, International Water Centre Imagine ... • a cool , green city with raingardens, urban forests, and rooft op vegetable gardens ... • people, governments and industries working together for sustainable cities ... • healthy urban waterways fit for enjoyment and fishing, where native wild life flourishes ... • city and cou ntry coexisting in harmony, leaving only tiny footprints on the planet ... You have just imagined a Water Sensitive City. Current approaches to urban wat er management are resu lting in a number of unacceptable outcomes, such as degraded catchments and waterways, vul nerability to water scarcity and flooding, high energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and lack of community engagement. We can no longer keep trying to use 'wrong' approaches in ' right' ways . There is now widespread agreement that a major change is required in the way water is managed in and around cities.
DOW Chemical (Australia) Limited and the IWC wanted to identify and address the institutional and social barriers currently preventing this change to sustainable water management practices. The IWC, with the expertise of the National Urban Water Governance Program (NUWGP), Monash University, suggested that debate between water practitioners was an important starting point for the creation of a common vision for sustainable cities. The combination of the physical water cycle or system and non-physical elements such as people worki ng to affect outcomes is extremely complex, but this kind of systemsthinking approach is considered fu ndamental to creating a sustainable water future. This can only be achieved through the engagement of research, practitioner and political communities as well as the general public. In February 2009 the International WaterCentre hosted a series of workshops titled 'Creating Water Sensitive Cities in Australia' for water-related professionals around the country. Associate Professor Rebekah Brown led an internationally recognised team of experts to present findings from a threeyear research project investigating the institutional barriers to sustainable urban water management and governance factors req uired to transition to Water Sensitive Cities in Australia. This research formed the basis of the workshop debate. The workshop facilitators used a techniq ue called 'conversation mapping', where small groups working together write (or map) on paper their comments to an initial idea until the theme is fully discussed and recorded. Emerging insights (or opportunities) of the con versations are noted and examined until a conceptual model of a syst em of change is developed. This workshop design was largely responsible for turning the research information and participant debate into c lear, applicable messages.
20-25 September 09 Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Brisbane, Australia
The key messages from the 500 participants of these workshops were that achieving Water Sensitive Cities in Australia requires: • a shared vision and national framework that recognises Australia's diverse landscapes and water management arrangements to guide cities through the most effective and efficient pathway to water sustainability; • leadership from the Austral ian government to ensure issues of governance, regulation and financial investment are consistent w ith achieving the Water Sensitive City vision ; • a complete cultural change which actively engages a much wider array of professions and experiences, including the community, to address future challenges;
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• changes in institutional arrangements at all levels of government to support a common approach to social, economic and environmental decision making and prioritisation of actions. In May 2009 these messages were taken to Canberra as a basis for discussion with 70 senior water and urban policy professionals about what a Water Sensitive City
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feature article means and how it might be created. Participants in this meeting supported the National Water Commission who expressed that: • Urgent action is needed for all of Australia's major urban centres to become Water Sensitive Cities • Rather than radical restructuring of the current business structures, the action requires substantial cultural change, an agreed vision , increased understanding among the urban communities and their politicians, and incentives for all stakeholders to create Water Sensitive Cities • As a matter of urgency, the national government and relevant decision makers from major cities should develop a national vision and framework for Water Sensitive Cities in Australia, which is adaptive to different city contexts • A "community of practice" network be developed at a national and city level, enabling interdisciplinary and multisectoral coordi nation and learning • Ongoing investment in research is needed to support the learning cycle - using both social sciences and physical sciences. National Water Commissioner Mr Chris Davis concluded the meeting by saying that: • Facilitating Water Sensitive Cities across Australia's major urban centres was a recognised priority in the National Water Initiative of 2004, and is an ongoing priority for the National Water Commission • The col lation of the views of 500 passionate stakeholders and practitioners provides good guidance for practical actions that can advance water sensitive cities
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• Momentum was clearly building right across the Australian water industry for more to be done in the area of water sensitive cities. Debate about Water Sensitive Cities has now truly beg un around Australia. "The response from participants was overwhelming," said IWC CEO Mark Pascoe. "The energy and excitement we saw over the possibilities of this idea can certainly lead to the creation of a common vision for sustainable cities, and allow us to see the achievement of this vision in Australia's future. We look forward to seeing the results of these workshops translate into actions, and we are confident that the efforts of the participants will lead to significant changes in how Australian cities manage water in the future." For further information on the Creating Water Sensitive Cities workshops, download the Transitioning to Water Sensitive Cities in Austral ia: Synthesis Report at www.watersensitivefutures.org, or email admin@watercentre.org.
International WaterCentre The International WaterCentre (IWC) is a joint venture of The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Monash University and The University of Western Aust ralia. The IWC is dedicated to provid ing the most advanced education and traini ng, applied research and expert advice to develop capacity and promot e whole-of-water cycle approaches to water management around the world. www.watercentre.org
Monash University For information on the National Urban Water Governance Program at Monash University, go to www. urbanwa tergovernance. com.
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42 AUGUST 2009 water
feature articles
feature article
The Urban Water Security Research Alliance - Leading Urban Water Research in South-east Queensland By Don Begbie , Director, Urban Wate r Security Research Alliance Queensland. The State provides $5 million cash per year matched with cash and in-kind support by the three research partners.
Urban Water Security Research Alliance
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~~ UNIVERSITY
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Governmen t
Background Water is fundamental to our quality of life, to economic growth and to the environment. With its booming economy and growing population, Australia's South East Queensland (SEQ) region faces increasing pressure on thei r present wat er resources. These pressures are compounded by the impact of climate variability and accelerating climate change. From 2001 to early 2008, SEQ experienced the worst drought in the region's recorded history, with the combined levels of the major water supply dams falling to just 16% in Aug ust 2007 (Yeates, 2009). In response, the Queensland Government established the Queensland Water Commission in 2006 to advise on water security in SEQ and coordinate the development of the South East Queensland Water Strat egy (QWC, 2008). It also implemented a $9 billion program of water supply projects, including a desalination plant and the $2.5 billion Western Corridor Recycled Water project to add Purified Recycled Water (PRW) to the region's drinking water supply. Smaller inflows to the dams during 2008 but a significant event in November 2008 saw the region's combined wat er supply lift to over 40%. In November 2008, the Government announced that PRW would be used to augment drinking water supplies as an emergency measure when the region 's combined water supply reached a trigger level of 40% . Further major rainfall events in May 2009 saw the combined dam level lift to about 75%. However, modelling shows that SEQ could reach the 40% trigger level again by about Aug ust 201 1 at the earliest (Yeates, 2009).
Partnering for Urban Water Research The Urban Water Security Research Alliance Agreement was signed in November 2007 establishing the Alliance to address SEQ's emerging urban water issues with a focus on urban water security and recycling. The Alliance is a $50 million partnership over five years between the Queensland Government, CSIRO's Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, Griffith University and The University of
44 AUGUST 2009 water
The Alliance is the largest reg ionally focused urban water research program in Australia. The program brings new AUST Jl A L IA knowledge and research capac ity to SEQ, tailored to tackling existing and anticipated future issues across the water cycle to inform the implementation of the SEQ Water Strategy. The Alliance seeks to align research where appropriate with other water research programs such as those of other local SEQ water agencies, e-Water CRC, Water Quality Research Australia Limited (WQRA) and the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA).
THE UNI VERSITY 'lll. "i7 ~ OF QUEENSLAND
Governance Figure 1 shows the structure and reporting relationships of the Alliance.
Management Board The Management Board has the key role of establishing strategic priorities of the Alliance; approving the annual research program and budget; and oversighting the effective delivery of the research program. Mr Chris Davis was appointed as the independent Chair of the Management Board in September 2007. After 15 years as CEO of AWA, Chris brings to the Alliance an in-depth knowledge and passion of the urban water industry and the research issues and challenges as well as strong linkages with industry stakeholders.
Qld State Gov'! and CSIRO Approval
Alliance Management Board
... Research Advisory Committee
' ._ Reporting
... ...
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Alliance Management Team Pro¡ect Leaders ; ; ;
External Experts
;
;
State Govt
CSIRO
Uni Qld
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Figure 1. The Alliance structure.
feature articles
feature article Current members of the Management Board are: • Scott Keyworth, Manager, Research Adoption, Wat er for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship, CSIRO
The RAC held its inaugural meeting in December 2007 and meets twice a year to advise the Board on progress, milestones and implementation of project act ivities and the strategic direction for the research program.
• Alan Gregory, Research Theme Leader, Urban Water, Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship, CSIRO
The Research Program
• John Mott, Strategic Research Coordinator, UQ
Research for the Alliance is delivered under three research themes:
• Larry Little, CEO, Smart Water Research Facility, GU • Brian Vandersee, Executive Director, Natural Resource Sciences, DERM • Barry Dennien, A/Chief Executive Officer, SEQ Wat er Grid Manager. The Board met for the first time in November 2007 and meets four times a year to perform its governance roles. In addition, it meets once a year with t he Research Advisory Committee to consider strategic research priorities and direction.
Research Advisory Committee The Research Advisory Committee (RAC) provides advice to the Management Board on the annual research program and budget, including knowledge gaps. It cond ucts periodic reviews of Alliance research project activities and makes recommendations about the direction, content and details of future Alliance research activities. Professor Paul Greenfield, Vice Chancellor of the University of Queensland is the independent Chair of the RAC. Adjunct Professor Mark Pascoe, Chief Executive, International Water Centre, is the Deputy Chair. The RAC includes a science coordinator from each of the partners and two independent experts - Mr Ian Law, ISL Solutions, and Associate Professor Rebekah Brown, Program Leader, National Urban Water Governance Program, Monash University.
• Closing the Loop in our Water Supply System • Informed Decision Making • Managing our Future Water Supply These will examine fundamental issues necessary to deliver the region's water needs. The research program aims to contribute t o the adoption of new practices in urban wastewater and stormwater recycling to increase our water security. It will also increase comm unity confidence in future urban water supply and better understanding of community behaviour and preferences with regards to water use. It will provide improved methods to analyse water, energy and nutrient balances across the SEQ water system to inform future urban water strategy development. The Alliance is operating in a dynamic environment and needs the capability and capacity to deal with emerging issues and priorities. New project topics and issues for consideration for contestable research funds are identified and considered by the Alliance Management Board , the Research Advisory Committee or by Alliance stakeholders. Funding additional projects wi ll be done by consideri ng the direction, achievements and gaps in current research and alignment with the focus and goals of the Alliance.
Alliance Research Projects Figure 2 illustrates the focus of the Alliance research program in the context of South East Queensland .
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Figure 2. The Alliance Research Projects. 46 AUGUST 2009 water
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feature article Purified Recycled Water A study is being undertaken of hospital wastewater contri bution to wastewater treatment plants in SEQ. Initial results indicate that hospitals are likely not to be a major source of pharmaceuticals in wastewat er and that households are the major source. Research is also under way to monitor the removal efficiency of organic micropollutants during wastewater treatment. Pathogen decay studies have commenced in Wivenhoe Dam using diffusion chambers t o determine the decay of microorganisms directly in the lake. The research should provide insight into the factors driving the decay of pathogens within the reservoir and allow assessment of the health risks from different pathogens entering the reservoir. Stormwater Harvesting and Reuse This project researches the innovative capture and storage of stormwater for additional water supply in SEQ and the impact of harvesting stormwater on creek and ecosystem health. The project will undertake a subregional GIS analysis of stormwater harvesting opportunities for SEQ. The impact of different levels of urban development on creek ecosystem health and hydrology will be researched . In addition, a review of pollutant export behaviour from urban catchments wi ll be undertaken, with focus on pathogens, heavy metals and trace organics. Decentralised Systems In 2007, a significant amendment was made to the Queensland Development Code (QDC) mandating all residential homes to
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achieve a target of potable water savings. The Draft SEQ Water Strategy (QWC, 2008) has identified decentralised systems as an option for achieving the mandatory water saving targets of 70kUyear for new detached houses and 42k Uyear for new t errace houses and townhouses. Council water billing data will be used to cond uct a statistical analysis for a large data set (>10,000) to understand the pot able water saving due to the mandated rainwater tan ks. 15 to 20 homes with mandated rainwater tanks wi ll be monitored for rainwater usage and pump energy usage. This project will also investigate the water balance, hydraulic and hydrological analysis and efficiency of comm unal tanks including energy consumption. The project is also investigating the treatment efficiency, energy usage, capital and O&M costs of commonly adopted decentralised wastewat er treatment technologies in cluster scale developments at Capo di Monte and the Currumbin Ecovillage on the Gold Coast. Systematic Social Analysis This project has undertaken a longitudinal study to investigat e the psycho-sociological drivers associated with people's intention to support or reject the addition of PRW to the drinking wat er supply in SEQ. The research to date shows that perceptions of risk play a significant role in determining people's likely acceptance of proposed recycled wastewater schemes for potable use (Fielding, 2009). The project is now moving to research household wat er use. The goal of this research is to better understand how householders use wat er in their daily lives and how water conserving behaviours may be supported as a "way of life" in SEQ through a mix of demand management interventions. Knowledge and Institutions for Water Manage ment in SEQ This project investigat es how the policy, planning and delivery systems for water in SEQ have changed since 2000. The project aims to determine the characteristics of institutions that are not only dependable, despite uncertain science, but are also flexible enough to adapt to changing social and environmental c onditions. An initial rou nd of interviews has been conducted with key individuals involved in water management in SEQ. The development of 'knowledge capacities' for water management has emerged from this research as one of the most important institutional challenges currently faced by wat er managers in SEQ.
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This project has completed three downscaling experiments using the CSIRO Mk3 global climate model as a host. 55-year simulations of another three future cl imate scenarios wi ll be completed using international models as a host to reduce uncertainty associat ed with the models. The project has also completed examination of the relative importance of increasing CO2 , ozone depletion and increasing aerosols in driving the observed climate change. Results to dat e indicate that observed reduction in rainfall in SEQ may be driven largely by multidecadal variability. The project also examines the impact of cl imate change on inflows to dams. A 2km scale raster-based model has been developed and is being validated prior to coupling with downscaled future cl imate outputs. The Brisbane IQQM model
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feature article will also be modified using the results of the three downscaled version of the GCM experiments to examine impact on inflows to dams.
Life Cycle Analysis and Integrated Modelling Th is project has initially focused on LCA of operational energy and greenhouse gas emissions of existing and proposed water system and a preliminary life cycle analysis of the SEQ Water Strategy. It will summarise best available knowledge on GHG emissions from centralised WWT processes. Dam methane emissions will be researched to better quantify the relative contribution to SEQ urban water greenhouse emissions. A prototype integrated regional urban water modelling tool is being developed to predict water quantity and quality implications of various water supply and management options in SEQ including stormwat er, recycled water and rainwater tan ks. The project t eam is working with eWater CRC to develop a fun ctional model for the Logan River basin by June
2010. Water Quality Information Management Th is project has developed a proof-of-concept, on-line system for monitoring sewage inflows to the Bundamba wastewater treatment plant. Research will now focus on developing a proof-of-application prototype on-line, real-time event detection syst em capable of detecting significant discharge event s that could potentially compromise the performance of the wastewater treatment plant and affect the quality of produced wat er feeding to the down-stream advance treatment plant.
Water Loss This project is analysing evaporative losses from water storage dams throughout SEQ. Desk top studies of the potential use of monolayers, hard covers and other techniques to reduce evaporation from dams have been concluded. The project is now moving to a detailed field test of avail able techn iques to measure evaporation from water storages and to assess the suitability of selected technologies for reduc ing evaporative loss from large dams under SEQ conditions.
Advanced Oxidation by H20 2/UV, there is a need for a better understanding of the nature of the precursors. This project will research NDMA and NDMA precursors in the effluent from wastewater treatment plants feeding source waters for PRW in SEQ.
Disinfection By-Product Formation in Drinking Water Chlorination and chloramination of drinking water has the potential to produce elevated levels of a range of disinfection by-products (DBPs) including trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs) and nitrosamines such as NDMA. The natural organic matter (NOM) component of source wat ers also leads to formation of DBPs when disinfected. This project is monitoring and assessing formation of DBP at water treatm ent plants in SEQ.
SEQ Residential Water Use End Study This project will install "Smart Meters" in 400 homes in SEQ to collect detailed water end use data for quantifying the impact of urban water demand management strategies researched through the social analysis project. Baseline readings will be made and water audits conducted, with a trace analysis of the baseline read. Water use data will then be collect ed and analysed for a series of demand management int erventions. The project wil l identify how people use water and respond to water restrictions and will enable Water Utilities to better direct demand management initiatives or education programs t o encourage reduced water use.
PRW in the Lockyer Valley The SEQ Water Strategy includes the possible provision of 25,000 MUa PRW to the Lockyer Valley for irrigation of agricultural land. This project w ill research the implications of using PRW as an adjunct to groundwater resources for irrigation in the Lockyer Valley and Warri ll Creek. It will review existing models and groundwater, soils and hyd rogeology data, modify the models if necessary and use th em to evaluate a series of "what if?" scenarios.
The Author
The project is also researching the development of a novel technique for water system leak detection and location by measuring small changes in pressure at different parts of the network. Initial research shows promise for water authorities in restricting the range of locations that have to be searched to find a given leak.
Enhanced Treatment This project is working closely with the South Caboolture recycled water plant to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of ozonation and biologically activated carbon filtration to achieve potable water quality as an alternative tech nology option to microfiltration and reverse osmosis. Attenuation of micropollutants (pharmaceuticals and pesticides) along the treatment train is assessed. Bioassays are also used to evaluate the level of various biological adverse effects induced by the water. Result s show that the process efficiently removes the micropollutants and decreases the biological adverse effects (Reungoat, 2009).
N-nitrosodimethylamine (NOMA) Formation Potential The formation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is of major concern among wastewater recycling utilities practicing disinfection with ch loramines. Although NDMA is satisfactorily removed in the Advanced Water Treatment process during
Don Begbie was the Director, Water Science, with the Department of Natural Resources and Water before being appointed Director of the UWSRA. Email Donald.Begbie@qwc.qld.gov.au, www.urbanwateral liance.org.au
References Fielding, K. (2009). Community perceptions and acceptance of recycled water in South East Queensland. National Water Recycling and Reuse Technology conference, Melbourne, 25-26 June 2009. QWC (2008). South East Queensland Water Strategy, March 2008. Reungoat, J (2009}. Removal of micropollutants and reduction of biological activity in a non-membrane reclamation plant. National Water Recycling and Reuse Technology conference, Melbourne, 25-26 June 2009. Yeates, C. (2009). Purified Recycled Water - the technical issues. National Water Recycling and Reuse Technology conference, Melbourne, 25-26 June 2009.
water AUGUST 2009 49
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ST Screen • No Chains • l ong-life bearings with automatic greasing • low speed • Virtually maintenance free
Compactors and Dewaterers Spiropress SC Compactor Mini Washer • Shaftless spiral • No intermediate or end bearings • High efficiency and reliability • Simple, completely enclosed robust machine • Virtually maintenance free
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disinfection
~ refereed paper
CHLORINE OR CHLORAMINE FOR DRINKING WATER DISINFECTION? I Fisher, G Kastl, B Fayle, A Sathasivan Abstract Chlorine and chloramine are the two most widely used disinfectants in drinking water distribution systems. A new framework is proposed , within which the choice between their use is based on the ability of each to achieve specified performance goals within the system of interest. While prediction of chlorine performance can be made with available state-of-the-art chlorine decay modelling, the same cannot yet be achieved for chloramine performance. This approach is demonstrated in a case study where performance of the current chloramination of a distribution system was compared with the modelled performance of ch lorination. As work progresses on understanding the development of chloramine-decaying microorganisms, it is anticipated that the choice will be based on the performance of each option, as simulated by network models based on EPANET/MSX, such as H20Map Water MSX, which allow the user to define the ki netics of all interactions involved.
Introduction Chlorine and chloramine are the two most widely used disinfectants in drinking wat er distribution systems. Althoug h chlorine provides more effective microbial inactivation, chloramine is longer lasting at effective concentrations. However, chlorine reacts with dissolved organic matter to generate wellrecognised undesirable by-products, which are not formed by ch loramination. Chloramination is a more complex process and chloramine can be degraded rapidly by nitrifying organisms,
water Future Features SEPTEMBER - Wastewater treatment, SCADA, consultatio n NOVEMBER - Odour, desalination DECEMBER - Tre nchless technology, groundwater 52 AUGUST 2009 water
Set disinfection aoals
Set up hydraulic system model
Set up disinfectant decay model
Characterise Cl decay (oarallel reaction model)
Characterise NH 2CI chemical decav
T ry single initial dose
NH2CI microbial decay (measurement)
In-system measurement
Laboratory tank experiment
Model residual profile in system
y
System design for final comparison
Try rechlorination
y
Remove more NOM
Figure 1. Decision framework for choice of disinfectant. after which it is often difficult to reestablish a satisfactory residual through the system. A robust framework accounting for all these conflicting factors is needed to assist in deciding which disinfectant is most appropriate for a particular distribution system.
Decision Framework The suitability of any given disinfectant can be assessed on the basis of longterm system monitoring data, usually over several years. Alternatively, prediction (modelling) of disinfectant performance can be attempted, without implementing that type of disinfection in the real system. As the ability to assess the performance without the need for trial in the real system offers significant benefits, this paper advocates decisionmaking based on modelling. The essential elements of the proposed decision framework are shown
in Figure 1. The first is the set of goals defined for disinfection, which wi ll usually include a minimum residual level at system extremities to prevent bacterial regrowth and a maximum residual to meet disinfection by-product requirements and aesthetic needs. The second element is the "combined" model, comprisi ng a hyd raulic model of the system and a decay model of the disinfectant of interest, with which profiles of disinfectant residual can be generated along any pat h through the distribution system. The third element comprises the set of scenarios that need to be modelled to determine the more appropriate disinfectant, the location of
Choice based on modelling and measurements in real distribution systems.
technical features
disinfection dosing points and their corresponding setpoints. The final element concerns assessment of loss of chloramine due to nitrifying micro-organisms.
Hydraulic system model There are many software packages within which detailed dynamic hydraulic models of distribution systems can be built. However, only EPANET with its multispecies extension (MSX), and H2OMap Water MSX, are currently suitable for formulation of an adequate model of ch lorine or ch loramine decay. For purposes of planning disinfection in systems in which most of the water age accumulates in reservoirs rather than pipes, it is more important to have an accurate decay model than a detailed dynamic model of flows. A steady-state flow model wi ll therefore generally be sufficient.
Chlorine decay in bulk water An accurate method to predict the decay of ch lorine in a (bulk) drinking water, over a wide range of initial doses and temperatures, has been developed and tested in various Australian distribution systems within the research program of the CRC for Wat er Quality and Treatment (CRCWQT) (Fisher et al. 2007). It also accurately describes the impact of re-ch lorination. In this method, total decay of ch lorine is considered as two components - the decay occurring in the water itself and that due to reaction with the pipe walls and biofilm/sediment deposited or attached to them. This enables accurate prediction of decay (and consequently the residual) without having to try it out in the system itself. It also separates the impact of water-related changes on residual (e.g. treatment) from infrastructure-related changes (e.g. pipe cleaning or flow/volume changes), so that realistic comparisons of management options can be made. The model usually adopted by distribution system modellers is that of simple exponential decay. This model has only one constant, but it cannot describe the decay that occurs over the range of initial concentrations that may be used in one type of water in different seasons, unless different values of the rate coefficient are used to describe each different combination of initial concentration and temperature that is of interest. It also does not predict any reduction in decay rate if the water is rechlorinated to the same initial concentration - which is the real situation.
54 AUGUST 2009 water
[11 To overcome these deficiencies, the "parallel reaction" model was developed within the research program of the CRCWQT. This model (Kastl and Fisher 1997, Kastl et al. 1999) represents the decay of chlorine as two sim ultaneous reactions between chlorine and fast and slow reacting compounds, which are major components of the dissolved organic matter still remaining in the water after treatment. It contains five paramet ers, wh ich need to be evaluated only once for the model to describe chlorine decay in a particular water, over the whole range of initial chlorine concentrations, temperatures and successive rechlorinations. The parameters are evaluated from a set of simple laboratory decay tests commencing with at least three different initial chlorine concentrations and carried out at two different (constant) t emperatures. Free chlorine concentration is monitored until it is entirely depleted (or up to two weeks). The chlorine model assumes reaction of ch lorine with two types of compounds present in water: Cl + F - â&#x20AC;˘ inert + aTHM Cl + S - â&#x20AC;˘ inerts+ aTHM where Cl is free chlorine F is fast reacting compounds S is slowly reacti ng compounds a is a coefficient of trihalomethane (THM) production All react ions are assumed to have the same activation energy and the reaction rate constant is described by the Arrhenius equation: -E
k = k0 * eR-r
(1)
where k, k 0 are respectively reaction rate constants at temperature T and temperature -+ oo E is activation energy R is the universal gas constant T is absolute t emperature
Chlorine decay due to wall reaction In addition to its reaction with organic matter in the bulk water, chlorine is substantially decayed by reaction with pipe walls and biofilms/sediments deposited on or adhering to them. This component of decay was characterised simply, using a model with a single parameter (the "equivalent diameter" de) derived in the CRCWQT research program. Kastl and Fi sher (1997) used the concept of equivalent diameter to link
refereed paper
wall reaction with the bulk reaction in the following way: d rr =r0 *O+j-) (2) p
where rT and r8 are total and bulk reaction rates respectively [mg/Uh] de is the "equivalent diameter", the wall decay rate parameter [m] dp is inner pipe diameter [m] The "equivalent diameter" can be derived from the difference between the measured chlorine profile along a distribution system and that predicted to occur in the bulk water alone. Together, these techniques allow the profile of chlorine (and regulated byproducts) along a distribution system to be accurately characterised with a single set of parameters.
Chloramine decay In a chloraminated system, decay occurs by both chemical and microbiological mechanisms. In addition to the reaction of organic matter with ch loramine (analogous to that with chlori ne), chem ical decay includes the acidhydrolysed auto-decomposition of chloramine, both of which are complex t o model (Duirk et al. 2005). Despite its complexit y, the chemical decay of chloramin e is usually much better characterised as first-order (exponential) than is chlorine decay in the same bulk water. Its use wi ll usually be adequate within the proposed framework. The ability of an existing or planned disinfection system to meet the goals specified, assuming that chloramine decays in bulk water only by chemical means, can then be assessed within t he same framework proposed for chlorine, as shown in Figure 1. Much greater uncertainty in the rate of chloram ine decay in real systems arises from the potential for nitrifying microorganisms to use chloramine either directly or indirectly as a food source. Although this microbial cause of decay has long been recognised in chloraminated systems, the microbial growth required has often been considered to originate in pipe biofilms, rather than in bulk water, as indicated by the effectiveness of pipe flushi ng (AWWA 2004). It is therefore not currently possible to characterise the wall reaction as a simple acceleration of the bulk decay rate , as it has been for chlorine decay. Others (e. g. Wolfe et al. 1988) have shown that such growth can also occur in the bulk water in reservo irs with
technical features
C
disinfection sufficient retention time, which requ ires further characterisation before adequate prediction of the resulting chloramine decay is possible. However, a simple method (Fm) to measure the chemical and microbial components of total chloramine decay is available (Sathasivan et a/. 2005). Application of this method to samples from various locations in an existing chloraminated system (particularly reservoirs) in wi nter can determine the minimum chemical decay rate occurring throughout the system; i.e. whether there are additional chemical sources of decay in the system. This is similar to estimating the wall reaction with chlorine. Applying the method in summer firstly confirms whether the chemical decay component is consistent with the winter measurements (after allowing for the temperature effect). Secondly, it provides an estimate of the (variable) acceleration of chloram ine decay due to microbial agents, particularly nitrifying microorganisms. With this information, profiles of total chloramine decay can be generated along a d istribution system pathway for different scenarios of dosing locat ions and setpoints, until the most satisfactory arrangement is found for achieving the goals set. This arrangement can then be compared with one based on t he profiles obtained for ch lorine, to provide an objective basis on which to decide whether to chlorinate or chloram inat e a particular distribution system.
Case Study Rous Water delivery system Rous Water is a regional water utility based in Lismore, NSW, which serves four large constituent Councils. It has used ch loramination for many years in a distribution system that supplies widely dispersed townships. In a relatively warm climate, re-chloramination is needed at some points and the resid ual can drop quickly without warni ng due to microbial nitrification. Recovering a satisfactory residual generally can require switching to chlorination for a short period, which is both time-consuming and challenging to manage. In recent years, the level of treatment prior to distribution has been substantially upgraded. The use of chloramine was established long before the Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) were upgraded with ozone and GAG. Ammonia is dosed into water after the GAG filters, followed by chlori ne. Due to long residence time in
56 AUGUST 2009 water
~ refereed paper
Nightcap WTP CWSR 11ML 320Us
24429m, ID 0.608m.
City View Drive Reservoir 8ML 25Us
34440m, ID 0.396m,
Woodburn NH2CI booster
Fisher St
Re!ervoir 0.JML 2.5Us 1600m, ID 0.143m, 2.5Us
Figure 2. Schematic of RW simplified Distribution System (Reservoirs: average active volume, flowrate; Pipes: length, diameter, flowrate). the system, approximately 3.5 mg/ L is the target for the initial dose at Nightcap WTP with a residual of 3.0mg/L leaving the plant. At Emigrant Creek WTP the target residual is 2.4mg/L. The concentration of chloramine diminishes as water travels through the system and addition of chlorami ne is often needed to sustain the residual concentration. It was suspected that decay of chloramine is due to nitrification processes. Long residence time (more t han 10 days in summer) and elevated temperature (>20°C), over extended periods of time, are cond itions which typically favour chloramine decay due to nitrification. There was also clear evidence of nitrification based on occasional loss of ammonia and increase of nitrite. The improvements in treatment at the WTPs have had little impact on the nitrification problem. Conversion to chlorination is carried out for short periods in summer/autumn, in several critical parts of the system. After preliminary discussion w ith WorleyParsons representatives, Rous Water commissioned a study to determine whether ch lorination wo uld be a more appropriate means of maintaining a residual throughout the system, particularly in summer, or whether chloram ination practice cou ld be substantially improved.
Rous Water system model With residence time in the system measured in days rather than hours, a steady-state hydraulic model of the pathway of longest residence time was an appropriate basis on which to assess the likely success of ch lorination, provided a realistic model of chlori ne decay kinetics is adopted. This was provided by the parallel reaction model and the wall decay model (described above). The steady-state hydraulic model of the pathway from Nightcap WTP to the furthest service reservoir (Fischer Street)
was developed in collaboration with the Rous Water system operators. Average flows along this pathway during a rainy summer period (i.e. high temperature, low demand) were extracted from a H2ONET run and transferred to an AQUASIM (Reichert 1994) pipes-and-reservoirs model (shown in Figure 2). Fully mixed reactors represent ed t he five reservoirs along the pathway and advect ive reactors represented the pipes connecting them, so that chlorine could decay according to the parallel reaction kinetics in both reservoirs and pipes. Water diversions off the pathway were made at the st art or end of each pipe, depending on which was more realistic. This ensured the average residence time in each reservoir and pipe was realistic - an essential req uirement for residual modelling. Water Age was assumed zero at the entry to the Clear Water Service Reservoir (CWSR) of Nightcap WTP. As water flows t hrough the system, it ages and simultaneously is replaced by new wat er. With time, Water Age stabi lises as shown in Figure 3. City View Drive Reservoir has a Water Age of approximately 100h, the pipe to Langs Hill Reservoir 200 h, Langs Hill Reservoir 280h, Broadwater Reservoir 308h and Fischer St Reservoir 344h. These are long residence times, but based on chlorine decay experiments, it was considered feasible to sustain disinfectant residual using a (modelled) ch lorine dose of less than 2 mg/L.
Chlorine decay model (bulk water) To assess the suitability of chlorine as a disinfectant in the Rous Water system, a set of decay tests was performed. Test samples were taken from Nightcap WTP after the GAG filter and prior to the chloramination process. The samples were dosed to achieve different initial chlorine concentrations and monitored over time at one of two closely controlled temperatures. The "parallel reaction" model was fitted to the data using AQUASIM software (Reichert 1994) and was then used to predict chlorine
technical features
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disinfection
~ refereed paper
residuals throughout the steady-stat e representation of the Rous Water distribution system. The experimental and modelled chlorine profiles are compared in Figure 4 and Figure 5. The fitting procedure for the chlorine decay model was deliberately biased towards the decay test results at lower initial chlorine doses (<3 mg/ L), because the chlorine doses needed in Rous Water distribution system were not expected to be higher than 2 mg/L. This model (parameter values listed in Table 1) was considered suitable for simulating the behaviour of chlorine in the Rous Water system.
400 350 300 ~
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- - LH_BW BroadWater res
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100 50 0 0
200
400
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Tlmo [hi Th e E/R value of 15000K in Table 1 indicates relatively strong dependence of the reaction rate on Figure 3. Simulation of Water Age in Rous Water model system. temperature, increasing 2.4 times between 20°c and 25°C. There would be an even more dramatic increase in chlori ne decay, as the water temperature approaches 30°C in summer.
Profiles for c hl orine residual through the system were generated using the methods developed in the CRCWQT research program. It was shown that chlorine residual could be adequately maintained along the path of greatest residence time and that by-products would be kept well below regulated limits. The highest THM concentration generated (49ug/L) was from dosing 5mg/L at 25°C - well below the 100ug/L MCL of the USEPA and far below the 250ug/L limit in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. This was in contrast to the episodes of loss of chloramine residual predicted to continue occurri ng from the measured levels of microbial acceleration of chloramine decay. Results for chlorine residual along-the pathway selected in the Rous Wat er system are shown in Figure 6. It should be emphasised that these are residu als that wou ld occur along the pathway if chlorine reacted only with organic matter dissolved in the bulk water; i.e. there was no wall reaction. With an initial dose of 1.5 mg/ L and without any contribution of wall reaction, chlorine would reach the end of the system with concentration of approximately 0.4 mg/L.
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58 AUGUST 2009 water
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Figure 4. Chlorine decay experiments (markers) and model (lines) at 20°c. 4.5
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.
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Figure 5. Chlorine decay experiments (markers) and model (lines) at 2s c. 0
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.
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Ideally, "equivalent diameter" (d 0 ) in a pipe is estimated from the difference between the decay predicted by the parallel reaction model (i.e. in bulk water alone) and the decay measured in the system itself. In the current study, this approach was not feasible, as the Rous Water system is currently chloraminated. However, the findings regarding wall decay rates from the CRCWQT program, involving a range of Australian distribution systems, water types and c limates (Fisher et al. 2007), can be used instead (Figure 6). In large mains (>500mm diameter), the reaction with cement-lined pipe walls was generally negligible. In smaller pipes (down to 100mm diameter), rates of up to eight times the bulk decay were measured. There was little effect seen in simulations of these systems using higher rates because the chlorine concentrations were so low in the smaller-diameter pipes.
•
-NC102 NC103 -
:ii
Chlorine decay model (wall effect)
Parameter
aw end
RV
200
400
600
800
1000
Time [hi
Figure 6. Chlorine concentration in Rous Water simulated distribution system (initial dose 1.5mg/L, 25°C, bulk decay only; de=Om).
technical features
disinfection
~ refereed paper
For the Rous Water study, a hyperbolic curve was fitted to the CRCWQT data, as shown in Figure 7, so that the wall reaction rate was calculated as a function of the chlorine concentration in each pipe in the steady-state simulations. The equation of the curve was:
2200 2000
e
.s ~
=
d
'
~
0.3 0.15+ cc,
.. .. .;
E
(3)
:.; ~
1800 1600 1400 1200 1000
C
where cc1 is free chlorine concentration [mg/L] From Figure 7 it can be seen that de can reach 2m as chlori ne approaches 0mg/L and, at 1mg/L of chlorine, it is 0.26m. With an intended range of c hlorine of 0.3-1.5 mg/ L, the maximum value of de is 0.67m for 0.3mg/L of Cl. This boost s the total decay rate to 5.6 times the bulk rate in the 145 mm diameter pipe at the end of the system. The impact of d8 also depends on the time that wat er is exposed to the pipe surface. If the residence time in reservoirs is much larger than residence time in pipes, then the impact of biofilm may not be noticeable. Projection of the above chlorine decay model into the simplified Rous Water distribution system is shown in Figure 8. There is about 0.4 mg/ L drop in chlorine concentration across City View Drive Reservoir and another 0.4 mg/L is lost in-pipe from City View Drive Reservoir to Langs Hills Reservoir. These resu lts are only marginally lower than simulations without wall reaction, as most of the travel time is in reservoirs with low wall surface area to vol ume ratio. Additionally, fast reacting compounds are already consumed so acceleration at the wall is hardly noticeable. There is already provision t o boost chlorine in the pipe to Langs Hills Reservoir at Woodburn , if 0.3mg/ L residual in the Fischer St reservoir is considered to be too low. Figure 9 shows that adding 0.5mg/L free chlorine at Woodb urn wou ld boost the level to 0. 7mg/L in the Fischer St Reservoir.
Chemical decay of chloramine Currently, water in the Rous Water distribution system is chloraminated after treatment. Ammonia is dosed after GAG, followed by chlorine. The target dose is 3-3.5 mg/L as total ch lorine and the Cl: NH 3 -N mass ratio is targeted to be 4. Chloramine in water is chemically relatively stable w ith the first order decay constant less than 0.002 h·1 • In the absence of nitrification, this would still result in a residual of 1.5mg/L at the maximum water age of 360h, so that it was not considered necessary to model profiles in the simplified system. However, it was also shown that some reduction in decay rate is possible simply by switching the order of dosing.
> ·s.,.
w
800 600 400
+
200
• •oe--.-..-
0 0
0.5
1.5
2
Chlorine concentration (mg/L)
Figure 7. Wall reaction parameter (d0) as a function of chlorine concentration in the pipe. Samples taken immediately after the addition of chlorine at Nightcap WTP had decay rates approximately triple those of samples taken immediately after the GAG and chlorinated in the laboratory, followed by ammonia dosing after 15 minutes. This may be explained by the chemical reaction of chloramine with reducible compounds in the water, which were not preoxidised by dosing chlorine first. Alternatively, higher biologically assisted decay occurred , due to chloramine being a weaker disinfectant than chlori ne and therefore ammonia-chlorine enables a higher degree of microbiological survival than chlorine-ammonia. Consequently, dosing chlorine first should not only improve chloramine stability but also improve the disinfection efficiency.
Microbial decay of chloramine Samples of water containing chloramine were also taken from the Rous Water distribution system and the rate of residual decay was monitored in the laboratory (at 20-25°C). The first order decay constant was fitted to all decay data. The resu lts of these tests are shown in Figure 10. It should be noted that these are indicative of the decay rates after autumn w hen the nitrification problem is worst. Even though the samp les were collected in wi nter when bacterial growth and populations are likely to be at a minimum, there is clearly an inc reasin g microbial population available to degrade chloramine along the system. Total decay constants are low down to City View Drive Reservoir. After that, they rapidly increase, with only temporary moderation at the Langs Hills Inlet, probably due to re-dosing
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-
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0.6
-
BroadWater res
0.4
-
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0
200
400
600
800
1000
Timo [h]
Figure 8. Chlorine concentration in Rous Water simulated distribution system (initial dose 1.5mg/L, 25°C, including biofilm contribution). 60 AUGUST 2009 water
i
_
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-
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-
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- BroadWate r res plpefromBW
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-
0
1
-
200
•oo
aoo
800
RV
1000
Tlmo (h]
Figure 9. Chlorine concentration in Rous Water simulated distribution system (initial dose 1.5mg/L, 2s c, including biofilm contribution & rechlorination at Langs Hills Reservoir 0.5 mg/L). 0
technical features
G
disinfection
refereed paper
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0.05
0,04
1----------------------
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The current state of the art enables accurate measurement of microbially assisted chlormaine decay in existing systems, but does not allow prediction of chloramine decay without data collected from the system of interest. Therefore a trial would be needed so that development of chloramine decaying microorganisms cou ld be measured using the Fm method.
A framework is now available, within which the results of chlorinat ion can be predicted just on the basis of t ests on treated water entering the distribution system. DSMtool (Fisher et al. 2004) was the first network model to have the appropriate ch lorine decay model preprogrammed. Recently, MWH Soft has incorporated MSX (the multi-species ext ension to the EPANET quality model} into H2OMap Water MSX, which enables users to define their own generic kinetics schemes. This now allows the approach used in this paper to be implemented in a full dynamic network model. When a chloramine decay model including microbial decay becomes available, a chloraminated system wi ll also be modelable without the need for measured data from the existing syst em. This is still under development.
Figure 10. First order chloramine decay constants of samples from Rous Water system.
It was concluded that, to prevent acceleration of chloramine decay, chlorine has to be dosed before any major increase in decay constant or loss of ammonia; that is, before the fifth site in Figure 10 (end of Hazleton Drive) . Otherwise, stability of chloramine has to be extended , which may require relocation of the Woodburn booster plant. Changing the dosing sequence (to chlorine then ammonia) may extend the stability of ammonia past the Woodburn booster plant enough to avoid the need t o relocate that plant. Similar testing and analysis would need to be carried out along all other pathways through the delivery system, before chlorami nation could be considered to meet t h e disinfection goals specified. After that, a design for each of the satisfactory ch loraminated and chlorinated systems could be costed and the final choice made on the basis of cost and aesthetics.
Discussion In this case study, measured data were available on decay of chloram ine in the system and desk top predictions could be made about decay of chlorine in the distribution system. In the situation where a distribution system is currently chlorinated, and conversion to chloramination is contem plated, the approach taken in the case study is not cu rrently feasible .
WestWater Enternfi,~es
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Conclusion
Rous Water Distri bution systom sampling points
of ch loramine at Woodburn. Samples further into the system have unacceptably high decay constants. Chemical decay rates were also determined (using the Fm method), but the overriding importance of nitrification is clear without considering them further.
-
Chlorination Gas and liquid
Ultraviolet (UV) Sterilisation
•
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Currently, microbial acceleration can only be characterised by laboratory decay tests (Fm method) on samples from chloraminat ed systems. The acceleration from the period of maximum microbial activity (late summer) can be used as a worst case in the framework. This was feasible in the case study, as the Rous Water system was then chloraminated. The case study began by defining explicit goals for disinfectant residual at syst em extremities, and maximum byproduct formation. Chlorine decay in (treated) bulk water samples was adequately characterised over a wide range of initial doses and temperatures by a single set of five parameters. The resulting bulk chlorine decay model and a simple wall effect model were embedded in a steady- state hydraulic model of the sub-system having greatest water age. A single rechlorination was shown to easily satisfy both residual and by-product goals.
Talk to the experts for all your disinfection applications: • Chlorination
• Ultraviolet (UV)
• Electrochlorination • Chemical Dosing • Water Treatment Packaged Systems
water AUGUST 2009
61
Disinfection Gas Chlorination
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Microbial acceleration of chloramine decay was measured at various locations in t he same part of t he Rous Water delivery system. It was shown to increase dramatically between certain locations, even in wi nter, confirming that it wou ld generally be very difficult to control in summer. Chlorination was t herefore considered to be the more appropriate choice of disinfectant for this system, subject to confirmation that taste and odour were acceptable at the concentration which would reach consumers immediately downstream of the WTPs. Subsequently, Rous Water has converted the disinfection to chlorinat ion and has been able to maintain acceptable residuals t hroughout the system, while THM concentrations have remained below 0.05 mg/L. The measured chlorine residuals have so far agreed with the pred ictions from t he model and w ill be documented in a future paper.
Acknowledgment The work was conducted by WorleyParsons, North Sydney. Rous Water funded the case study and approved t he paper.
The Authors
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George Kastl and Ian Fisher developed t he chlorine decay models as part of the research program of the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment , w hen they were members of Sydney Water's R&D team. Th ey and Dr Arumugam Sathasivan developed the Fm method while they were all team mem bers.
Dr Ian Fisher (ianfishau@yahoo.com.au) is a Director of Wat ervale Systems, Potts Po int, NSW. George Kastl was a Principal Engineer w ith WorleyParsons at t he inception of this project and is now Pri ncipal Water Quality Engineer with MWH, South Brisbane, Old. Belinda Fayle is Dams and Treatment Operations Manager w ith Rous Water, Lismore, NSW. Dr Arum ugam Sathasivan is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civi l and Construct ion Engineering at Curtin University of Technology, Bentley, WA.
References
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www.prominentfluid.com.au 62 AUGUST 2009 water
Duirk, S., Gombert, B., Croue, J., Valentine, R. 2005. modelling monochloramine loss in the presence of natural organic matter. Water Research 39, 3418-3431. Fisher, I., Kastl, G., Sathasivan, A., Chen, P., van Leeuwen, J., Daly, R. , Holmes, M. 2004. Tuning the enhanced coagulation process to obtain best chlorine and THM profiles in the distribution system. Water Sci. Tech.: Water Supply, 4(4), 235-243. Fisher, I. Kastl, G., Tam, T. , Ye, S. 2007. Consolidation of disinfection management tools for distribution systems. Research Report 34 , CRC for Water Quality and Treatment, Adelaide, SA. Kastl G., and Fisher I. 1997. Predicting and maintaining drinking water quality in distribution systems. Water - Journal of the Australian Water Association 24(5), 34-38. Kastl G., Fisher I. and Jegatheesan V. 1999. Evaluation of chlorine decay kinetics expressions for drinking water dist ribution system modelling. Journal of Water SRT - Aqua, 48(6), 219-226. Kirmeyer, G., et al. 2004. Optimizing chloramine treatment, 2nd edition, AwwaRF, Denver CO. Reichert, P. 1994. AQUASIM Manual, EAWAG, Dubendorf, Switzerland. Sathasivan, A., Fisher, I., Kastl, G. 2005. A simple method for measuring microbiologically assisted chloramine decay in drinking water. Environmental Science and Technology, 39(14), 5407-5413. Wolfe, R. , Means, E,. Davis, M. , Barrett, S. 1988. Biological nitrification in covered reservoirs containing chloraminated water. J. AWWA 80(9), 109-114.
technical features
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asset failures
~ refereed paper
CONCRETE DURABILITY DESIGN FOR DESALINATION PLANTS F Papworth Abstract The concrete durability design of desalination plants needs to take account of the high consequence of premature fai lure, the novel exposure situations, the rapid design and construction and the inadequacy of national standards in regards desalination plants. The combination of inadequate standards and higher risk means a high emphasis must be placed on durability design.
Table 1. Durability Requirements for Seawater Exposed Concrete. Strength (MPa)
Cover (no -ve tol.) (mm)
40 40 50
35 45 50
40 50 50
30 40 55
AS3735
General Immersion Quiescent (B1 ) Agitated/Flowing (B2) Retaining (C) AS 3600 Draft
Underwater (B2) Spray (C1) Splash (C2)
Introduction
Splash and Spray Zone Exposure
The exposure of concrete to seawater is covered by many standards but none of them adequately cater for the special underwater, splash and spray zones of desalination plant tanks, channels, pipes and pits.
The requirement in AS 3600 for atmospheric seawater exposure zones is 50MPa concrete and 45mm (min) cover. This is a very limited choice and is unlikely to give the quoted 40-60 year design life in many severe exposure areas. DR 05252, the proposed revision to AS 3600, goes some way to recognising the inadequacy and introduces a new exposure class, i.e. C2 for splash zones (Table 1), with a higher cover req uirement. AS 5100.5 mirrors the as yet unrevised AS 3600 and presumably will need to be revised to
Design must use: • detailed review of exposure, construction methods and operational procedures as inputs to corrosion assessment
• durability modelling to assess different design options • mix trials to provide information for placing, corrosion assessment and crack control design
reflect the new C2 exposure class. AS 4997 for marine structures already includes exposure classes C1 (spray zone) and C2. It notes the marine provisions in AS 3600 are on ly likely to give a design life of 25 years but does not specify requirements for a longer life. AS 3735 gives exposure class C for seawater retaining and would apply to all areas of seawater tanks and channels. AS 3735 may also need revision to reflect the C2 exposure class.
The differences in AS 3735 and the draft AS 3600 requirements are shown in Table 1. AS 3600, AS 5100.5, AS 3735 and AS 4997 do not have any chloride ingress performance criteria, cement system or water: binder (w/b) ratio requirements and hence any 50MPa concrete, even those using GP cement, comply w ith the codes with splash zone requirements. GP cement alone is likely to be inadequate in severe seawater exposures (Table 2) and use of a cement system with fly ash, slag or silica fume might be considered essential in splash zones. When using these supplementary cementitious
Turbulent Flow
• rigorous inspection and testing to check the specification is enforced • maintenance management plans to convey long term monitoring requirements
A variety of severe and novel exposures not catered for by Australian Codes. This is a modified version of a paper presented at the 'Membrane & Desalination Speciality Conference', Sydney, February 2009. It includes some add itional details and some information arising from the Concrete Institute of Australia's Workshops on Durability Design, which were conducted in the major cities throughout June 2009.
Figure 1. Selected Atmospheric Exposure Conditions in Desalination Plants.
64 AUGUST 2009 water
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asset failures materials (SCM's) it would also be necessary to select a suitable w/b ratio. A w/c ratio of 0.38-0.40 will often be adequate using the covers in DR 05252 for C1 and C2 exposures.
[;]' r'~tereed paper
Ultimate Surface ..,..,.._._ _ _ __.._...,. Chloride Level
Splash Zone
Four of the many Second Splas atmospheric exposures found at desalination plants FlrstSplas _ _ _..J..__:::,,__ _ __::;= are shown in Figure 1. Where possible "wet blanket" and "turbulent flow" should be designed out as they create high surface chloride level. The "quiescent variable level " elements with GP cement, 8% silica fume condition needs specific consideration as (CSF) or 65% ground granulated blast exposure co uld become exposure class furnace slag (slag) assuming the cover D3 or D4 as discussed later. In the "quiescent constant level" case capillary requirements in DR 05252 and typical rise may be a consideration. Hence, AS surface chloride levels (Sc) that can be expected in the various marine exposure 3600 C2 and AS 3735 C exposure req uirements may not be adequate even classes. when SCM's are used in some cases. The high life expectancy from high slag Modelling is likely to be the only way of cements is determined by the dominant assessing concrete req uirements. effect of the high red uction in ch loride In the splash zone chlorides build up to diffusion with time (the 'm' value in a high level at the concrete surface quite diffusion calculation). But the m value quickly as seawat er is sucked in and then cannot be checked on a project basis, dries out with each splash (Figure 2). The there is no long term proof that it wi ll surface ch loride concentration and depth continue to reduce for 100 years and the of chloride ingress during th is early performance of slag can be variable. period are dependent on the concrete Some limit on the period of reducing m sorptivity. Chlorides then diffuse through and a high factor of safety is required. the diffusion layer slowly. Eventually the Conversely the high life expectancy critical chloride level at the reinforcement from CSF is more influenced by the low bar is reached and the bar starts to initial De which can be checked during corrode. Sorption and diffusion are trial mixes, and silica fume is a more combi ned in the chloride ingress model consistent material. GP cement alone has in FIB Bulletin 34 and this cou ld be a low De and m and hence a low life. Fly included as a standard method of design ash gives significant improvement to GP for atmospheric chloride exposures in a cement but a small addition (3-5%) of future Australian durability code. CSF may be req uired to achieve an Table 2 gives the calculated time to adequately low De to provide a 100 year corrosion activation (T0 ) of the design life with a practical (:575 mm) reinforcement for vertical concrete cover.
Table 2. Expected Time (Years) to Corrosion Initiation for 50 MPa Concrete. Exp. Class
82 (Coastal) C1 (Spray) C2 (Splash)
GP
CMm
CSF
Slag
s.
To
Sc
To
s.
To
40
1.0
60 80
3.5 6.0
9 8 12
3.5 6.0
105 90 140
2.0 4.5
205 172
7.0
250
Assumptions: C (Cover) mm
S0 (Surface Chloride Level) wt % cement De (Initial Characteristic Cl¡ Diffusion Coefficient) GP, CSF, Slag = 5; 0.8; 2.1; x10¡12 m/sec 2; m (DC Reduction Factor with time) GP, CSF, Slag = 0.22; 0.22; 0.44; Cc (Activation Level) = 0.4 wt % cement Be(Base Chloride Level) = 0.1 wt % cement
66 AUGUST 2009 water
Horizontal concrete surfaces in the splash zone represent a very severe exposure case. Instead of draining off, seawater hangs or ponds on the surface, and is drawn in by capi llary action, a relatively fast process. The sorption depth is high. The reverse osmosis (RO) building slab is a case in point (Figure 3).
Underwater Exposure The Concrete Institute of Australia committee working on a revised recommended practice for concrete durability have noted the AS 3735 special requirements for water retaining structures (Table 1) and the different deterioration mechanisms that might occ ur underwater depending on a concrete elements configuration. These were listed as D class exposures applicable to all immersed seawater exposures when presented to durability workshops around Australia in June 2009: 01 - Immersed Quiescent. This applies to all concrete permanently immersed on all faces. AS 3600 underwater requirements of 40MPa concrete and 30mm cover are likely to be adequate for a 100 year life as corrosion rate is severely restricted by oxygen availability. 02 - Immersed Agitated/Flowing. This exposure is also intended for concrete permanently immersed on all faces but in this case oxygen concentrations in the seawater would be higher. AS 3735 requires significantly higher protection (Table 1). 40MPa concrete and 45mm cover are also likely to be adequate for a 100 year life. 03 - Air One Side, Immersed the Other. Where seawater penetrates a concrete wall under a pressure head and evaporates off the opposite air-exposed face, salts are deposited in the concrete at the point of evaporation. This can lead t o salt build up in the concrete. The risk can be assessed by calcu lating the seawat er water flow rate and back diffusion of chlorides but simple design guides could be developed based on wall thickness, pressure head and concrete grade. 04 - Cyclic Long Wet, Long Dry. Where concrete dries out and is then immersed it can suck seawater into considerable depth. After only a few cycles chlorides at reinforcement bar depth could be very high. The corrosion rate would then be oxygen controlled when immersed and
technical features
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Power and productivity for a better world TM
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asset failures
effective w/b ratio. The FIB 34 model can then be used to calculat e the cover required to achieve the specified design life using the proposed curing method. Typically the Contractor might be offered a 10 mm cover penalty if he decides to cure using a curing compound rather than water cure.
1111P .-._ Figure 3. Exposure of RO Slab. Ponding and drainage of leaking seawater and brine across the slab gives random localised severe exposure. resistance controlled when air exposed. This failure mechanism is common in dry docks and could affect seawat er tanks and channels depending on the maintenance cycle. A possible control mechanism is to limit the cumu lative dry periods (T4 ) exceeding 2 weeks to: Saturated Resistivity (k.ohm cm)
T4 years
5-10 10-20
3
20-30 30-40
12 18
40-50
24
>50
30
6
Design life may be extended if the maintenance manual requires saturating with fresh water before refilling tanks with seawater. This will prevent the rapid absorption of seawat er on filling. Linear polarisation monitoring of corrosion rat es is recommended in this case to est ablish the actual ongoing extent of corrosion.
Special Designs for Severe Exposures Where alternative protection measures are taken it may be possible to use lower covers, lower quality concrete or eliminate the use of SCM's. Deterioration often occurs where water ponds around the base of plinths. Water repellents admixtures red uce the sorptivity of concrete and could provide the protection required. Although expensive per cubic meter, water repellent concrete can be economical for small volume plinths. On larger elements it may be more economic to have a membrane around the plinth base to 0.5m height. Silanes are considered to eliminate the sorption zone and reduce De due to the reduced concrete moisture content. However, some means of assessing the ongoing concrete performance should be specified in the maintenance plan to determine when to reapply the silane. Corrosion inhibitors typically increase the corrosion activation level leading to longer design lives if used at a high
68 AUGUST 2009 water
refereed paper
enough dosage. The minimum dosage of Calcium Nitrate inhibitors is likely to be 20 1/m 3 making them expensive and may lead to rapid stiffening and high heat of hydration. A shorter T 1 period may also result. Inhibitors are being used in many marine structures and hence premix companies have gained greater understanding of how to use them practically. If used trials should be undertaken t o conform the critical chloride level and an appropriate safety factor should be applied to it.
AS 3600 provides no guidance on the effect of different curi ng methods on durability. Phaedonos F.A. , (2000) records a major increase in volume of permeable voids relative to water curing for different curing methods, i.e.: cu red under polythene cu red using compounds
+21% +37%
There is considerable published data on the effect of curing on strength and this can be used in modelling by converting the effect on strength to an effective increase in w/b ratio (Figure 4). The effective w/b ratio only applies to a limited thickness which can be estimated based on the concrete's sorptivity at the
...
All desalination plants seem t o be 'fast tracked'. Contractors will be under pressure to quickly strip and reuse formwork. As the co ncrete will have a high cementitious content and walls wi ll be of reasonable thickness (300- 400mm), significant in situ temperatures can develop. This higher temperature leads to rapid strength gain and early closure of concrete pores. By using maturity to monitor the rate of strength gain in situ the contractor can justify early stripping. If curing time is also linked to maturity he may be able to strip with no further curing . The stripping time will depend on the cement system and the contractor should consider this before finalising a mix design.
Design of Specific Elements The exposure of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) building slab can be very severe. Seawater, brine and demineralised water leaks over the non-saturated horizontal surface are quickly absorbed. The ingress is much faster than by diffusion. The location of leaks is never known and deterioration that might compromise the operating plant is unacceptable. Hence, slabs are typically coated. Appropriate coatings will requi re maintenance and are expensive to apply. As the slabs rest on ground and can be made with a single reinforcement layer an inground remote anode cathodic
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technical features
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asset failures 500
~ refereed paper
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Figure 6. a) AS 3600 and CIRIA C660 Shrinkage Values b) Differential Shrinkage Assessment of Wall on Restrained Base. CIRIA C660 to ensure the cracks seal during the water retaining tank test. Figure 7 provide a possible extension to the CIRIA C660 guide. The design of reinforcement for crack control is founded on the following factors controlled by the Contractor: • delivered concrete temperature • type of aggregate • cementitious content & type • the ambient conditions at casting • formwork type • formwork stripping time • curing method • construction sequence While many of these aspects can be incorporated into the specification it is better to liaise with the contractor and obtain firm construction information at the time of design. Rigorous enforcement of the agreed limits set for each factor is required or crack width will exceed the allowable. If delivered concrete temperatures exceed those assumed by 10°c, as occurred on one project, the thermal strain taken in cracks may increase by as much as 100%.
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a resistivity measure. It is an excellent QA test as it is sensitive to changes in SCM, w/b and admixtures.
Preliminary design is generally based on predicted concrete properties, supported where possible by previous experience of local materials. Materials factors applied to th ese properties will allow for inferior performance of local materials to some extent but to eliminate the risk of design rework or construction delay early mix trials are essential. Testing might include:
The construct ion method has a significant influence on durability design and the following should be defined at the design stage:
• Rate of slump loss may be used to give extended delivery and placing times.
• curing method must be known in order to calculate the properties and depth of the curing affected zone
• Bleed tests to indicate issues with plastic settlement and plastic shrinkage. Figure 8 shows how bleed relates to plastic settlement.
• if seawater and brine tanks are designed to have a limited free board and are buried then cathodic protection can be used as the primary corrosion control method. This reduces the concrete and reinforcement materials costs and limits inspection and monitoring requirements to the CP system itself. Costs must be balanced against the additional cost of burying the tank
• Chloride diffusion and sorptivity to give the mixes mean performance. Characteristic values can be assessed based on typical variance values for each test. A factor to allow for insitu performance being lower than the laboratory cylinders. • Semi adiabatic temperature rise tests in order to calculate insitu temperature rise. • Rapid chloride permeability tests to establish t he mixes mean RCP. RCP is
Construction Methods Defined at Design
• the contractors preferred jointing method. All tanks wit h a water pressure gradient across the concrete section should have three levels of waterproofing at construction joints
0.25,--r----,----,----;:::===========i
Bleed=0.8%
Autogenous healing period
0.20 1---,..;;;:--t---+1"All cement systems <3 months GP cement Slag/FA/CSF
<2 weeks <2 weeks
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10
15
20
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Figure 7. Possible Guide to Allowable Crack Widths For Different Cement Systems and Allowable Leakage Period. 70 AUGUST 2009 water
4
6
10
Rise Rate (m/hr)
Figure 8. Relationship Between Bleed, Placing Rate and Settlement.
technical features
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asset failures
refereed paper
but there are various forms that these might take • infill pours are subject to end restrain and cracks that develop are likely to be w ide. It is important to design the construction sequence to minimise infill pours. Infill pours need to be specifically designed to cater for the end restraint. The level of end restraint can be calculated using balanced deflections of the restraining and restrai ned wal ls • many desalination plant tanks have tall walls. These are better placed in one lift to minimise constru ction joints. The mixes need to be designed to be cohesive and are likely to be more efficiently compacted if they have high slumps. Equally important is a wel l thought out placing and compaction method. Self compacting concrete may b e economical but needs to be considered at the time of tendering so form prices allow for the pressure head. If walls are placed in multiple lifts j oint design and crack control need t o be considered . • allowable concrete delivered temperature. AS 1379 limits the concrete delivered temperature to 35°C but there may be a choice between additional rebar to control cracking and lower concrete delivered temperatures. • the method of controlling insitu temperatu re rise, e.g. use of appropriate cement system, use of cooli ng pipes or control of delivered concrete temperature. The maximum temperature during curing, particularly for structures exposed to water, is 70°C for GP cements and 80°C otherwise. These limits are appropriate to m inimise low strength and Delayed Ettringite Formation. • the aggregate to be used. Temperature differentials between the centre of a pour and the surface are commonly limited to 20°C. This seems to be derived from ensuring no internal restraint cracks when using a gravel aggregate. The limit for no cracking should be based on the aggregate used, e.g. Granite 27°C. However, it is generally accepted that concrete cracks and much higher temperature differ entials can be permitted when designing by CIRIA C660 to an al lowable crack width. This has a significant affect on construction as limited temperature differentials may require a lot of attention to insulation or cooling.
Figure 9. Comparison of Evaporation Rates Around Australia With Bleed Rates For A Couple of Pours. • The evaporation rates for Australian Capital Cities in the morning and afternoon, in summer and winter are shown as a bar chart in Figure 9. Overlain are lines for the bleed rates for various concrete placements. The evaporation would exceed the bleed on a slab for concrete with a 1% bleed rate at all times in all capitals while the evaporation would never exceed the bleed for a rapidly placed column with concrete with a bleed of 3%. This demonstrates that conventional wisdom that evaporation retarders should be applied at evaporation rates over 1 lt/m 2/ hr is incorrect for modern concrete. The need for evaporation retarders must be based on the concrete and proposed placing conditions. Also shown is the plastic settlement for the slab and the column . Settlement is not an issue for the slab but could be for the col umn.
Compliance Testing Compliance requirements must be developed at the design stage based on the design and proposed construction methods. Assessment could include: • checking the contractor's method statements and Inspection and Test Plans (ITP 's) to ensure they are sufficiently rigorous to provide the necessary assurance of compliance. • chloride diffusion and sorptivity testing at trial mix stage to est ablish a concrete's performance. It may be appropriate to only include desired values on green field sites as suppliers cannot be expected to take the risk where no data is available. Such tests are not appropriate to show compliance during the project. The former takes too long to be of practical use and the latter does not give sufficient indication to changes in SCM and admixtures.
• Rapid Chloride Permeability test s. These may not be suitable as a mix performance requirement as the result can be affect ed by admixtures that are not deleterious to chloride in gress. However, they are a quick test and indicat e whether a mix has changed subst antially from a durability perspective and can be used as part of the QA testing if a value for the mix is established during mix trials. • Post pour cover testing. The most expensive problem with cover arises when the contractor's method introduces a systematic cover deficiency. To avoid this the initial pours of each element type should be rigorously checked using a covermeter. Subsequent pours can be checked intermittently at random to show the correct cover continues to be achieved . • Testing for compaction. It is generally assumed that the contractor will place and compact the concrete adequately and there is generally no in situ testing of quality. If defects do become apparent then the assumption of proper compaction is no longer valid and wide spread testing of concrete performance is required. Advanced non- destructive testing methods such as Impact Echo, Ultrasonic Pulse Echo and Impulse Response should be specified where compaction is suspect. • The assumption of proper placing and compaction does not apply to diaphragm walls,and bored piles. Systematic evaluation by NDT, such as cross-hole sonic logging , is required . Apart from the above strength, slump and temperature testi ng are the primary means of assessing concrete supply.
water AUGUST 2009
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asset failures
GJ
Maintenance Management
finding will be based on the workshops held around Australia in June 2009. Email: F.Papworth@ BCRC.com.au , Tel: +61 8 9407 5363.
To ensure that maintenance is in accordance with design assumptions a maintenance manual should be prepared by the design team. For concrete a major item is the inspection req uirements. The plant can be broken down into sections and a visual inspection undertaken annually of selected parts so that the whole plant is inspected over a 10 year period . Inspection might start at 5 years. The visual inspections and sensor monitoring should be supported by hand-held electrical potential and linear polarisation testing after the first visual inspection cycle.
References
AS 1379 1997 "Specification and Supply of Concrete" Standards Australian , Sydney, NSW, Australia
Progress of activation front o - - Reinforcement
AS 3600 2001 "Concrete Structures" Standards Australian, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- - - Concrete
Figure 10. 20-30 rack probes are typically installed around a major desalination plant to allow monitoring of progress of actual corrosion activation front. The progress of this front can only be poorly defined by chloride profiling.
Embedm ent of rack probes to give direct information about the ingress of a chloride activation front (Figure 10) removes most of the uncertainties and will clearly show if additional protection is required. More likely they will show an extended life expectancy. Rack probes should be used selectively around a structure based on risk assessment (Figure 11). Typically 20-30 probes might be used on a desalination plant. They would be supported by 10-20 linear polarisation probes to indicate corrosion rates which might be installed in areas where corrosion risks are higher and the element is inaccessible.
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AS 1012.6 1999 "Methods Of Testing Concrete - Method For The Determination Of Bleeding Of Concrete" Standards Australian, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Rack probe positioned to enable plot of progress of activation front
Modelling to predict the rate of ingress of a chloride activation front makes assumptions about the concrete's sorptivity, surface chloride level, chloride activation level and in situ diffusion coefficient (initial and reduction with time). These factors can be highly variable and a predicted design life of 100 years using appropriate safety factors might give a life of 1000 years. Conversely if there were unforseen issues the life could be shorter. Inspection procedures of major structures in the past have included chloride profiling of samples taken at 20 years but this still relies on many of the assumptions for assessment.
Concrete that is designed to be immersed but may be dry for long peri ods during maintenance or shut down needs to have the length and number of dry periods monitored.
refereed paper
AS 4997 2005 "Marine Structures" Standards Australian, Sydney, NSW, Australia AS 5100.5 2004 "Bridge Design - Part 5 Concrete" Standards Australian, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Conclusion Desalination Plants present a severe exposure condition not generally recognised in Australian Standards. A close understanding of construction and operations is requ ired in order to undertake the durability design.
CIRIA C660 2007 "Early Age Thermal Crack Control In Concrete" CIRIA, London, England Evardsen C. 1999 "Water Permeability and Autogenous Healing of Cracks in Concrete" AC/ Materials Journal. July 1999 Vol 96 No 4 pp 448-454. DR 05252 2005 "Concrete Structures - Draft for Public Comment." Standards Australian, Sydney, NSW, Australia
The Author
Frank Papworth is a chartered civil engineer and Managing Consultant with BCRC, a specialist durability consultancy. He is Chairman of the Concrete Institute of Australia's committee reviewing their recommended practice on concrete durability. The committee will report on what the industry want from durability codes at the CIA's September conference. These
Likelihood of failure
AS 3735 2004 "Concrete Structures Retaining Liquids" Standards Australian , Sydney, NSW, Australia
Mohammed T.U., Hamada H., and Yokota H. 2004 "Autogenous Healing Ingress Of Chloride And Sulphate Through Cricks In Concrete Under Marie Environments" ACI SP-222-10 Seventh CANMET/ ACI International Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology. May 2004, Las Vegas, U.S.A. Papworth F. , Vile G. 2007 " In Ground Concrete Durability" The Australian Geomechanics Society. Pit to Port Symposium. September 2008 NSW, Australia Phaedonos F.A., 2000 "Curing of Concrete" Vic Roads Technical Bulletin 42 June 2000, Victoria, Australia.
Consequence of Failure Negligible
Low
Moderate
Very High
Extreme
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Negligible
Negligible
Low
Very Low
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Figure 11. Risk Assessment can be used to rationalise decisions in subjective areas. Risk may be reduced by additional inspection or monitoring to allow early interventions and or by designing for future CP.
technical features
asset failures
RESILIENT BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANS C Massey, S Lansley, B McAtee Abstract What
This paper is presented in three parts:
What to protect
Part 1 - Why Incident Prevention Risk Management alone is insufficient Part 2 - What is Best Practice Business Continuity Management
The capa bility to protect BCM
Part 3 - A Case Study in how Business Continuity Management Best Practice was achieved.
Part 1 - Why Incident Prevention Risk Management alone is insufficient
Process and strategy outcomes
Incident Prevention Risk Management is a well established practice within the Water Industry primarily focusi ng on:
Resource availability
• The causes of failure; • The likelihood of occurrence of failure;
Figure 1. Key Elements of BCM (Standards Australia Handbook HB 292-2006).
• The consequences of failure; and • The development of mitigation strategies to prevent significant risk events from occurring. The following three assumptions are also typically applied to Incident Prevention: • All potential failure modes have been identified, appropriate mitigation strategies have been developed and are capable of being implemented; • Mitigation strategies will be as effective as planned and will be as reliable as expected; and • Incident Prevention strategies exist and can be effectively controlled. Unfortunately, these assumptions are sometimes incorrect. Wh ile Incident Prevention is primarily concerned with risk mitigation strategies, Business Continuity is primarily focused on post-incident strategies, i.e. when mitigation strategies have failed. Business Continuity also uses a concept cal led "criticality" which uses the following metrics to focus recovery efforts when mitigation strategies have failed: • impact time intervals or Maximum Acceptable Outage (MAO); and • Consequence severity. While it may appear somewhat fatalistic to plan for worstcase scenarios, developing resilience on this basis provides the following benefits to the Incident Prevention efforts: • The impact of the loss of significant resources for critical activities allows consideration of how critical services can be maintained through alternative means - the focus is not on the cause of the loss or its prevention, rather on the
Plan to "take a lickin' and keep on tickin"'.
continuity of critical services despite the loss of key supporting resources. • The assumption of no change or that all change is being control led is complemented with what is an appropriate course of action, should there be a change in an underlying assumption and a major event occurs. • The deconst ruction of service delivery into elements and detailing of relationship dependencies highlights weaknesses within business processes and particularly single points of failure (part of the Business Continuity activities). • The development of Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) necessitates development of procedures to maintain core activities which can be used in Business As Usual (BAU) practice to improve commun ication and better quantify performance indicators. • Business Continuity focuses on maintaining services to customers and is not about internal organisation structures , configuration or operations. (The customer experience is the service, not how the organisation is structu red or operated). • It provides a mind set of assuming a disaster or significant loss will occur and develops scenarios for rapid deployment. Figure 1 illustrat es how these two activities work t ogether. We interpret "The capability to protect BCM" refers to the provision of resilient business continu ity plans that maintain adequate service levels after a significant interruption to business-as-usual practice. Those who have experienced disasters generally comment "There was no time" . Business Continuity buys time in the present to spend in the future. Risk and resi lience are therefore two complementary activities where both are designed to ensure cont inuity of services.
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asset failures Part 2 - What is Best Practice Business Continuity Management? Business Continuity Management (BCM} definition The Business Continuity Institute (an industry peak body) defines it as "a holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience and the capabil ity for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key st akeholders, reputat ion, brand and value creating activities". The co-authors extend this definition to specifically identify three key component s, int egrating the disciplines of: • Crisis Management (Corporate issues); • Business Continuity (Process contingencies); • Disaster Recovery (IT system availability); to identify potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resi lience and the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities. Regardless of definitions, the US department of Homeland Security probably summed it up best when they simply said "it's the ability of an organisation to take a lickin' and keep on tickin"'. The co-authors, based on their extensive practical experience, have developed the proprietary software package "BCM in a Box", which embodies the framework described above.
BCM efficiency and effectiveness To operate according to best practice performance must be both efficient and cost-effective . To determine if our business continuity discipline is efficient, we need to understand what business c ontinuity activities are being performed, the time required to c omplete these activities, the frequency of their performance, the tools and techniques being utilised and the outcomes being achieved. When this information is available an assessment of current business continuity activities can be performed. The effectiveness of a BC plan needs to be assessed long before it may have to used to respond to a real event - learning the shortcomings of the plan at the time of real event is potentially fatal for an organisation - at the very least it will be highly embarrassing for the organisation. Rigorous testing is the first step to .determining whether actual recovery capabi lity is consistent with the requi red capabil ity. Even if testing highlights plan inadequacies, at least an opportunity exists to address this position, rather than "assuming" everything wi ll be fine. Another way to test effectiveness is to run various interruption events and determine whether the plans are adequate under these different circumstances. Flexibility of the plan to accommodate different outage conditions improves the effectiveness of the plan, as the one plan now provides more comprehensive scope coverage.
Characteristics of a best practice BCM program The following points are typical of a best practice for BCM: • BCM Policy guides the program of activities that holistically assesses and addresses continuity planning across the organisation in a way that meets the organisation's stated
7 4 AUGUST 2009 water
risk appetite. Policy provides the strategic alignment of the business continuity activities to the organisation's core values and goals. • A lexicon is used in the organisation to ensure that all st akeholders are communicating consistently regardi ng BCM activities. • Business processes/functions are assessed for their criticality (or value to the organisation) using a consistent, common criteria using a number of relevant metrics. • An all-hazards approach is used: Focus is placed on determining the key resources that underpin the key organisational processes and consider the impact on processes as a result of interruption to those resources. Det ermining the cause of an interruption event is secondary to responding to the impact of the event. Using this approach allows resources to be categorised into "resource types", thereby simplifying the thinking and confusion often experienced by general business users when participating in BCM workshops, interviews and surveys. • Plans are easily produced, maintained and accessible when needed. Furthermore, the plans are built and owned by the business (process) owner. Each process should have its own Business Recovery Procedures, which can be invoked individually or en masse as required. • Business Continuity planning for the organisation's processes is integrated with the IT Disaster Recovery Planning program and the Crisis Management Planning activities. The IT DR program should be fun damentally driven by the critical business process demands. From these business demands, certain core or common IT infrastructure components will be identified that must exist to support all processes. • Key personnel dependencies are identified and mitigated wherever possible. Skill dependencies should be minimised by taking advance preparations to provide "key skills redundancy" where possible. This may require geographic disbursement of key staff to remove "key-person" concentration risks. • Build on facts - not assumptions. All assumptions made through the planning lifecycle are captured and validated to ensure appropriate capabil ities will exist if/when requ ired. If gap analysis and remediation is performed prior to embarking on BC Testing, significant benefits wi ll be achieved - tests wil l take less effort to prepare and execute and will achieve better results (that req uire less post-test attention for rectification activities). • Visibility of resource dependencies and process interrelationships across the organisation shou ld be a nat ural outcome of BCM planning. Implementing a methodology that affords full consideration to achieving this outcome is not only prudent but req uired. Given the effort required to collect and maintain BCM planning information versus the likelihood of it being used in a crisis situation, a 'best practice ' approach will attempt to derive other tangible benefits from the information collected. • Satisfy the compliance requirements of the organisation, both ext ernal (regulatory/statutory/ legal/ fid uciary) and internal - compliance requirements should be a mandatory section of the BCM policy. • Simplify reporting of BCM to its stakeholders. Consistent, relevant, objective and current reports from a variety of views
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asset failures are necessary to support the needs of all stakeholders, regardless of whether they are operational, managerial, executive or external. â&#x20AC;˘ A stringent review and approval process is incorporated into the framework to ensure governance is attended to in real time. This wi ll ensure that problems and impediments in the BCM program will be noticed and addressed sooner reducing the risk profile of the organisation. â&#x20AC;˘ Aim for constant improvement of the activities and deliverables in the BCM program. This requires activities to be recorded, monitored and measured. A long term objective of the BCM program should be to improve BCM program scores/results over a defined and agreed period. This ensures momentum is maintained and awareness with BCM is embedded into "business-as-usual" activities and the culture of the organisation .
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Business Continuity has evolved over the last 40+ years. The Business Continuity Institute and Disaster Recovery Institute (ORI) have published Professional Practice Standards to define and certify Business Continuity Professionals, refer www.thebci.org/ What t he industry lacked was a framework which focused on best practice by which an organisat ion's Business Continuity Program can be developed and measured. The co ncept of a Business Continuity Management Maturity Model was advanced by Ream (2002) in a Contingency Planning and Management article, "How Mature is your Business Continuity Program?" In th is article a 6-level model is summarised below. This model describes how organisations evolve in their implementation of Business Continuity competency and capability and is available from, www.virtualcorp. net/html/news.cfm, along with a wealth of other BCM best practice articles. Level 1 - Self-Governed - Business continu ity management has not yet been recognised as strategically important by senior management. Level 2 - Supported Self-Governed - At least one business unit or corporate function has recognised the strategic importance of business continuity and has begun efforts to increase executive and enterprise-wide awareness. Level 3 - Centrally-Governed - Participating business units and departments have instituted a rudimentary governance program, mandating at least limited compl iance to standardised BCM policy, practices and processes to which they have commonly agreed . Level 4 - Enterprise Awakening - All critical business functions have been identified and continuity plans for their protection have been developed across the enterprise. Level 5 - Planned Growth - Business contin uity plans and tests incorporate multi-departmental considerations of critical enterprise business processes. Level 6 - Synergistic - All business units have a measurably high degree of business continuity planning com petency. Complex business protection strategies are formu lated and tested successfully.
Business continuity has contin ued to evolve to provide resilient solutions that are integrated into normal business practice. An example of this practice is the inclusion of a contingency allowance for provision of temporary accommodation into insurance premiums for existing building faci lities. This enables detailed planning to be undertaken with the knowledge that if a significant event does occur with cost recovery integrated into the planned response. An overview of the framework for Business Continuity development is shown in Figure 2. The continuous improvement interactive process is driven through a gaps analysis of testing and reporting against governance, audit and compliance requirements and edicts. Updating of the Business Continuity business case provides a contemporary prospective of resilience requ irements and communication of cost and risk associated with strategy options.
Part 3 - How Business Continuity Management Best Practice was achieved - Case Study Introduction
Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) is Australia's largest rural water corporation and manages water storage, delivery and drainage systems. G-MW serves the region known as 'the food bowl of Victoria' , which depends on a reliable, affordable water supply to survive, Figure 3. G-MW is a Critical Infrastructure Provider, and a member of the Trusted Information Sharing Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (www.tisn.gov.au). Since 2008, G-MW has been progressively building a business continu ity capabi lity to match the organisation's critical role in the harvest, storage and delivery of water resources to more than 30,000 bulk water and retail customers across northern Victoria. The implementation of a best practice Business Continuity Management (BCM) framework is reshapi ng many aspects of G-MW operations. Need for a new approach
Figure 3. G-MW area of operations.
G-MW has always had well-developed disaster recovery planning consistent with its role in managing 17 major water storages - including two of Australia's
water AUGUST 2009 75
asset failures five largest dams, amounting to 70% of Victoria's stored capacity, and its extensive network of delivery infrastructure. However, rapid business and operational change along with increasing legislative requirements demanded that G-MW increase its focus on conti nuity of business functions, as opposed to pure disaster recovery. The first critical step in shifting the approach was the appointment of a Manager of Corporate Risk and this was followed by a reassessment of the organisation's key corporate-based risks. In March 2008, the Victorian State Government declared all sewage and water services were essential services to which Part 6 of the Terrorism (Community Protection) Act 2003 applied. Consequently this declaration was also applied to G-MW as a bulk water supplier to many Urban Water Supply Authorities in Northern Victoria. This reinforced both the need and urgency for a comprehensive Business Continuity approach. It was clear from the outset that a Business Continuity approach demanded new and often different information regarding business processes, their criticality and supporting resource requirements. The quickest way to bring this understanding together and also undertake a review based on current best practices was to form a project team. A Business Continuity Manager and a Project Officer were appointed. Understanding the task is vital to project success Early on the team real ised one of the biggest obstacles to implementation was the understanding of the new approach amongst staff. It was a fundamentally new approach to how the organisation assesses, manages and responds to risks. A Training Needs Analysis identified that an understanding of BCM would be necessary to successfully lead and communicate the project. G-MW looked for a traini ng course that would provide an understanding of how to properly approach enterprise BCM program implementation and provide practical advice and tools to enable us to complete the work ourselves - if necessary. Th ey chose the "BCM in a Box" (BCMIAB) Fundamentals course. On completion of the course, they had a new perspective on BCM planning.
76 AUGUST 2009 water
Using an all-hazards approach, they can focus on resource impacts and how the unavailability of a resource- regard less of the cause - affects the critical operations of the organisation . With this knowledge and applying the approach detailed during the course, the Corporation was able to build recovery strategies that address the loss of any of the eight general supporting resource types. This requi red systematically analysing the organisation's fu nctions to determine their criticality, recovery timeframes and identifying the key resources that support the successful operation of the fu nctions. Recognising the need for additional expertise G-MW's BC team considered three options to progress the development of Business Continuity Plans:
1. A G-MW project t eam to lead project streams in each business area with minimal use of Consultant s;
2. G-MW to manage the project completely internally; and 3. Use a specialist consu ltant to lead a small G-MW project team with a software-assisted approach. Option 3 was selected for the following reasons: • Time: G-MW staff may not be able t o commit the appropriate time to options 1 and 2 to develop comprehensive and accurat e BCP's; wh ile also fulfilling existing business activity; • Expertise: G-MW has extensive business process knowledge but little BCM knowledge; • Retention: G-MW will retain knowledge of the BCM methodology used to build and maintain the plans within the organisation as the BCM in a Box software automatically enforces the methodology; • Cost: the overall cost of building the required capability using consultants and a small project team is less than using internal resources; and • Capability: BCPs will be available sooner, thus mitigating a key organisational risk. Automate to expedite The BCM in a Box approach was to use the software application as a project tool in conjunction with expertise to faci litate the BCM process at G-MW. This enabled the delivery of the vol ume and quality of output demanded by G-MW,
which would not have been possible in the timeframes available using the traditional spreadsheet and word document approach. The process involved a number of steps: • The externally hosted BCM in a Box web-based application was setup in 2 days; • The application was configured and populated with all t he key reference data used by G-MW; and • "Train the Trainer" sessions were completed. From the start G-MW wanted to est ablish ownership for Business Continuity in the right place i.e. - with the business fu nction owners. To support this approach, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) were identified and Business Impact Analysis (BIA) workshops conducted over a period of weeks, followed by Business Manager's review and General Manager's approval. This provided a comprehensively visible and robust baseline of core functions and key resource dependencies. The consultant led the first few workshops and G-MW gradually took over the deployment until they reached the next BCM lifecycle phase. This minimised project consulting costs while obt aining the support needed to confidently progress activities. The workshops were monotonous but vital to the outcome of the project. Quality reviews G-MW requested BCMIAB to perform reviews to validate the data collection process and information quality. So far, G-MW has achieved extremely high q uality results across all 58 fu nctions assessed. One of the reports used to confirm results was a matrix that showed all business functions and the IT applications they depend on. This report was provided to the IT department to confirm the IT system recovery capabi lity for critical functions. As a result, IT now has a business-driven recovery requirement that assists in determining the ultimate design of each system in terms of its availability objectives. The report is dynamically produced from the BCM in a Box database in seconds. This project wi ll provide G-MW with the following benefits: • Compliance with legislative requirements;
technical features
asset failures Unders111nd besl practlct & options Engage
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Figure 4. G-MW Business Continuity Journey.
• Greater understanding of risks posed to the organisation's critical infrastructure; • Abi lity to better target fund ing for capital expenditure at key asset infrastructure; • Comprehensive and current Business Continuity Plans; and
The implementation of the software package (BCM in a Box) into GMW was overseen by Bryan McAt ee and Scott Lansley, who competently established its resil ience planning capability and comprehensiveness.
The Authors
• Enhancement of G-MW's Incident Response and Recovery Framework.
Moving forward The next phase of the journey wi ll involve practical testing to identify any shortcomings in the planning arrangements and familiarise staff with their plans. The software will again be used to prepare, track and report on the testing performed.
Summary Th e Project 's development and progress is illustrated in Figure 4. The BCM project has a very high profile in the organisation - it has changed people's attitudes. The relationship with BCM in a Box is like a productive alliance partnership, which we can rely on for quality advice and support.
Acknowledgments The drive provided by Martin Krzywak , G-MW's Manager of Corporate Risk, and the willing support of Business Continuity Project Officer, Kathryn Raleigh, are grat efully acknowledged.
Parts 1 and 3 were written by Chris Massey. He has 23 years experience in Engineering and Management and was appointed Manager Strategic Risk Project s, Corporate Risk, Corporat e Services within Goulburn-Murray Water in November 2008. Email: chrism@ g-mwater.com.au Part 2 was written by Scott Lansley and Bryan McAtee, who are CoFounders and Directors of " BCM in a Box" with over 40 years practical business continuity management experience. Email: info@bcminabox.com
Resources and References Business Continuity Institute and Disaster Recovery Institute refer www.thebci.org/ Ream, S. (2002) 'How Mature is your Business Continuity Program?', Contingency Planning and Management Journal, January, pp 26-30. Standards Australia Handbook HB 292-2006
Victorian Parliament. Terrorism (Community Protection) Act 2003 www.virtual-corp.net/html/news.cfm
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~ refereed paper
asset failures
PERFORMANCE OF FILLET WELDED JOINTS IN WATER PIPELINES R Heywood, S Bartleet, S Brady Abstract The performance of fi llet welded joints in steel water pipelines is generally taken to be satisfactory, a position consistent with the relatively few fi llet welded joint fai lures in the past. But is it safe to rely on this position as pipeline diameters, design pressures, and the grade of steel commonly used in the industry continue to increase? This paper reviews the current information available to pipe designers and concludes that t he development of an appropriate design approach wil l require further work by t he water pipeline industry.
Introduction As part of the design and construction of the South-East Queensland water grid, the Southern Regional Water Pipeline Alliance (see Tracey, this issue), along with Texcel Expert Services, undertook an investigation into the performance of fi llet welded joints in large diameter, high pressure, cement lined steel pipes subject to pressure transients. The investigation's preliminary findi ngs indicated that the behaviour of fillet welded joints is poorly understood, highlighting the need for improved guidance on the design, fabrication, and installation of pipes incorporating fi llet welded joints, despite their routine use.
Past Performance From a historical perspective, failures in fillet welded joints in steel pipes occur, albeit relatively infrequently. The literature suggests that these failures occur when pipes are in tension - such as resisting axial thrusts or restrained thermal effects - or in compression such as resisting earthquakes. Failures are attributed to factors including: the absence of design guidelines, brittle fracture, axial loads, construction defects (including large gaps in joints), loss of
South-East Queensland Water Grid: Fillet welding a joint.
ductility associated with cold forming the joint, and thermal effect s. Whilst the literature describes the failures, there is often a lack of consensus as to their actual cause, and no guidance is provided to apply the lessons learnt to other joint types. This lack of information leaves designers with many questions, for example: how do joints actually behave? What is the maximum axial force a welded joint can carry? What is the relationship between axial force and internal pressure? What load factors and material factors should be used? Is fatigue a practical concern?
The Design Context Portions of SRWPA's pipeline were constructed without thrust blocks, thus requiring the pipeline's axial t hrust forces be carried across joints, and transmitted, via friction, to the surroundi ng soil.
Therefore, the determination of the maximum axial force a joint could safely support over its lifetime was an important design requirement. Further, axial forces from other sources - such as thermal and Poisson effects - also had to be considered . To resist these axial thrust forces, economics encouraged the use of fillet welded joints, rather than ful l strength butt welded joints. The fillet welded joints (ball and socket joints - as illustrated in Figure 1) incorporated either a single external fi llet weld or both internal and external (double) fillet welds. The American Water Works Association guide for the design and installation of steel pipelines, M11 , states that welded lap joints having a single fillet weld have proved satisfactory for most installations. In order to confi rm t his
As pipe diameters and pressures increase, are we still safe? 78 AUGUST 2009 water
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Figure 1. Examples of fillet welded joints in steel water pipes.
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position for thei r specific pipeline, SRWPA initiated an investigation to: a) determine if the axial tension strength of the fillet welded pipe joints was sufficient at the strength limit state; and b) determine if fi llet welded joints could resist the fatigue cycles resulting from variations in internal pressure.
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Figure 2. Geometry of a ball & socket joint.
In typical fillet welded joints, axial forces carried across a joint induce high bending stresses in the pipe wall, primarily as a conseq uence of the joint geometry. The calculated elastic stress at the joint can be as high as seven times that of the axial stress in a straight pipe (Moser, 1990). Consequently, the axial stresses due to axial thrust can cause yielding at the joint under normal operating pressures - thus requiring consideration of the post yield behaviour. From a design perspective, this requires a limit state approach that considers plastic b ehaviour, rather than a working stress approach.
experience of past performance, testing, manufacturer's recommendations, and the results of pressure tests before each pipe is put in service. That is, joint details tend t o be a product of the manufacturer, rather than the design office (Eberhardt, 1990).
Desig n standards and industry guidelines typically adopt a working stress approach to pipeline design. For example , AS/NZS 2566.1 , Buried flexible pipelines (Part 1: Structural design) allows for the determination of pipe wall thickness based on an allowable hoop membrane stress of 72% of nominal yield, but provides no guidance with respect to joints, strength of fil let welds, or allowable axial and bending stresses. Pressure piping and pressure vessel codes provide more information, but their application to water pipelines is limited due to substantially different deemed-tocomply j oint details and lower allowable stresses. Similarly, industry guidelines provide no established methods for designing joints. A review of the literature indicates the behaviour of fillet welded joints is poorly understood. A number of theories, such as those developed by Brockenbrough (1990) and the seminal work of Tawfik & O'Rourk e (1985), suffer limitations due to the simplifying assumptions req uired to develop closed form analytical solutions. Recent research using finite element analysis highlights t he non-linear 3D behaviour of joints , but the fi ndings are not in a form that assists the design process (Tsetseni et al., 2007). The absence of standards, guidelines, and liter ature that addresses joint design is not su rprising when it is considered that t he water pipeline industry accepts the use of fillet welded joints based on
Consequently, to evaluate a fi llet welded joint's overall strength and fatigue life theoretically requires a return to engineering first principles.
Response to Internal Pressure From a theoretical perspective, it is well understood that internal pressure, with zero axial force, induces hoop stresses in the pipe wall and increases the pipe's diameter. If the pipe is unrestrained axially, it will shorten due to the Poisson effect and experience zero axial stress. However, if the pipe is axially restrained, shortening is prevented, and the Poisson effect induces axial tension stresses. Similarly, a pipe subject to axial forces, without internal pressure, produces axial stresses and reduces the diameter of the pipe (due to the Poisson effect), but does not induce hoop stresses (Roark & Young , 2002). The typical pipe design approach based on allowable hoop stresses is consistent with observations that axial stresses are generally much smaller than hoop stresses. (The maximum axial stress in a straight pipe due to the full axial thrust (e.g. at a terminated pipe or 90 degree bend) ind uced by internal pressure is 50% of the corresponding hoop stress.) The approach of not needing to consider axial stresses is, however, inappropriate when the pipe contains a fi llet welded joint. The behaviour of fillet welded joints differ from straight pipes because: the centreline of the wall deviates from a straight pipe at the joint, lengths of double wall thickness exist where the joint overlaps, and stress concentrations are present at the toe of the fillet welds as illustrated in Figure 2. These factors induce local bending and hoop stresses at the joint. These stresses
L,
vary with the type and the geometric details of the joint - an observation that restricts the ability to conclude that the performance of one joint is satisfactory based on the performance of another. When fi llet welded joints are subject to internal pressure with zero axial force, the increased radial stiffness of the joint's double wall thickness restrains the radial deflection of the joint, leading to reduced hoop stress at the joint. Consequently, joints are typically stronger than the pipe when subjected to internal pressure with zero axial force. (It is noted t hat the presence of the joint resu lts in a marginal increase in the pipe's diameter a short distance from the joint - thus marginally increasing hoop stresses in the pipe, and marginally reducing the pipe's capacity from that of a straight pipe with no joint.)
Response to Axial Tension Conversely, the joint is typically weaker than the pipe when an axial tension (with zero internal pressure) is applied to the joint. The pipe tends to straighten, inducing hoop tension stresses adjacent to the joint, hoop compression stresses at the joint, and local bending stresses throug hout the joint. These bending effects dominate, and can be sufficiently large to induce yielding at low axial forces. The joint, however, has considerable ability to resist larger axial forces because rad ial deflections, resulting from local bending, are restrained by the still elastic radial stiffness of the pipe, especially in the double thickness length of the joint. Th is requires plasticity to develop at multiple locations before the axial load capacity is achieved.
Response to Internal Pressure and Axial Tension Consequently, joint s subject to the combined effect of internal pressure and axial force may be weaker or stronger than the pipe, depending on the relative magnitude of the internal pressure and the axial tension force. Joints will be stronger than the pipe for low axial
water AUGUST 2009 79
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5]
forces, but weaker than the pipe at high axial forces. Unfortunately, identifying the axial stresses required to induce plastic failures in joints is sensitive to a joint's details. Figure 3 illustrates plastic failure occu rring in the pipe wall at the strength limit state. Joints can, however, be weaker t han the pipe in the axial direction, and still resist the axial forces applied. For example, full-scale tests have shown that some fillet welded joints can resist full axial thrust forces provided local plastic deformat ion is acceptable and the steel has sufficient ductility (Smith, 2006).
Figure 3. Von Mises stresses superimposed on the deflected shape of a ball and socket joint subject to a strength limit state loading combination of internal pressure and axial force (Note: Deformation is exaggerated for clarity. The red zones have yielded). forces and high pressures are likely, and/or pressure transients occur.
The Authors
The design of joints for fatigue is generally not discussed in the standards or literature, although AS 2566.1 req uires fatigue to be considered, without providi ng g uidance. As discussed, high tension stresses are generated at the toe of the fillet welds, and local yieldi ng w ill occur in joints resisting normal operating pressures and moderate to high axial tensions. This suggests that high-stress low-cycle fatigue is a potential failure mechanism that shou ld be considered during design. High-stress lowcycle fatigue is consistent with joints failing years after their initial pressure test (Eberhardt, 1990; Jacob et al., 2007).
formed part of the SRWP Alliance, which included 160 km of large diameter high pressure pipeline. KBR was the design consultant for the alliance.
References American Water Works Association, (2004), Steel Pipe - A Guide for Design and
Ductility and Fatigue Considerations Ductility, and hence the st rength of the joint, may be compromised by factors including: the incorrect specification of the steel for the expected temperatures, the adoption of high strength low ductility steels, the utilisation of too much ductility in the formation of the joint, and inappropriate welding procedures. Care is required to ensure adequate ductility is provided at each joint.
Rob Heywood and Sean Brady from Texcel Expert Services worked jointly w ith t he SRWP Alliance to investigate the behav iour and strength of fillet welded joints. The firm provides expert forensic and investigative structural engineering services to the public, private, and legal sectors. Rob Heywood is the Technical Director of Texcel Expert Services: rob h@texcel.com.au. Sean Brady is Business Manager. Email: seanb@texcel.com.au
Installation: Manual of Water Supply Practices Mt 1, Denver: American Water
Works Association. AS/NZS 2566.1 :1998, Buried flexible pipelines Part 1: Structural design, Standards Australia. AS/NZS 2566. 1 Supp1 :1998, Buried flexible pipelines Part 1: Structural designCommentary, Standards Australia.
Brockenbrough, R. L., (1990), Strength of Bell-and-Spigot Joints, Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol 116, No. 7, July, Pages 1983-1991. Eberhardt, A., (1990), 108-in. Diameter Steel Water Conduit Failure and Assessment of AWWA Practice, Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Volume 4, No. 1, February, Pages 30-50. Jacob B., Sundberg V, Genculu S., and Hunt, L., (2007), Welded Lap Joint Brittle
Sean Bartleet is a principal water and wastewater engineer at the KBR Brisbane office and was the lead pipeline engineer for the Northern Pipeline lnterconnector. The lnterconnector
80 AUGUST 2009 water
Failure: A Structural Assessment of an Atlanta 72-inch Welded Steel Water Pipe Demonstrates Need for Improvement in AWWA Standards, ASCE International
Conference on Pipeline Engineering and Construction, Pipelines 2007: Advances and Experiences with Trenchless Pipeline Projects, ASCE, Page 66. Moser, A.P., (1990), Buried Pipe Design, McGraw-Hill, Page 121. Smith, G., (2006), Steel Water Pipe Joint Testing. Pipelines 2006
Service to the Owner, The Pipeline Division Specialty Conference 2006, July 30-August 2 (p. 42). Chicago, lllonois, USA: ASCE.
Summary In concl usion, t he investigations to date have provided some insights into the behaviour of fillet welded joints, but further discussion and research w ithin the water pipel ine industry is required to not only understand the behaviour and failure mechanisms of fillet welded joints, but also to develop a design approach so that industry guidelines can better encourage the appropriate utilisation of fillet welded joints. Until these knowledge gaps are overcome, care should be taken when specifying fillet welded joints in locations where substantial axial
refereed paper
Tawfik, M.S. and O'Rourke, T.D., (1985), Load-Carrying Capacity of Welded Slip Joints, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology
(American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Vol. 107, February 1985, Pages 36-43. Tsetseni, S., and Karamanos, S. A., (2007), Axial Compression Capacity of Welded-Slip Pipeline Joints, Journal of Transportation Engineering (ASCE). Vol. 133, No.
5, May 2007, Pages 335-340.
South-East Queensland Water Grid: Installation of piping.
Young, W., C., & Budynas, R., G., (2002), Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain, McGraw-Hill, Seventh Edition.
technical features
GJ
project delivery
refereed paper
PERFORMANCE BASED CONTRACT FOR AN MFRO PLANT M Giesemann Abstract CWW has let a design, bui ld and operate contract for a small (9 MUd) wastewater recycling plant at Altona, in Melbourne, Austral ia (the ARP). Th e plant treats brackish t reated effluent via a membrane process consisting of strainers, MF membranes and a two stage RO process, to supply industrial use for boilers and cooling towers, and irrigation for nearby golf courses. The distinguishing feature of this plant is t hat it maximises the production of recyc led water from the domestic sewage catchment. This requ ires a high degree of flexibi lity to match t he varying quantiti es and qualities of t reated effluent available, to the more rigid treatment regime of t he RO plant. This flexibility had been incorporated into the design and is now to be realised during the operations phase. This paper describes the conditions set by CWW for t he operations phase of the plant aimed at commercially encouraging the reliable operat ion and performance of the plant. These conditions are based on: • A sensibl e assignment of risks between the Operator and CWW, • Perfo r mance based payments t hat reward t he maximisation of catchment yields and t he consist ency and quality in the recycled water produced. These outcomes are inherent in t he payment mechanism developed for this project.
Background City West Water (CWW) owns and operates a wastewater treatment plant to the south-west of Melbourne's central busi ness district. The plant is located in the suburb of Altona and treats mostly domestic wastewater from a catchment containing a population equivalent of 50,000. In 2004 CWW commenced work on a significant upgrade to the Altona Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWTP) resulting in a new plant being commissioned in 2007. The AWTP uses an activated sludge, nutrient removal treatment process known as Intermittently Decanted Extended Aeration (IDEA) to t reat the sewage to a
Altona Treatment Plant. standard required by Victoria's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for discharge via a submerged marine outfall to Port Phillip Bay. In obtaining a new operating licence and in gaining community acceptance for t he new plant, CWW agreed to maximise t he recycling of the effluent from the AWTP for industrial and irrigation uses. Currently the AWTP treats an average of 12 M 1/d of raw sewage and discharges its treated and disinfected effluent to Port Phillip Bay. The bio-solids from the AWTP are taken off-site and fu lly reused. The AWTP catchment is low lying and being adjacent to the coast suffers from a highly saline groundwat er table. Forty per cent of the sewerage pipelines feeding into the AWTP are located below t he water t able. Groundwater infiltration resu lts in a saline sewage and t reated effluent with the total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration approaching 5,000 mg/I. This makes the effluent unsuitable for recycl ing . A detailed study of options for t he catchment showed that major repair of the pipe system to reduce infiltration and salt intrusion is impractical. In order to remove this salt and permit t he recycling of the effluent CWW elected to construct a micro filtration - reverse osmosis (MFRO) plant to supply 5.9 Ml/d to industry and 3.1 Ml/d to irrigate two local
Appropriate allocation of risks.
golf courses and nearby local govern ment recreational areas. The waste stream from the MFRO Plant is discharged back into t he submerged outfall. The total project required the construction of the MFRO Plant, t he feedwater and process wat er storage tanks, t hree pumping stations and three delivery pipelines. It was planned to have the whole system operating under SCADA control w ith minimal operator intervention. Collectively all this infrastructure became known as the Altona Recycled Water Project (ARWP). It was decided to engage a privat e operator to design, build and operate t he MRFO Plant for five years. This paper describes the contract that was select ed for this use, some of t he difficulties faced in establishing the contract and new concepts introduced to solve them.
Procurement Selection The total est imated cost of the ARWP is over AUD50 million, including the cost of the RO desalination plant. As such, t he project, although remarkably com plex, is small in dollar terms. A number of procurement options were reviewed and evaluated using the following criteria in order to: • gain t he attention of contractors and produce the most competitive bids • produce the most cost efficient outcome
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project delivery
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Irrigation Reverse Osmosis
Irrigation Product Water Tank
Irrigation Pump Set 2
Golf Course Storage 2
Industrial Reverse Osmosis
Industrial Product Water Tank
Industrial Pump Set 1
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To Port Phllll Ba
Figure 1. Schematic of Altona Recycled Water Project. • manage the risks associated w ith the project • ensure CWW's risk exposu re to regulators was minimised, and • meet the deadline for t he first delivery of recycled water. Consideration was given to public and private design and construction, public and private operations and maintenance, public and private financing, risk assignment and risk sharing, prescribed and performance payments, bonus and incentive payments and project management. The type of contract finally selected was a traditional design and construct contract with an added operations and maintenance contract for a period of five years and with an option for a further five years. The operations and maintenance contract included a performance payment component. The rationale for this selection was t hat the size of the project was too small to est ablish private financing, the time available did not permit a PPP deed to be est ablished, adding an operations and maintenance component made the contract more attractive to industry while removi ng some risk from CWW, and adding a performance component encouraged the achievement of customer requirements.
Plant Operation Figure 1 shows schematically the configuration of the ARWP infrastructure including the MFRO Plant. Figure 1 shows that the MFRO plant receives its feedwater from a 3 ML feedwater balance tank owned and operated by CWW holding treated effluent from the AWTP.
82 AUGUST 2009 water
On the other side the MFRO plant discharges its irrigation quality product water into a 3 ML water balance tank, and its industrial quality product water into a 3 ML water balance tank. CWW owns both product water balance tanks but the operation of the tanks comes under the control of the MFRO Plant Operator. All t he assets from the inlet valve to the feedwater balance tank to the customer product water storages come under SCADA control. The SCADA system samples and makes operational decisions every five minutes. CWW has the responsibi lity for supplying sufficient on-spec feedwat er, the Operat or is responsible for satisfying the demand from the two prod uct water t anks. Upper limits are set on the amount of feedwater that needs to be made available t o the MFRO Plant Operator and t he amount of product water t hat the MFRO Plant Operator needs to supply the customers. Under ideal conditions t hese would be in balance. However an examination of plant records shows that there will be periods when the there wi ll be insufficient feedwater available and occasions when it could be out of specification. It is also known that the irrigation customers will not take all the recycled wat er, during periods of wet weat her and the industrial customers will also not take all the recycled water due to down-time in t heir industrial processes. To further complicate the matter it must be remembered that one of the project objectives is to maximise the recycling of effluent from the AWTP. Hence with all
the possible combination of events in p lay the real measure of the success of the project is t he degree to which this maximisation occurs. There are multiple combinations here and all had to be all owed for in the assignment of accountability in the contract , and in the calculation of operational payments to the MFRO Plant Operator. One ot her operational aspect also needs to be noted. The measure of the availability of feedwater and product water has been defined as the degree to wh ich the feedwater and product water tanks are respectively full. The same conc ept is used to measure the degree to which t he customers require recycled water; that is, the degree which the customers' recycled water storages are full.
Operational Concepts and Accountability Given that CWW wished to use a performance based contract, ensure accountabilities were clearly assigned in the contract, and ensure that the assignment of accountabilities matched only the factors over which each party could exercise control, CWW concluded that it had t o develop three new concepts. These were the Plant Production Envelope, the Plant Productivity and the Plant Performance Factor.
Plant Production Envelope The Plant Production Envelope (PPE) is defined as the maximum amount of recycled water the MFRO Plant cou ld have produced in any given month without external limitations. The PPE will vary from day to day, month to month
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~ ref ereed pape r
and year to year and can on ly be calcu lated at t he end of any given period from data measured during that period. The PPE is a numerical value and has the unit megalitres per month (MUm). Th e objective of the MFRO Plant is to maximise the recycling of effluent from the AWTP. This is clearly stated in the MFRO Plant operations and maintenance contract and the MFRO Plant Operator is required to meet this requirement. Wit h th is ambition in mind the design factors (as specified in the tender documents) that are or may be imposed on t h e MFRO Plant Operator, limiting his ab ility to meet t his objective, and wh ich are outside his cont rol are: • The irrigation production design capacity of t he MFRO Plant • The industrial production design capacity of t he MFRO Plant • The MFRO Plant irrigation product water recovery rate • The MFRO Plant industrial product water recovery rate • The permitted time t he MFRO Plant is off-line for maintenance (ten per cent per calendar month)
M ELBOURNE Peter Everist 03 9863 3535 p everist@wigroup.com.au
project delivery In addition the operational factors which are outside the Operator's control are: • The available supply of in-specification feed water from CWW's AWTP and supplied via the feedwater tank • The demand for irrigation recycled water from CWW's irrigation customers • The demand for industrial recycled water from CWW's industrial customers • The time the MFRO Plant is unable to operate due to interruptions to the electricity supply provided by CWW • The time that the MFRO Plant is unable to operate as a result of damage resulting from a force majeure event The SCADA system measures t he quantity and quality of feedwater and product water at five minute intervals and calculates the resultant PPE for each one of these intervals after allowing for t hese design and operational factors. The assignment of accountability is now clear. The MFRO Plant Operator must achieve the PPE. All factors that are outside t he MFRO Plant Operator's control (that is the risks t he MFRO Plant
SYDN EY Hugh McGinley 02 8904 7504 hmcginley@wigroup.com.au
Operator cannot be expected to manage) have been excluded in calculating the PPE. The degree t o which t he MFRO Plant Operator meets the PPE is a measure of the MFRO Plant Operator's ability to operate and maintain t he MFRO Plant.
Irrigation and Industrial Plant Production Envelopes Two other parameters similar to the PPE may also be derived using the same process. These are t he Irrigation PPE and the Indust rial PPE. CWW has made a requirement in its specifications that a preference is to be given to meet ing the irrigation customer's demand ahead of meeting the industrial customer's demand. It foll ows t hat t he Irrigation PPE will always be great er than t he Indust rial PPE.
Plant Productivity The Plant Prod uctivity is calculated as the ratio of the actual volume of recycled water produced in any given ti me period to the PPE for t hat same time period. The Plant Productivity is expressed as a percentage .
ADELAIDE BRI SBANE Owen Jayne Graeme Anderson 08 8348 1687 07 3866 7860 ojayne@wigroup.com.au ganderson@wigroup.com.au
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water AUGUST 2009 83
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project delivery Irrigation and Industrial Plant Productivities Again two other parameters may be derived which are the Irrigation Plant Productivity and the Industrial Plant Productivity. These are defined as follows. The Irrigation Plant Productivity is the ratio of the actual irrigation recycled water supplied in any given month to the Irrigation PPE expressed as a percentage. The Industrial Plant Productivity is the ratio of the actual industrial recycled water supplied in any given month to the Industrial PPE expressed as a percentage.
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measure of the degree to which product water can be recovered from the feedwater. CWW set a minimum recovery rate for both the irrigation treatment process and industrial process of seventy per cent.
Operational Performance Measurement In developing the performance measures for the MFRO Plant Operator CWW considered that there were seven classes of performance measures. These were: • Customer Service • Water Quality (Health Aspects) • Environmental
importance. The irrigation PPE and the industrial PPE were used to measure the customer performance.
Water Quality Performance (Health Aspects) The MFRO Plant is required to meet t he requirements of Victoria's Department of Human Services (OHS) for recycled water. A specified number of log reductions are required to be achieved for viruses and prot ozoa by this health regu lator. The degree to which the OHS requirements were met was used as a measure of the water quality (health aspects) performance.
Environmental Performance
• Safety
The targets set for the MFRO Plant Operator for the Plant Productivity, the Irrigation Plant Productivity and the Industrial Plant Product ivity are all 100%. The Plant Productivity is the major contributor to the performance component of the operations and maintenance contract.
The rationale for each of these classes of performance measures is discussed below.
Plant Recovery Rate
Customer Service Performance
The Plant Recovery Rate is not a new term but is a factor well understood in the reverse osmosis industry. It is a
The principal purpose of the ARWP is to provide customers with recycled water. Hence th is KPI attracted a high
Q
refereed paper
• Asset Management • Incident Response and Emergency Management • Quality Systems
The waste stream from the MFRO plant is discharged into the outfall from the AWTP and then into Port Phillip Bay. There are times when the MFRO Plant will be taking all the effluent from the AWTP, and hence the waste stream from the MFRO Plant will be the only discharge to the Bay; that is, it will not be mixing with any surplus effluent from the AWTP before being discharged to the environment. In order for CWW to meet its discharge licence the concentration of pollutants
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LEVEL & FLOW CONTROL WITH BINTEC~ :. 1 - :1\.. - . l , ~
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Table 1. Key Performance Measures and Targets. KPI Measure
KPI Weighting
Reporting Frequency
Customer Service and Health Performance
45%
Plant Productivity
80%
Monthly
Preventative and responsive maintenance is carefully planned to minimise its impact on the customers and to maximise the use of recycled water
10%
Monthly
Adequate notice is given of planned interruptions
10%
Monthly
Environmental Performance
20%
Comply with the odour requirements of CWW's EPA Licence for the ATP Complex
10%
Monthly
Comply with the noise requirements of CWW's EPA Licence for the ATP Complex
10%
Monthly
Comply with the chemicals delivery, storage and use requirements of CWW's EPA Licence for the ATP Complex
20%
Monthly
Comply with the discharge requirements of CWW's EPA Licence for the ATP Complex
60%
Monthly
Asset Management
10%
Provision of a satisfactory and up-to-date Asset Management Plan within one month of the end of the contract year.
15%
Annual
Development of satisfactory condition monitoring, preventative maintenance and renewal programs within one month of the end of the contract year.
15%
Annual
Provision of a satisfactory and current Maintenance Management System within one month of the end if the contract year.
15%
Annual
Provision of a satisfactory and current hand-back plan within 1 month of the end if the contract year.
15%
Annual
Delivery of work items performed in accordance with plans
20%
Annual
Development of satisfactory condition monitoring, preventative maintenance, responsive maintenance and renewal programs implementation reports within one month of the end of the contract year.
20%
Annual
Safety Performance
10%
Provision of a satisfactory annually updated OH&S Management Plan
5%
Annual
Number of Lost Time Injuries
30%
Annual
Number of Medical Treatment Injuries
15%
Annual
Number of Reportable Incidents
10%
Monthly
Degree of compliance with relevant 0H&S regulations
10%
Annual
0H&S Committee to meet at least once per quarter
5%
Annual
Workplace inspections are to be undertaken at least once per quarter
5%
Annual
Number of scheduled 0H&S audits completed each month
5%
Monthly
Number of listed employees attending scheduled 0H&S training each month
5%
Monthly Annual
Chemicals and dangerous goods are transported, stored and handled in a safe and environmentally responsible manner
10%
Incident Response and Emergency Management
10%
Provision of a satisfactory annually updated Incident Response and Emergency Management Plan
20%
Annual
Number of effective exercises conducted each year with at least one in conjunction with CWW
20%
Annual
Provision of annually updated procedures and processes to respond to system faults and manage emergencies
20%
Annual
Debrief incidents and implement improvement action items.
20%
Annual
Degree of compliance with protocols when exercised
20%
Monthly
Quality Systems
5%
Prior to the commencement of the operating year, have in place independently accredited quality system(s) that embrace Quality, Environmental, OHS and HACCP
50%
Annual
Non conformances and continuous improvement: To positively address all non-conformances and pro-actively apply continuous improvement
30%
Annual
To comply with the independent accreditation agency auditing requirements
20%
Annual
Final KPI Result
100%
such as ammonia in the waste st ream had to be recognised and operational restrictions put in place. In addition limitations had to be plac ed upon the MFRO Plant Operator on what t he operator was permitted to add to t he waste stream from MFRO Plant operations. The degree to which these operational constraints and restrictions were met was used as a measure of t he envi ronmental perfo rmance.
Asset Management Performance Although operated and maintained by a private contractor t he MFRO plant is an asset ow ned by CWW. As such it comes under CWW's asset management pol icy and pract ices. The contractor was required to comply wit h t hese to provide assurance t hat the MFRO Plant would be properly maintai ned with t he assets being in sound operable condition at all ti mes (i ncluding at plant hand-over at the end of
t he contract period). Th e MFRO Plant Operator was required to undertake various activities to prov ide this assurance and t he degree to which t hese were sat isfactorily undertaken became t he measure of t he asset management performance.
Safety Performance The MFRO Plant Operator was required to comply w ith CWW's occupational health and safety pol icy and practices. The
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AUGUST 2009 85
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project delivery degree of compliance was used as a measure of the MFRO Plant Operator's safety performance.
Incident Response and Emergency Management Performance The MFRO Plant Operator was req uired to comply with CWW's incident response and emergency management policy and practices. These include participating in the simulations CWW periodically conducts of its systems. The degree of compliance and the follow up of any items from simulation debriefs were used as a measure of the MFRO Plant Operator's incident response and emergency management performance.
Quality Systems Performance The MFRO Plant Operat or was req uired to comply with CWW's quality assurance policy. This was to be achieved by either having a quality accreditation for the MFRO Plant site itself, or having the site included in the MFRO Plant Operator's overall quality accreditation. Quality accreditations were required to cover quality systems, environmental systems, occupational health and safety systems and HACCP. Having and maintaining these accreditations and following up on any non-conformances from audits was used as a measure of the quality systems performance.
Operational Key Performance Indicators, Targets and Weightings Key Performance Indicators (KPls} were developed for each of the seven classes of performance. Weightings were assigned to each class using a risk management approach (outside the scope of this paper), with the weightings adding up t o one hundred per cent. The KPls themselves were weighted within the each class, again with the KPI weightings also adding up t o one hundred per cent within each class. Finally all KPls were assigned targets. Table 1 contains the performance classes, the performance measures and the assigned weightings that were included in CWW's tender and operations and maintenance contract. The actual indicators and targets have been omitted for simplicity. Each month the MFRO Plant Operator was required to collect sufficient data to support a monthly payment claim that included a list of the KPls, their targets and their performance to date. Where a KPI was measured annually the KPI was assumed to have been achieved on a year to dat e basis, with a reconciliation
86 AUGUST 2009 water
occurring at the end of the year when the annual KPI result became known. Each performance measure was expressed as a percentage. Where it was a simple matter of providing a report the fact that the report was provided achieved a one hundred per cent performance. If the report was not provided, the KPI achieved a score of zero per cent.
Plant Performance Factor To simplify the calculation the concept of a Plant Performance Factor was introduced. The Plant Performance Factor is calculated as the sum of the applicable performance class weightings multiplied by the respective key performance indicator weighting multiplied by the respective performance achieved. The maximum that cou ld be achieved if the plant was working satisfactorily and the MFRO Plant Operat or was meeting all his obligations was one hundred per cent. It must be remembered that all the factors outside of the MFRO Plant Operator's control have been excluded leaving the MFRO Plant Operat or to be totally accountable for this performance.
Operational Contract Payment Regime Making Contract Payments Operational contract payments were divided into three parts. These were a fixed payment, a variable payment and a performance payment. The Operator is paid the sum of the three parts each month. The fixed payment covered the costs of keeping the MFRO Plant Operator on site. These included: • Direct labour • Head office support • Travel and accommodation allowance • Minor plant and equipment • Vehicles • Insurances and securities • Licences • Condition monitoring and preventative maintenance • Quality systems maintenance The fixed payment wou ld be made in all but exceptional circumstances. The variable payment covers the MFRO Plant Operator's variable costs and included: • Electricity (the risk of escalating electricity prices was taken by CWW) • Chemical supply and dosing
• Sampling, testing and analysis • Responsive maintenance The performance payment is calculated each month in accordance with the method described above. In tendering for the design, build and operate contract tenderers were required to tender sixty monthly amounts for the fixed, variable and performance components, with the performance component required to be at least fifteen per cent of the sum of the other two.
Three Step Payment Process This process now gave CWW a mechanism of paying t he MFRO contractor for its performance without the contractor taking so great a risk that it would have to inflate its tendered prices to cover the risks involved in order t o provide some certainty of a reasonable retu rn. Nevertheless CWW wished t o be protected if the contract or consistently fai led to deliver in-specification recycled wat er or was consistently not meeting a number of key performance indicators, particularly those that would result in CWW fall ing foul of the environmental or health regulators. To address this issue a three step payment process was included, which was to be applied to each monthly operational payment. These steps are described below.
Step 1 The first step required the contractor to show that he was eligible for a payment (a payment comprises the sum of the fixed, variable and performance components). The MFRO Plant Operator wou ld not be entitled to a monthly payment if one or more of the following circumstances applied: • the MFRO Plant Operator was not meeting the environmental performance requirements (causing CWW to breach its EPA discharge licence); • the MFRO Plant Operator was not meeting the wat er quality health aspects performance requirements (causing CWW to breach its DHS accreditation); • the MFRO Plant Operator was unable to operate the MFRO Plant as a result of action taken against the MFRO Plant Operator by WorkSafe Victoria, the EPA or any other regulatory body; or • the MFRO Plant Operator has failed to submit and have approved any of the specified asset management plans or reports on time.
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CWW reserved the right to make no payment, a part payment or a full payment under Step 1 depending upon the circumstances applying. Generally it was implied that pro-rata payments would be made for the times during a month when these ci rcumstances did not apply.
Step 2 Having established that the MFRO Plant Operator was eligible for a payment Step 2 set about calculating the payment to be made. Again CWW was concerned that some safeguard needed to be provided in the circumstance where the MFRO Plant Operator persistently fai led to deliver sufficient in -specification product water. Such a safeguard was incorporated into this second step as follows.
Fixed Cost Component The M FRO Plant Operator is entitled to be paid t he agreed fixed cost component provid ed the Plant Productivity is great er than o r equal to 70%. If th e Plant Productivity is less than 70% then the Operator will only be entitled to be paid an amount equal to the month ly Fixed Cost Component listed in the contract multiplied by the actual Plant Productivity.
Variable Cost Component
Conclusion
The Operator is entitled to be paid an amount equal to the monthly Irrigation Variable Cost Component rate listed in the contract multiplied by the volume of Irrigation Grade Recycled Water produced.
CWW has developed an operational contract for a small desalination plant wh ich has permitted the risks to be appropriately allocated, an incentive to be provided to the operational contractor for the provision of good performance, and the liabilities that CWW has to its health and environment al regulators to be protected to t he greatest extent possible. The contract has been kept simple to administer. The SCADA system has been used to calculate much of the performance data keeping the administration to a minimum. Along the way some new concepts have been developed includ ing a Plant Production Envelope, Plant Productivity and Plant Performance Factor.
The Operator is also entitled to be paid an amount equal to the monthly Industrial Variable Cost Component Rate listed in the contract multiplied by the volume of Industrial Grade Recycled Wat er produced .
Performance Component The Operator is entitled to be paid the full amount of the Performance Component Amount provided the Performance Factor is equal to 100%. If the Performance Factor is less than 100% then the Operator will only be entitled to be paid an amount equal to the specified monthly Performance Component multiplied by the Performance Factor.
Step3 Step 3 involved the processing of the MFRO Plant Operator's invoice and making the payment.
The Author
Matthew Giesemann is the General Manager of Engineering at City West Water. Email: mgiesemann@ citywestwater.com.au
project delivery
ALLIANCE DELIVERY EXPERIENCE THE RACE AGAINST THE DROUGHT C Berry, P Anusas Abstract
The key drivers for choice of an Alliance include:
SE Queensland's Western Corridor Recycled Water Project involved f ive Alliance contracts, one of wh ich, the Western Pipeline Alliance (WPA) was formed in October 2006 between Queensland Government, GHD and contractors Abigroup and McConnell Dowell. It involved more than 95 kilometres of large diameter pipeline, two major pumping stations and two balance tanks.
• Limited time to deliver the project • Scope of work difficult to define • Complex risks and unknowns • Complex interface with multiple projects and alliances • Outcome driven • Avoidance of traditional contract pitfalls
This paper presents some of the Lake Wivenhoe 2006. key lessons from the Alliance with a view to better understanding the It provided an effective model for rapid effectiveness of this particular delivery delivery of the scheme. The target model and outcomes for future projects. delivery dates for the project were met In short, what worked well , what could within chal lenging market and have been done better and how? construction conditions and through the process a number of lessons gained. Introduction: The Western These are explored below.
Corridor Recycled Water Project
Austral ia's largest recycled water scheme and the third largest advanced water treatment project in the world, the $2 .5 billion Western Corridor Recycled Water Project (WCRWP) is a visionary undertaking that uses secondary treated wastewater from Brisbane and Ipswich to produce purified recycled water for South East Queensland . Details have been reported in previous issues of Water (Traves, Davies, 2008). Central to the project was construction of more than 200 kilometres of underground pipelines and three advanced water treatment plants. Early design and development of the business case started in 2006 by consultants GHD with sub consultants Black and Veatch and SunWater who developed an optimised treatment and distribution strategy to meet the variable demands of the industrial and commercial end users of the water. The project was split into five co mponents. Alliancing was selected as the preferred delivery model for all five of these contracts, driven principally by the urgent need to ensure continued supply of water to SEQ as the continuing drought dropped dam levels below 20 per cent.
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The authors were involved in The Western Pipeline Alliance (WPA) which was formed in October 2006 between GHD and contractors Abigroup and McConnell Dowell to design and construct the section of the project west of the AWTP at Bundamba.
Why An Alliance? Alliance contracting has become the delivery model of choice for many large infrastructure projects across Australia. Engaging in a col laborative relationship to avoid the traditional contract pitfalls of cost overruns and protracted disputes has a strong attraction to all parties involved. Pratley (1999) described alliancing as a collaborative, incentive driven method of contracting where all the participants work co-operatively to the same end, sharing the risk and rewards, whilst respecting principles of good faith and trust. Alliancing remains a business relationship but is governed by different val ues than traditional delivery models.
Experiences with the Western Pipeline in SE Queensland.
• Preference for non adversarial approach to project delivery • Provides higher level input into process and operability issues • Need to attract the A team to the project • Maximise the opportunities to deliver real innovation and value for money The Alliance model provides for collective responsibility, the participants win and lose t ogether and it is this shared risk that forms the basis of all alliance contract s and incentive to perform. The relationship between the owner, constructors and designers and integration of these entities into a single business model forms the structure of the alliance. Establishment of a set of values, vision and goals is part of the alliance development, setting roles and relationships in the alliance team. The scale, complexity and completion imperative of the WCRWP, together with the management of multiple projects and stakeholders, were determining factors in the choice of alliancing as the delivery strategy. It was recognised that no one alliance could deliver the project and al l participants would need to work closely together to meet the end dates. Alliancing provided the mechanism to ensure shared understanding and ownership of t he risks and project imperatives.
Western Pipeline Alliance The extreme fast track nature of the project, high likelihood of scope changes, management of complex, and unresolved, land issues, and technical
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project delivery risks, favoured Alliancing as the delivery method. For many of the project participants this was their first experience of a contract that required land acquisition, detailed design, pricing and construction all taking place in parallel. The Alliancing framework also ensured the capture of key skills and resources in a market place with unprecedented levels of construction activity. The incentive for success of this All iance was heightened by the const ant awareness of dam levels dropp ing and water restrictions increasing. Accordingly motivation for all participants in the team structure went beyond anything that could be stated wit hin the Alliance agreem ent and Charter.
than 48 kilometres of 1000mm GRP pipe and 20km of 1451 mm MSCL Pipe had been laid, and first water pumped to the end user in Apri l 2008. Peak installation rates for the GRP pipe was around 4 kilometres per week at the height of the construction activities.
One of 200km of large diameter pipes laid on the project.
The scope of works within the Western Pipeline scheme involved pumping water from the AWTP at Bundamba and from the other AWTPs through a single pipeline to a boost er pump station 32 kilometres away at Lowood, via a Balance Tank. From the Lowood pump station the treated water is then delivered to users at Caboonbah (at the top of Wivenhoe Dam) . The project involved more than 95 kilometres of large diameter pipeline, two major pumping st ations and two balance tan ks. The initial 32 kilometres of pipeline from Bundamba to Lowood was 1451 mm diameter x10mm Mild Steel Concrete Lined (MSCL) pipe. From Lowood Pumping St ation the pipeline reduces to 1000mm GRP for a further 49 kilometres to its connection with the end user, Tarong Power St ation at Caboonbah. A second 1200mm GRP pipe was also install ed for 15 kilometres between Lowood and the water storage reservoir at Wivenhoe Dam.
A significant challenge t o the Western Pipeline Alliance was the timely procurement of materials and plant. Long lead items were identified by the alliance as part of the early design works in the first few weeks of the project. Major valves and pumps having lead times of over 12 months were sourced from around the world, including Turkey, Sweden, Germany, Scotland, Canada and China. Initially it was proposed to construct the pipeline in rubber ring-jointed, MSCL pipe. However the demand for MSCL pipe was high, leading to long delivery times and high procurement costs. Demand was also compou nded by the Queensland Government's declaration of the WCRWP as a 'fast t rack' project. The use of alternative pipe materials such as GRP was proposed, in part, to manage the demand on a single supplier and provide additional construction flexibi lity. From the start of the WPA in early October 2006, the design was fast tracked allowing the procurement of pipe and first installation t o begin in late January 2007. By December 2007, more
It is interesting to not e that during this rapid construction phase the detailed design was continually refined to suit technical scope changes and land access requirements. This exercise in itself was a logistical and program challenge as it took constant account of lessons learnt in alignment in the field together with a watchful eye on pipe stockpiles and incoming orders. It is testimony to the efficiency of the Alliance that wastage on large diameter pipe materials was less than one per cent by length. Other technical chal lenges that the Al liance had to contend with arose from the significant thrusts generated in the 1451 mm MSCL pipeline. With flows in excess of 232MLD and over 290m head of water, resultant thrust forces at changes of pipeline direction were considerable. Initial design scoping revealed that some anchor blocks would exceed two hundred cubic metres in volume. The footprint of such large underground structures considered in light of uncertain land requi rements, existing utilities and budget constraints led the Alliance to look for a more innovative approach. This took the form of a design that utilised increased arcs/radii in horizontal geometry and spread thrust forces over longer lengths of trench wall. Although this led to several route changes the cost and associated risk impacts were massively reduced providing huge benefits to the State. The
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project delivery the outset the "Owner Representative" role within the Alliance Leadership Team (ALT) co uld not be filled with a Client employee.
innovative use of surge analysis models and simple suppression methods further optimised the pipeline design with a consequential reduction in pipe wall thickness from 16mm to 10mm. Similar innovations also reduced the extent of welded pipeline by around 50 per cent. Technical challenges also arose from the market environment where quarried goods were not simply at a cost premium but often impossible to acquire. Given that over a million tonnes of surround material would be needed to meet the requirements of AS 2566 the Alliance again opted to innovate. Through detailed understanding of the requirements of AS 2566 and discussions with the pipeline suppliers the cross sectional area of bedding and surround was subst antially reduced by changes to construction methodologies. A matrix was then developed of all suitable material sources with a triple bottom line analysis yielding a mix of solutions along the pipeline trajectory. Paradoxically many of the sources were ruled out because the drought had led to scarcity of construction water used for compaction.
No Blame But Accountability The 'no blame' culture permeated the alliance wh ile still recognising individuals' responsibilities and accountabilities for their own performance. This important distinction and behavioural stance in the WPA ensured rapid resol ution of problems in a cooperative manner, without the distraction of apportioning blame. "No blame" does not mean no account ability and so identifying roles, responsibility and accountability is an essential part of the t eam's effectiveness. The underlying commerc ial alignment of each party of the alliance and associated pain/gain arrangements is consistent with a "no blame" philosophy towards achieving exceptional outcomes and a win-win result for all parties.
It is testimony to the actual individuals involved in the ALT that the group functioned so effectively at a time where media headlines were a constant remi nder of the potable water shortage.
Twin GRP pipes. Failure to agree budgets early can make it difficult to place management controls on costs wh ich in turn drives construction management. Early contractor participation was seen by WPA as important in developing the team coherence and constructability input during development of the project. Consequently, the design team was integrated with the construction teams and continued high levels of engineering design input and support during the construction phase. As noted previously, this provided a highly responsive team in the light of changing work fronts, and pipe routes. Given the fast phase of the construction works, and perceived weakness of "self certifyi ng" construction works, a key role in the project delivery phase was that of the Alliance Technical Verifier. This provided support and mentoring to the on-site engineers and critically provided a high level overview of construction methodologies and activities on site to ensure design intent was adequately translated on site. Despite the rapid pace of construction it is pleasing to note that safety, quality and minimising environ mental impact have all been key successes for the project with extensive environmental restoration works and community consultation being undertaken by the WPA. Similarly, providing value for money solutions were benefited not only from the tech nical issues outlined earlier but also from the integration of key stakeholders, such as the system operator, end users and owner within the team.
The alliance arrangements for the project are not without their challenges, for instance, defining the commercial framework, Target Cost Estimate (TCE), and measurement of performance through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Key Result Areas (KRA) need careful consideration. Ensuring these are rig ht at an early stage sets the overall direction of the alliance and incentives.
Whi lst overall it is considered the alliance provided outstanding results there are always opportunities for improvement.
Defining "success" can take some time. If this is not done at an early stage it can limit the impact and recognition of the innovative work undertaken during the project development phase.
In the case of the entire WC RWP scheme the newly formed Client (a St ateowned SPV) was itself evolving in composition and management as the project progressed. This meant that from
90 AUGUST 2009 water
Improvement Opportunities
Another key issue that this Alliance had to manage was the intense and constant scrutiny on spending. Although this could be considered 'business as usual' in all Alliance models (which by definition are supported by the open book accountancy platform) the significant public expenditure on the main WCRWP project created new and heightened expectations. There was a need not only to be open and accountable in all commercial decisions/transactions but for the public to "perceive beyond all doubt" that every decision/transaction was justifiable and provided exceptional value. Th is requires more effort and time and many discussions centred around "proving" value for money outcomes. In terms of cultural learnings, the alliance culture needs to be nurtured through the project life cycle at all levels, not just within the management groups. A suggested improvement here would be that the alliance culture should form part of the project induction Wearing a shirt with the alliance logo does not mean that a person or company necessarily acts like an alliance. This said, the close integration of the teams and supportive relationships in the WPA was clearly evident and they formed a highly effective unit. Alignment of sub-contract arrangements with the alliance val ues and commercial incentivising should be careful ly considered and managed. Use of sub-alliance agreements, where parties agree on terms which align with the overall alliance values and culture help avoid differing commercial objectives and conflict. It has been shown that that the process works well wh ile progress is good however its ability to continue to provide incentives for optimum performance is lost or diminished once such pain share arrangements are reached. Th is emphasises the critical importance of early agreement of the right budget and risk profile. It emphasises the importance of choosing the right alliance coparticipants, and having a contract which clearly articulates the risk allocation and profile (Chew, 2005).
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In the current very heated market conditions, everything costs more and takes more t ime t han anyone thinks. There is also a very real need to understand and support unski lled/ inexperienced staff and labour given the shrinking pool of experienced talent. Delivery ti mes of eq uipment are also exceeding historical norms. Project schedu les must recognise what is now real ity and allow a real ist ic t imeframe for all activities. All parties must recog nise this. The labour issues had a significant impact on safety and quality, both of which require increasing effort. In addition the need to demonstrate value for money requi red significant effort in implementing t he right systems and documentat ion to ensure transparency, t raceability of decisions and accountability.
Conclusions Alliance contracts, and in particular the Western Pipeline Alliance, have demonst rated outstanding outcomes for clients and other participants, especially in the face of seemingly impossible deadlines and market ci rcumstances. However, they are not t he answer to all project s and demand careful attention to the commercial arrangements, levels of accountability, transparency and allocation of risk. Similarly the effort required to establish and grow the alliance and estab lish t he right cu lt ure between the participants should not be underestimated. Clients need to assess their own needs and culture and philosophy and be prepared to bring t his to the t able. This should form an important element of the alliance establishment. Consultants and contractors need to ensure staff are sufficiently trained in relat ionship contracting and have a belief in outcomes. Without doubt the alliance was a rewarding experience for al l involved, creating new relationshi ps and personal development opportunities
Acknowledgment The authors wou ld like to acknowledge the help and assistance of the WC RW Project in preparing this paper together with the exceptional team work of the alliance participants in delivering this project. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the companies involved.
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The Authors Craig Berry was the Design Manager for t he Western Pipeline Al liance and is currently Business Group Manager for Water in South East Queensland GHD Pty Ltd, Brisbane, OLD, email: craig.berry@ghd.com.au. Peter Anusas was a member of the Alliance Leadership Team for the Western Pipeline Al liance and is currently Operation Manager with Abigroup Cont ractors Pty Ltd, Brisbane, OLD, email: peter.anusas@abigroup.com.au.
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References Chew A, 2005. Construction Article; Alliancing in delivery of major infrastructure projects and outsourcing services - An overview of legal issues.
Pratley J,1999. Project Alliancing: Does it work? , 15(2) Building Australia 33. Traves W, Davies K, 2008. The Western Corridor Recycled Water Project. Overview and update. Water 35, 4. June.
CST Wastewater Solutions Tel: 61 2 9417 361 I Fax: 61 2 9417 0097 info@ cstechnology.com.au
project delivery EDITOR'S NOTE: We have published the Ozwater 094 presentation by Berry as an example of the success of Alliance contracting, but it is by no means the only example. As he remarks, there were five Alliances formed to deliver the whole Western Corridor Scheme. As well, the presentation by Tracey (Ozwater 020) on another fast-track Queensland project, tells a similar story. However, rather than publish his whole paper, which replicates most of Berry's findings, we have decided to extract a number of paragraphs which summarise some different aspects.
THE SOUTHERN REGIONAL WATER PIPELINE ALLIANCE PTracey Introduction The Southern Regional Water Pipeline Alliance (SRWPA) was established in . early 2006 and comprised the project owner LinkWater (under LinkWater Projects) and non-owner partners KBR, Abigroup and McConnell Dowell. The Alliance delivered four key components of the South-East Queensland water grid to transport potable water: The Southern Regional Wat er Pipeline, The Northern Pipelin e lnterconnector, The Eastern Pipeline lnterconnector and part of the WCRWP con nection between Bundamba to Swanbank. The program of works which delivered Australia's largest bulk water carrier pipeline comprised over 160 km of water pipelines with six pump stations, four balance tanks, three water quality faci lities, 207 road and river crossi ngs, which involved four reg ional offices, and seven local offices supporting 52 work fronts and a peak of 1250 personnel, with a budget of $1.3 B.
Alliance Project Team Integration The early integration of teams was critical for the tight project delivery time to be met. Design, Construction, Procurement, Environmental Approvals, Land Acquisition and Community Consultation teams all worked together from the start of the project. Specific examples of integration included: • the f ull integration of the Design Team into the procurement process to determine material take-off, ensuring a rapid and accurate procurement • early surveys, geotechnical studies and water quality assessments conducted during the design phase
One team - one goal. 92 AUGUST 2009 water
Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland, signs the last piece of pipe. • early procurement based on concept design information • integration between Land Acquisition and Design teams • Design Team working closely with LinkWater operations and maintenance teams to promote knowledge transfer • early consultation between the Design and Construction teams and full integration during the construction phase, including on-site presence.
Design Team The speed at which the project needed to be delivered placed significant demands on the Design Team. A dedicated Design Management Team was established to coordi nate design work in five remote design offices that were required to cater for the volume of work across numerous disciplines including pipes, civil, water retai ning structures, tunnels, bridges, mechanical and electrical and commissioning. The remote office teams from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Jakarta and the Gold Coast regularly visited the project head office in Brisbane to meet with the site-based project teams, facilitating a culture of integration and collaboration. In all, over 250,000 hours of designrelated work were undertaken for the project.
Training The total accredited train ing delivered under the project was recorded at 284,000 hours. New project personnel underwent a skills assessment when they joined the project and were then given opportunities to increase their skill levels along specific career paths. Apprenticeships were made available in plant operations and traineeships were undertaken for trades such as road c onstruction and maintenance. Th e extensive training provided by t he Alliance also included leadership and management training. Senior engineers attended training courses aimed at making them well-rounded senior leaders in the engineering profession. Graduate engineers benefited too, gaining invaluable construction experience on th is project as the design and constru ction teams worked alongside each other. This project will leave a legacy of young engineers who understand design and constructabil ity issues.
Commitment to Innovation The SRWPA program team's relentless pursuit of project innovations contributed substantial ly to the cost savings realised. The innovation register developed by t he Alliance identified 170 Pre TOC
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innovations with a further 200 identified Post TOG development including both design innovation and the incorporation of construction efficiency in design. An innovative variation to the Alliance agreement was the conscious skewing of the pain-gai n cost share allocation towards the Design Team, recognising that design innovations would lead to optimisation of cost and time savings. Wh ile the Design Team 's fees were relatively small in terms of the whole project, their ability to impact on the bottom line was significant. The Design Team were awarded one third of the cost savings, the same as the Constructors.
Safety Despite Urgency Safety is of paramount importance on construction projects. The concept of 'no harm' was stated in the Alliance Charter and more importantly SRWPA went beyond the standard systems based approach to safety by creating a safety cu lture throughout all levels of t he project team. This 'best for project' approach provided the All iance with a framework for project procedures and methodologies that met health and safety obligations and the requirements of the Principal Contractor. The Alliance's outstanding safety performance included the achievement of reaching one million hours lost time injury free milest ones, and the receipt of the Queensland Major Contractors Safety Excellence award for 2007. Of particular note is th e Gold Helmet Award, which was awarded monthly on the Southern Regional Pipeline to help bui ld employees' focus on safety achievements. Implemented in February 2007, the Gold Helmet Award facil itated a culture of safety and environmental achievement by acknowledging endeavours worthy of site-wide recognition. The Alliance also put into place a behavioural safety program to empower Alliance employees to take more posit ive actions to protect thei r own and t heir colleagues' safety. The program incorporated onsite trials and employee development sessions and resu lted in a workforce with a more proactive safety focus.
Conclusion The Alliance model and the innovative val ue management process enabled this project, which would typically take five years using a conventional delivery strategy, t o be delivered in the required time frame of 30 months. The All iance's achievement has been recognised by Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland for ' ... delivering a major infrastructure project in a short period of time. You have achieved what many people said was impossible!'.
The Author
Paul Tracey was the Alliance Program Director for the Southern Regional Water Pipeline Al liance and works for Abigroup Contractors. Paul is a civi l engineer with postgrad uate qualifications in business management and over 20 years experience in various forms of construction delivery including PPP, Al liancing, D&C and EPCM. Paul has now taken on the role of Project Director on the AdelaideAqua Desalination Plant at Port St anvac, SA. Email: water@abigroup.com.au.
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THE CASE OF ALLIANCES v PPPS M Cave, J Ricketts, L Gallop Abstract Th is paper examines the ways in which two different project delivery models: alliances and PPPs, have tackled achieving the successful delivery of water projects. A unifying feature of both project delivery models is t he need to creat e a successful relationship between the principal and t he cont ractor with regard to risk all ocation and the commercial aspect. The paper considers how an alliance uses the shared risk approach for the delivery of water projects and how the PPP model d iffers, w ith its clearly defined risk allocat ion. Finally, the paper offers suggestions as to t he circumstances in which the all iance o r the PPP can be used most effectively and how certain pressure points in a project can be managed.
The Project Delivery Models By their nature, water projects are often both technically challenging and politically sensitive. It follows that when selecting a project delivery model, the water agency must be confident that the model it selects properly addresses and manages those challenges and sensitivities. Unfortunately, more conventional project delivery models such as design and construct, operate and maintain and somet imes EPCM, do not adequately address and manage those challenges. For th is reason, water agencies are increasingly turni ng to different project delivery models. Two of those models which are increasingly being used to deliver water projects in Austral ia and internationally are alliances and PPPs. Whilst these models seek to create a lasting and successful relationship between t he principal and the contractor, they achieve this in very different ways.
Alliance project delivery model The alliance project delivery model creates a relationship between the participants in a project. It has five key elements.
1. There is no allocation of risk or assignment of responsibil it ies for delivery of all or even part of the water project between the participants. The
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participants agree to be jointly responsible for the delivery of all aspects of the project and to share the risks and rewards of delivering the project which make it impossible to assign blame. It estab lishes a relationship under which each of the participants contributes their particular expertise and personnel to t he alliance in order to deliver the project asset.
2. The alliance agreement is based on a framework of cooperation and mutual adherence to agreed relationship (or alliance) principles. The alliance principles are the high level comm itments or rules of engagement for t he participants. They are not about the performance of obligat ions required to deliver the project, but rather an agreed code of conduct. They are unique to each alliance. Examples might include open book accountability, resolving issues without blame and operating with integrity. The alliance ag reement also sets up a model of agreed decisionmaking processes and incentives which seek t o align the participants' objectives in relation to t he project and , in that way, reduce the risk of disputes and remove the possibility of litigation between the participants. 3. An alliance agreement wi ll incorporate t he principle of "no litigation". This means that each participant cannot sue t he other for a default under the alliance agreement or for negligence. The purpose of the "no litigation" pri nciple is to refocus the participants from acting in a "best for self" manner and incentivise acting in a "best for project" manner. If the participants litigate, they stop working together. Further, litigation adds to the overall cost t o each of the participants of delivering the project. With actual monetary consequences if the project fails, it is in neither participant's interest t o act in a manner which is detrimental to t he project.
4. An al liance agreement usually sets out limited exceptions to the "no litigation" principle which are agreed by the participant s. Situations such as wil lf ul default, gross negligence and fraud are usually carved out from the principles,
The lawyers' perspective.
leaving the participants free to litigate to protect themselves in these circumstances. The justification is that, if a participant has committed wi llful default, gross negligence or f raud, then t hat participant should not be afforded t he benefits of the alliance approach. 5. Finally, alliances are characterised by a joint management structure, simi lar t o that often adopted by joint ventures. An alliance board, comprised of representatives of all participants, will make the strategic decisions for the project. Decisions must be made unanimously, ensuring that all participants share responsibility for those decisions and cannot be out-voted. The alliance board will select an alliance management team to handle the day-today management of the project. The alli ance management team will also comprise representatives of al l participants. An all iance manager will act as a link between t he alliance board and al liance management team, and may be present as a non -voting member at al liance board meetings.
Benefits The joint management structure utilised by the al liance project delivery model brings several benefits. 1. The inclusion of an owner participant facilitates a sharing of expertise w hich is often absent when using a conventional contracting model. For example, in the context of a water project, successful com pletion of the project may require an in-depth understanding of the existing water network, which the owner participant is best placed t o provide.
2. The shared management structure also ensures that the owner participant becomes aware of issues as they arise, allowing the participants t o work together to resolve them. In the context of a water project, this wi ll allow the owner participant to be aware of any potential fail ures t o meet water q uality standards before sub-standard water is distributed into the network. 3. Further, joint decision making allows f lexibility for the participants to agree to change the project deliverables, or the way in which they are to be achieved, to accommodate chang ing circumstances in the project.
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PPP project delivery model A public private partnership or PPP is a contractual arrangement between a government party (such as a water agency) and the private sector for the delivery and operation of public infrastructure (such as a water asset). The PPP operates at the boundary of the public and private sectors given that the assets and services being delivered and provided under the PPP project delivery model are neither nationalised nor privatised. There are numbers of reasons government parties may be attracted to the PPP project delivery model, including the potential for val ue for money (lower construction costs, lower operating costs and perhaps more efficient maintenance of public infrastructure in the long term, than comparable public sector projects), gains from innovation, obviating the need to borrow to finance public infrastructure investment and movement of risk of delivery from the government party t o the private sector. The usual PPP model involves a government party engaging the private sector to build, own and operate a piece
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of public infrastructure (such as a desalination plant) over a specified (and long term) concession period . The private sector party must finance the costs of construction of the public infrastructure up-front and will recover its costs and profit through a long term tariff for the provision of services (such as water provision) during the operating phase of the project. Under the PPP model, and unlike the alliance model, project risks are clearly assigned between the government party and the privat e sector party. The private sector party is usually solely responsible for the delivery of the project (being the design, engineering, procurement, financing, construction, comm issioning, ownership, operation and maintenance of the public infrastructure) and, if the private sector party fails to perform its obligations to deliver the project, the risk (and contractual consequence of breach) fal ls with the private sect or party. There are usually limited and carefully defined exceptions in the PPP contract where a project risk does not fall to the private sector party. These risks will be those which the government party is better able to manage than the private sector party.
Email : mic@ppi.com.au
For example, the risk of any pre-existing contamination on the project site or the risk of fai lure to obtain certain of the authorisations necessary to deliver the project may rest with the government party. The PPP project delivery model encourages innovation and growth by allowing the concession com pany the freedom to deliver water services using the best available technology with minimal int erference from the government party. This means that the PPP can encourage a relationship in which the concession company has the freedom to ru n its best business model and the government party is able to assume it wi ll receive a regular water service for its minimal involvement. Another advantage is the relative freedom of the private sector party to restructure (incl uding taki ng the financial benefits of debt restructu ring), provided that the service levels for water delivery are not affected.
Risk Allocation Managing project risk As noted above, the PPP project delivery model wil l clearly allocate project risks
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water AUGUST 2009 95
project delivery between the government party an d the private sector party. The private sector party is usually responsible for obtaining everything for the delivery of the project (i.e. materials, labour and authorisations). If a private sector party fai ls to source any of these things, the risk (and contractual consequence of breach for fai ling to deliver water) falls with the privat e sector party. A clear allocation of risk in a contract req uires the project deliverables to be known. However, frequently in water projects, urgent timetables prevent deliverables from being clearly defined before the project must commence. Further, the practical conseq uence of an allocation of risk is that, if a problem arises, the parties each retreat to their side of the contractual boxing ring and start to determine where responsibility for a particular risk lies. The first question any party wil l ask is "What are my rights?". The alliance project delivery model adopts a different approach. The participants, through a joint management team, determine on a periodic basis which individuals (as opposed to wh ich participant) are responsible for performing particular project deliverables. The alliance agreement wi ll never state for instance that the non-owner participant is responsible for sourcing labour and resources or obtaining authorisations (although the alliance agreement may indicate which participant has the relevant expertise or skill in this area). Rather, it will be the responsibility of all the participants. Therefore, if any of these things do not occur, it is actually not possible, under the alliance agreement, to state that the non-owner participant has fai led t o perform its obligations. This outcome is backed by the "no litigation" principle, preventing the participants from suing each other. The effect of this nonallocation of risk is to take the parties out of the contractual boxing ring and require them to resolve the issue cooperatively, or the project is simply not delivered .
Indemnities A conventional contract will often employ indemnities as a means of all ocating the risks of a project between the contracting parties. Indemnities clearly allocat e risk to a particular party, and therefore increase the likelihood that an insurer wi ll promptly respond if a claim is brought. A PPP contract will usually contain a broad indemnity provision under which the private sector party indemnifies the
96 AUGUST 2009 water
G;J government party for any loss or damage suffered by the government party arising from or in connection with the project other than to the extent that the loss or damage is attributable to the government party or arises from a project risk for which the private sector party is not responsible. Indemnities usually play a much more limited role in the alliance context as the risks are generally borne by "the alliance" instead of allocated to individual participants. Indemnities are generally used only in limited circumstances (for example, where a participant's failure t o comply with the insurance provisions set out in the alliance agreement causes loss or damage). This approach holds some dangers. Primarily, if risks are not clearly allocated between participants there is a chance that an insurer will, at least initially, deny liability. This may lead to prolonged litigation with insurers, involving long and costly analyses of the events giving rise to the claim to determine the participant at fau lt. For this reason, it is imperative that participant seek insurance advice when setting up an alliance relationship.
The Commercial Models PPPs and alliances have very different commercial models reflecting different philosophies. The PPP com mercial model provides that if the services are provided (i.e. the delivery of water), payment is made at an agreed rate. The alliance model uses incentives to encourage collaborative behaviour by sharing of cost risks. PPP commercial model The private sector contractor recovers its costs and profit through a long term tariff for the provision of services (such as water provision) during the operating phase of the project. Therefore, the government party transfers all of the risk of construction to the private sect or party and is not obliged to make any payments until the infrastructure is operating in accordance with the contract. The tariff is usually constructed in two parts; one related to the private sector party's fixed costs of the project and the other based on the variable costs of the project, and provides a clearly defined payment flow to the private sector party. The PPP commercial model uses noncost key performance indicators to provide a financial incentive to the private sector party to meet the government party's objects in respect of specific aspects of the delivery of the project. Th e
refereed paper
PPP performance model is based on measuring key outputs agreed up-front, none of which t end to be related t o budget performance. They do not usually change during the concession period. Alliance commercial model As with the alliance principles agreed by the participants, the commercial model developed for alliance projects will differ from alliance to alliance. This is essential t o ensure that the commercial model contains those elements that will drive the required behaviours to ensure that the agreed project objectives are met. For example, significant public concern about the quality of the water being produced by the project asset might require that a key performance indicator measuring customer satisfaction be included in the commercial model for an alliance. Common elements Commercial models developed for alliance projects usually comprise four common elements. • Direct cost reimbursement - The costs actually and necessarily inc urred by the non-owner participants performing their obligations for delivery of the project are reimbursed by the owner participant, regardless of the amount, but without mark-up of any kind. • Corporate overhead and profit - In addition to direct cost reimbursement, the owner participant pays the non owner participants an agreed rate or amount of corporate overhead and profit. • Alliance budget - An alliance budget is agreed between the participants, which covers the total project delivery costs. The performance against the alliance budget is measured and forms part of the risk reward model for the project. Both the non-owner participants' and the owner participant's costs are included in the measurement of performance against the alliance budget. This is to ensure that if the non-owner participants act in a way that increases the owner participant's costs, that increase in costs is accounted for. If the project includes an operation phase, the budget may be developed annually. • Risk reward model - In addition to sharing project risks, the participants share project rewards. The project risk reward model distributes cost overruns and cost savings measured against the agreed alliance budget between the participants in agreed proportions. Therefore, if the budget is exceeded, the non-owner participants bear some of the
technical features
project delivery
~ refereed paper
loss, whic h erodes the non-owner participants ' recovery of corporate overhead and profit on the project. Similarly, if exceptional performance means that the project is delivered under budget, the non-owner participants share in some of the savings, which improves its profit on the project.
Key performance indicators The risk reward model may also be applied to adjust the non-owner participants' corporate overhead and profit for performance against key noncost elements, which translates a noncost factor into a cost consequence for the non -owner participants . The alliance leadership team may vary key performance indicators to reflect issues which arise during the life of a project. For example, if the quality of the water produced by the project asset is poor and incurs public health issues, the liability of the owner participant and the reputational damage can be immeasurable. Therefore, significant key performance indicators around water quality are justified. The non-owner participants have an incentive to ensure water quality meets the owner participant's required standard, or they lose some or all of their agreed corporate overhead and profit. The detriment of poor water quality is translated into a monetary detriment to the non-owner participants. Other key performance indicators which may be incorporated into the commercial model include completion of construction of the project asset on schedule and compliance with environmental standards. As in t he case of water quality, inclusion of these project objectives as key performance indicators in the commercial model will provide a financial incentive to the nonowner participants to perform in respect of these aspect s of the delivery of the project. The elements of the commercial model change the risk allocation f rom t hat seen in a conventional contractual model. The non-owner participants no longer bear the risk of a lump sum contract, including li ability for liquidated damages, and are guaranteed, as a minimum, to recover their costs. However, they bear joint responsibility with the owner participant for managing the overal l project costs within an agreed budget or could end up working for no profit. A significant benefit of the commercial model is the provision of greater clarity and transparency in t he tenderi ng
process and a more accurate estimation of project costs. The non-owner participants are not required to provide for unexpected circumstances in their tender price, as they will always be reimbursed their direct costs. Further, the profit and overhead payable to the nonowner participants is clearly stated in the tender and the alliance agreement. This is particularly important for an owner participant responsible to public stakeholders.
Early contractor involvement This paper has described alliance or relat ionship contracting as a contract veh icle which allows parties to work cooperatively t o manage a contract and share in the risks and rewards associat ed with a project. Early contractor involvement is a contracting procurement model wh ich is considered to be the optimum procurement approach for the alliance project delivery model. Early contractor involvement involves t he early engagement by the principal of the contractor before the scope is fu lly developed. The contractor's design and value engineering expertise is applied in t he development and delivery of the
project. Early contractor involvement provides for an enhanced interface between the principal and contractor, t he most efficient use of each of t heir resources and better forward planning of resource requirements for the project. This procurement strategy allows for greater innovation in the project and delivers better value and improved performance for the principal. As noted above, under an al liance contract, the parties form an integrat ed project team to deliver the project. As a consequence of this integration, knowledge transfer occu rs amongst the parties. This transfer of knowledge is beneficial as it enables the project team to obtain a greater understanding of the principal's requirements for the project. Utilising the early contractor involvement procurement model and involving t he contractor as early as possible in project development facilitates the t ransfer of knowledge amongst the parties. The contractor gains a between understanding of t he principal 's requirements for the project. This procurement approach facilitates greater innovation in the project by involving t he
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project delivery contractor and the contractor's design and engineering expertise at an early stage of the project when changes to design are easier to manager and savings can be achieved up front. The benefits of utilising the early contractor involvement procurement model include: • creating an enhanced interface between the principal and contractor including developing a cooperative working relationship between the parties at an early stage of the project and allowing the contractor a better understanding of the principal 's requirements for the project; • providing for the most efficient use of the resourc es of the principal and contractor and better forward planning of resource requirements for the project; • providing for greater innovation in the project by giving the contractor greater responsibility for design development at an early stage of the project when changes to design are easier to manage and savings can be achieved upfront; and • delivering better val ue for the principal and improved performance for the project by utilising a model which req uires contractors to submit competitive tenders on the basis of accurate pricing . Once the design and scope are complete, the project may proceed as an alliance or a more conventional contracting model.
When to use the Project Delivery Models Alliance project delivery model
All iancing does not suit all commercial situations nor all government parti es. For an owner participant, there is much greater participation and management requ ired than under a conventional contracting model or PPP project delivery model. Similarly, a non-owner participant must relinquish autonomy for delivering the project and embrace greater owner participant involvement. An alliance is best suited t o projects wh ich require flexibility and innovation to overcome unusual project requirements such as changing political requirements under feedstock quality paramet ers or time pressures. A model which shares risk and ensures cost neutrality means that the non-owner participants do not have to pri ce these risks and, for the owner participant, it reduces variation
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G;J claims. Further, the owner participant has greater hands-on involvement and so has the ability to identify problems early and manage thei r resolution collaboratively with the non-owner participants. A successful alliance wi ll deliver significant benefits for the owner participant (through time, cost savings, an active management role and knowledge transfer), which wi ll be reflected through the risk reward model as greater monet ary reward to the nonowner participants. A benefit to one is manifested as a benefit to al l. PPP project delivery model
As in the case of the alliance project delivery model, the PPP project delivery model will not be suitable for all water projects. PPPs are generally best suited to water projects where the government party is unable to, or does not wish t o, finance public infrastructure investment up-front, but rather transfer the risk of construction of the infrastructure to the private sector and not make any payment in respect of the infrastructure until the infrastructure is built and operating satisfactorily. This is often a major consideration when the government party simply has limited resources given the capital costs involved. PPPs are also best suited to water projects where the government party wishes to transfer some or most of its risks of delivery of the water project to the private sector and the private sector has a proven track record with its freedom to use the best available technology and run its best business model with minimal interference and when the government party has little or no experience in ru nning such infrastructure. The government party may also choose to use the PPP project delivery model to deliver a water project where it has formed the view, following value for money analysis, that delivery of th e water project solely by the private sector will lead to lower construction and operation costs and more efficient maintenance of the project asset than comparable public sector delivery of the asset. Th is may happen where the risks of t he project are able to be c learly defined and can be easily documented and therefore transferred to and priced by the private sector party.
Conclusion Th e decision as to which project delivery model to use for a wat er
refe reed p a p e r
project must recognise the pressure points in that project, wh ether they be timel ine, budgetary or uncertain water sources (or a combination of the three). These pressures points in a water project are often inadequately dealt with by the conventional contracting model. This paper has examined the ways in which two different project delivery models, alliances and PPPs, tackle achievement of the successful delivery of water projects and management of the pressure points in those projects. A unifying feature of both project delivery models is the need to create a successful relationship between the principal and the contractor. However, as noted in the paper, the models approach achieving that relationship in very different ways with markedly different approaches to risk allocation and the commercial model for the project. Prior to deciding wh ich project delivery model to use for a water project , whether the conventional, alliance or PPP project delivery model, consideration should be given t o the strengths and weaknesses of each project delivery model in respect of risk allocation and the com mercial model to determine which best manages the pressure points in the project. The success of the relationship will depend on the individual circumstances of the project and how they are best managed through the selection of an appropriate contract delivery model.
The Authors
All authors work in the Perth office of Freeh ills in the Banking and Projects Group. Melanie Cave is a Partner (emai l Melanie.Cave@Freehills.com) and has advised on and prepared a range of commercial contracts in the water, waste, health and infrastructure industries, both PPPs and Alliances. Jason Ricketts is the Head of Office and has worked extensively on major infrastructure projects fo r private and public sectors in Australia and offshore. He sits on a number of water industry committees. Leo Gallop is a Senior Associate with experience in a variety of proc urement structures for similar major infrastructure projects.
technical features
water qual ity
A NEW SOURCE OF NDMA IN POTABLE WATER SUPPLIES J Morran, M Whittle, J Leach, M Harris Abstract The occurrence of the disinfection byproduct N-nitrosodimethylamine (NOMA) in potable water is generally attributed on ly t o chloraminated supplies. However, during commissioning of a new pipeline by SA Water, elevated NOMA concentrations were detected and an extended flushing period was required to achieve acceptable concentrations before the water was declared potable. Extensive evaluation of the possible sources of the NOMA, including all pipe materials, was undertaken. Results indicat ed that the rubber sealing rings used to connect the pipes, irrespective of whether in contact with disinfectant or not, were the source of the NOMA. The results of this study by the Australian Water Quality Centre (AWQC) have resulted in SA Water recommending that water authorities installing new pipelines with rubber components employ the following practices: • Minimise stagnant water in the pipeline during commissioni ng phase • Conduct NOMA monitoring throughout the pipeline, particularly in areas of low flows, during the commissioni ng phase and on a routine basis
Department of Public Health. There is no current Australian Drinking Water Guideline (ADWG) for NOMA, although this is presently under review. The literature indicates the presence of NOMA in the air duri ng tyre production (Valentine et al, 2006). Similarly the wastewaters from such plants have been identified as likely sources of NOMA and NOMA precursors (Preussman and Stewart, 1984). A Canadian study also reported a detection of 2,000ug/ L NOMA in a tyre company wastewater (Ash, 1995). Exposure to NOMA in the rubber industry has been wel l documented (OSHA, 1989). Germany introduced an exposure limit for t otal nitrosamines in 1988 and since then significant
reductions in exposure have been recorded, primarily in the rubber curing and post-treating departments (de Voocht et al, 2007). Reports of nitrosamines in rubber products have so far concentrated on rubber nipples and pacifiers. In one study (Ostedahl, 2009) all rubber nipple and pacifier samples were found to contain a range of nitrosamines including NOMA with a maximum level of 19. 7ug (total volatile nitrosamines)/kg rubber. A study of rubber nipples from one manufacturer (Havery, 2009) detected individual nitrosamine levels ranging from 22 to 281 ug/L. On repeated sterilisations the nitrosamine levels in the milk steadily decreased but were still detectable after seven sterilisations.
Specify and use Link-Seal® seals to seal pipe penetration
• Implement a flushing program to reduce NOMA concentrations, including regular flushing of pipelines in areas of low flows.
Introduction N-nitrosodimethylamine (NOMA) is now recognised as a by-product of disinf ection of wast ewater and drinking water. Normally NOMA occurrence in drinking water is a result of chloramination. NOMA has been classed as a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 1978), and as a result the World Health Organisation (WHO) has produced a draft guideline level of 1OOng/L for drinking water supplies. More stringent notification levels of 1Ong/L have been set by the California
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water quality SA Water recently commissioned a new pipeline, a branch main off one of its exist ing ch loraminated water supply systems. As part of the new p ipeline commissioning, the main was appropriately disinfected and a series of water quality parameters was monitored prior to the syst em being declared potable. These included a range of physical, chemical and microbiological parameters, including NOMA. Initial results showed poor disinfection residuals and elevated NOMA concentrations. The system was continuously fl ushed, changing the volume of water in the pipeline until the NOMA concentrations had decreased to acceptable levels. Since the pipeline commissioning, regular water quality monitoring of the water supply system has indicated persistent levels of NOMA in the system. The Department of Health (SA) has been provided with reg ular updates and monitoring results and have advised that NOMA concentrations have not represented a sign ificant risk to public health.
Table 1 Rubber ring OD (mm)
Control
205 280 350 380 500
Other systems w hich have undergone recent mains extensions using similar pipeline materials were also tested for NOMA concentrations. No elevated NOMA concentrations have been det ected at this stage.
Results of the Investigation A laboratory-based investigation by the AWQC was conducted to find the cause of the high NOMA concentrations. The pipeline commissio ning process was simu lated in the laboratory with samples of all pipel ine materials and the NOMA generated after 24 hours measured. Materials tested were: • Pipe joining lubricant • PVC pipe sections and end pieces of DN1 50, 200, 250, 300 and 375 • Rubber sealing rings of approximate outer diameter (OD) 205, 280, 350, 380 and 500mm.
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Chloraminated test water
<3 16 39 319
26 41
50 99 43 46
44
53
Table 2 NDMA (ng/L) Day 10 Day 13
Day 1
Valve insert A Valve insert B Rubber ring (OD 200mm) Rubber ring (OD150mm) Rubber ring (OD100mm) Rubber ring (OD330mm) Rubber ring (OD 270mm)
34 <3 300 14 239 16 510
9 <3 200 3 150 6 590
Day 14
29 8 680 10 300 18 680
8 6 280 5 130 7 490
Table 3 Days
The cause of t he high concentrations of NOMA was attributed to either leaching of NOMA from t he pipeline materials or the reaction of the d isinfectants with NOMA precursors from the same pipeli ne materials. The high NOMA concentrations decreased with time, indicating water flow was reducing the leached NOMA and/or precursor levels; however the concentrations remained wel l above those measured in the existing water supply system.
NDMA (ng/L) milli-0
1 5 8
19 stagnation 27
NDMA (ng/L) Rubber ring A
Rubber ring B
79 34 44 247 26
82 27 22 207 28
Test water was obtained from an existing chloraminated supply and milliQ water was employed in the control experiments. Pipe materials were immersed in the test waters, with no agitation, for 24 hours. The water was co llected and analysed for NOMA. In general the test materials were immersed in 5L of test waters, and no attempt was made to maintain the same test material surface area to water ratio for any of the tests. No NOMA was detected in the PVC pipe and lubricant water samples wh ile NOMA was detected in both the control and chloram inated test waters from t he rubber ring samples. The five types of rubber rings supplied were then individually tested, first with immersion for 24 hours in milli-Q water then 24 hours in the chloraminated test water. The results in Table 1 indicate NOMA is released from the rubber rings w hen immersed in milli-Q water. When t he background NOMA concentration of the test water is taken into consideration , it can be seen there is no further NOMA generation by exposure to disinfectant.
A range of rubber rings and rubber inserts from gate valves were obtained from various manufacturers. These were subjected to consecutive 24 hour immersions in milli-Q. Results in Table 2 indicate all ru bber containing components released NOMA to varying degrees. No refreshing of water between Day 10 and 13 resu lted in a bu ild up of NOMA, which then decreased when the water was refreshed on Day 14. Two 100mm diameter rubber rings were subjected to extended testing including a 19 day stagnation period (Table 3), which resulted in high NOMA concentrations that decreased on refreshing the water.
Conclusions and Recommendations Comparison of NOMA concentrat ions in the newly commissioned pipeline and the existing pipeline indicated that the elevated concentrations in t he newer pipeli ne arose from the materials employed in the pipeline construction
technical features
water quality and/or commission ing. Laboratory testing of the materials indicate the following:
installing new pipelines with rubber components employ the following practices:
• There was no leaching or generation of NOMA from the PVC pipe or pipe lubricant when immersed in milli-Q, chlorinated or chlorami nated water
• Minimise stag nant water in the pipel ine during commissioni ng phase
• NOMA was detected in milli-Q water after contact with all samples of rubber rings tested
• Cond uct NOMA monitoring throughout the pipeline, particularly in areas of low flows, during the commissioning phase and on a routine basis
• The presence of chlorine or ch loramine did not lead to increased NOMA concentrations from the rubber rings t ested in this st udy
• Implement a flushing program to reduce NOMA levels, including reg ular f lushing of pipelines in areas of low flows.
• The NOMA concentrations leached from the rubber rings varied between <3 to 680 ng/L in a 5L test water
The Authors
• The concentrat ions generally decreased with successive immersions,however, NOMA concentrations increased during stagnation • There was no attempt made to maintain the same rubber ring surface area to water ratio, thus the actual amount of NOMA released for a given rubber ring surface area is not recorded. N-nitrosamines and N-nitrosamine prec u rsor generation during rubber manufacture is well documented . It now appears t his can lead to NOMA in drinking water supplies, as a result of contact with rubber products such as rubber rings and rubber lined valves . The potential for this to occur is sup ported by t he example of Nnitrosamines and their precursors leaching out of rubber nipples into milk. The work reported here indicates t here was a wide range of NOMA concentrations released from the rubber rings tested, and so the impact on new pipelines w ill be dependent on th e t ype and source of t he rubber components. It shou ld also be noted there are a number of unknown factors that could impact on the NOMA concentrations generated, including the extent of rubber c uring, water temperature and flow rate. The work reported here indicates NOMA cou ld be present in any new pipe lin e contai ning rubber components, irrespective of whether in contact with disinfectant or not. SA Water is conducting further st udies to gain a better understanding of t he problem, but in the short term it is recommended that water authorities
All authors are employees of SA Water Corporation. Jim Morran is Senior Research Scientist at the Australian Water Quality Centre. Margaret Whittle is t he Dist ri bution Water Quality Advisor for SA Water. Email: Jim.Morran@sawat er.com.au.
References Ash, D., 1995, The Uniroyal Groundwater Story - 5 Years Later. Hazardous Material Management, 7 (30), p.2123. Havery et al 2009, Estimation of volatile N-nitrosamines in rubber nipples for babies' bottles. Food and Cosmetics Toxicology, 20 (6), p.939-944, Jan 1982. !ARC, 1978. Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks of Chemicals to Humans. Vol. 17. Some N-nitroso Compounds. Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer, pp.125-175. OSHA 1989 - October 1989 issue of "Rubber and Plastics News" the American Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Osterdahl et al, B.-G 2009, N-nitrosamines and nitrosatable compounds in rubber nipples and pacifiers. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 21 (6), p. 755-757, Dec 1983 Preussman, R. and Stewart, B.W. 1984. N-Nitroso Carcinogens in Chemical Carcinogens. Monograph 182, 2nd ed., vol. 2. Edited by Charles E. Searle. Washington D.C.: American Chemical Society. Valentine et al, 2006. Factors Affecting the Formation of NOMA in Water and Occurrence [AWWARF Project #2678].
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UV DISINFECTION TECHNOLOGY WINS CERTIFICATION Full certification for drinking water, in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) standards, has been granted to Berson closed vessel UV water disinfection technology, w hich is represented in Australia by CST Wastewater Solutions (formerly Contra Shear Technology). Michael Bambridge Managing, Director of CST Wastewater Solutions commented "This validation is important as it confirms our position at the forefront of UV disinfection technology for drinking water and wastewater applicat ions. Adopters of the Berson closed vessel UV technology in Australia now have no need to carry out their own independent validation testing of the disinfection system for water re-use and pot able water systems, as they have test results that they can depend on."
Water Business aims to keep readers alert to business news and new product releases within the water sector. Media releases should be emailed to Brian Rault at brian.rault@halledit.com.au or Tel (03) 8534 5014.
AWA wishes to advise readers that Water Business information is supplied by third parties and as such , AWA is not responsible for the accuracy, or otherwise, of the information submitted.
Berson Managing Director Andrew Clark said: "From the time we manufactured some of the very first UV drinking water disinfection units over 20 years ago, we have been actively involved in providing communities with safe, reliable purification. This latest validation continues our long trad ition of investing in the industry. We are proud that the Berson state-of-the-art UV disinfection systems meet the very latest and most stringent drinking water standards." The testing, conducted by Carollo Engineers at its Portland, Oregon validation facil ity, met the standards of the USEPA's UV Disinfection Guidance Manual (UVDGM). Th is certifies the use of the systems for the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule released by the USEPA in November 2006.
UV closed vessel disinfection is increasingly being used as an augmentation or substitute for traditional chlorine disinfection, especially as concerns grow over the possible carcinogenic effects of chlorine. Wh ile traditional methods are still widely employed for drinking water purification in Australia, UV disinfection is gaining in popularity.
Closed vessel UV disinfection systems are easy to install within existi ng pipework, so there is minimal disruption to plant operation. Day-today operation is simple and maintenance is minor. Th e only regular requirement is changing the UV lamps and wi per rings once a year, a straightforward operation that can be carried out by on-site personnel.
Berson is exclusively represented in Australia by CST Wastewater Solutions (www.cstechnology.com.au). CST is a member of the Global Water and Energy Alliance, a group of select global companies committed to providing solutions in water and wast ewater treatment for the recovery of green energy and water. For further information, 02 9417 3611 Fax: 02 9417 0097, email: info@cstechnology.com.au, web: www.cstwastewater.com
NEW US EPA LEAD STANDARD In October 2008, the US EPA tightened its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for lead (Pb) from 1.5 µg/m3 to 0.15 µg/m 3 , measured as total suspended particulates (TSP). This change has meant a 10-fold decrease in acceptable lead levels and thus, the accuracy of monitoring equipment is even more important. Ecotech Pty Ltd meets this stringent new monitoring requirement w ith its US EPA approved HiVol 3000 (R FPS-0706162) and also with its latest product, the MegaVol 3000. In order to accurately monitor these new low levels of lead, the HiVol 3000 air sampler is fitted with accurate volumetric flow control including inputs from local cond itions, i.e. local air temperatu re and pressure. The exhaust from the HiVol 3000 is also directed away from the sampling point by at least 4m to ensure no recirculation of sample air. The MegaVol 3000 sampler, designed for the European air monitoring community, uses a flow rate of 150 m3/hr and has been designed to obtain low concentration (trace) detection limits for a number of target compounds and elements including: • Lead and all types of heavy metals • Rad ioactive particles • Organochlorine pesticides • Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) • Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)
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1 02 AUGUST 2009
w ater
1ne s
new products & services LIGHT WORK OF WATER DISINFECTION For the past two decades, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection has gained popularity in the global water treat ment market as an effective and economical method of treating bacteria and viruses in water. Although this method has been around for more than a century, recent developments in UV technology have prompted widespread appeal, including in the municipal water and aquatics markets. The worldwide market for UV technologies is currently estimated at $645 million, with above average product growth rates. This includes municipal wastewater treatment, municipal drinking water treatment, industrial pre-treatment , commercial use and consumer or residential use.
"Today's UV systems use low-pressure or medium-pressure lamps that last much longer and are much more stable in fluctuating water temperatures. The longer lamp life significantly reduces operating and maintenance costs, as they can last up to 15,000 hours."
methods of reclaiming and disinfecting water for reuse, and will undoubtedly be t he way of the future for municipal water and the aquatics market. For more information, please contact Siemens in Australia on 131 773 and in New Zealand on +64 9 580 5500 or visit www.siemens.com.au
PARTNERSHIP DELIVERS FOR TALLOWA DAM
While UV disinfection is typically used to deactivate waterborne pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi, it can also be used to remove chemicals from water. As such, UV technologies can play an important role in the aquatics industry in the removal of chloramines, a by-product of chlorine disinfection.
Working in partnership with Leighton Contractors, SMEC and the Department of Commerce, AWMA manufactured a custom-designed downward opening vertical slide gat e measuring 7.8 metres high by 2.34 metres wide to regulate environmental flows for the Tallowa Dam as part of Shoalhaven Water Supply Scheme for Sydney Catchment Authority.
"Chloramin es in swimming pools create the chlorine smell that bathers experience, and are known to cause irritations to the skin, eyes and respiratory system," Mr Handakas said. "Conventionally, swimming facilities dilute clean water with the pool water to lower the concentration of chloramines in the pool - this is commonly termed as backwashing."
Compared to chemical disinfectants, UV disinfection can treat a wider range of bacteria and viruses, and importantly, can effectively treat Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Cryptosporidium is prevalent in the surface water of rivers and reservoirs worldwide. Cryptosporidium outbreaks have also been documented as occurring in swimming pools. Whilst there are alternative technologies to remove Cryptosporidium from water, UV disinfection is the least costly and least operationally-intensive solution. Mr Tony Handakas, Siemens Executive Marketing Manager of Water Technologies, said " Developments in UV technology in recent years have created a revived demand for this method of disinfection. Earlier systems used lowpressure, low output mercury-gas discharge lamps, which were expensive and difficult to install due to the large footprint and head loss."
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"The Kilmore Leisure Centre (KLC) in north-east Victoria was using the backwashing method to maintain chloramines at acceptable levels. However, when impending water restrictions as a result of the drought came into play, KLC turned to Siemens, and we implemented our Barrier M275 UV disinfection system to remove the chloramines. " In just six months, with the Siemens Barrier M275 UV disinfection system, KLC was able to reduce the level of pool chloramines by around 80 per cent. KLC has since consistently maintained chloramines to 0.2 milligrams per litre, which is much lower than the standards set in the state's guidelines for public pools. Above all, reduced backwashing has also saved the faci lity approximately one megalitre of water per annum. With water scarcity unquestionably one of Australia's most pressing issues, water reuse is becoming more widely acceptable, particularly in the industrial and commercial sectors. Siemens UV technology and Memcor membrane filtration are proving to be effective
The intricate nature of this project req uired a quad leaf gate and a hydraulically operated overshot gate to be included. The unique design of the quad leaf gate req uired four interlinked leaves which allow fish to swim through to a trapping chamber where they are collected in a hopper and transported upstream via a mechanical fish lift. The overshot gate manages the path for environmental flows and the downstream fish passage while at the same time regulating to achieve the desired flow rate of up to 520MUday. Site visits from the design stage right through to commissioning cemented AWMA's partnership philosophy towards the success of the Tallowa project. Early and constant engagement with all stakeholders was critical to the delivery of an economical and best practice solution.
new products & services The economical benefits resulting from these innovative infrastructure works will see a significant increase in the fish, flora and fauna and will be a "fabulous benefit for the Shoalhaven" according to Minister for Tourism and member for Kiama, Matt Brown. "These works are not only essential to secure the futu re of our water supply and the ongoing health of the river system, but will also make the district more attractive for recreation and tou rism. " On completion, Tallowa Dam will be the first dam in NSW to have both a fish passage and variable environmental flows. AWMA's involvement in a project of this magnitude demonstrates its commitment to providing partnership based solutions. For more information on the Ta/Iowa Dam project please visit www.awma.au.com or contact Michael Arthur, AWMA's Commercial Works Manager on 1800 664 852 or michael.arthur@awma.au.com.
KAITOKE TRUNK MAIN CAPACITY AND WATER AGE ANALYSIS The Greater Well ington Regional Council in New Zealand has been using lnfoWorks WS to help define strategic short and long-term water supply options, and to determine water age in the network for vital quality studies. Both supply and demand side options are being considered to ensure security of supply in light of faster t han predicted population growth. Strategic planning using lnfoWorks WS has been a key element in examining water supply enhancement options. The council has also used the solution to determine water age in the network - an important criterion when assessing water quality and r esidual disinfection. GWRC undertook water age modelling work in response to an enquiry from a water quality consultant regarding water age at three of the council's bulk water monitoring points
The consultancy had requested information on water age for a FACe (free available chlorine equivalent) investigation. A high water pH makes chlorine less effective as a disinfectant. The project sought to confirm the basis for the relatively low rise in pH observed throughout the trunk main system. The modelling approach was straightforward. The query related to water age for an average demand day, and th is was set for modelling purposes at 1S0MLD. The network uses unit demands for each of its 50-plus demand areas, and applies demand scaling to achieve the required total demand. The simulation established water age over a ten -day period. The model showed over the course of the first day water age progressively increased, after which a more stable and logical pattern emerged. The main conclusion was that the system on average had a relatively low water age. This meant that water was not in contact with the pipe concret e lining for long periods, avoiding increases in pH. This observation from the modelling was used to support test observations that indicat ed a pH increase of 0.35 at most. The composition of the water could enable it to reach a pH of 9.0 or higher (which would have made FACe compliance extremely difficult), so being able to demonstrate low water age proved extremely useful.
whether the necessary improvements could be achieved through additional boost pumping. The proposal also considered three additional booster pump stations and an upgrade to an existing pump station to provide sufficient in-li ne boosting. The modellers modified pump station duties to work withi n the available pressure envelope, which is the maxi mum allowable working pressure in the network. Pressure limitations on individual valves and branch mains were also included.
Modelling results As a result of the modelling it was found that one of the proposed pump stations would not be required, bringing savings of around NZ$6 million ($3.06 million). The modelling showed the possibility of compensating for loss of the station by slightly increasing the pump duties at two other sites. This could be achieved without exceeding the available pressure envelope. The modelling also indicat ed that the governing factor for the pump station upgrade wou ld be the interim and not the final solution. Examining the pump station duty data, it cou ld be seen that the Upper Hutt Aq uifer solution by itself would require a larger pump station than the ultimate scenario. This article is based on a presentation to the Wallingford Software User Conference in New Zealand by Geoff Williams of Greater Wellington Regional Council. www.wallingfordsoftware.com
BORES SOLVE THE PROBLEM
Another case study examined the necessary network upgrades for three different storage dam options. The project considered whether the pipes themselves would req uire renewal, or
Barwon Water is building the Anglesea Barefield to supply water to homes and businesses in the greater Geelong region. The borefield is expected to provide approximately enough wat er for 35,000 homes per day with an average sust ainable extraction regime of 20MUday. Groundwater is an important source of water and is used around the world to supply towns and cities.
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new products & services Barwon Water will build seven to ten bores around Anglesea within two borefield zones. The northern borefield zone is in Forest Road near Barwon Water's Anglesea basin. The second borefield zone is adjacent to the southern boundary of the Alcoa coal mine. Promains offered Barwon Water practical experience and industry knowledge through expert trained staff, and the ability to understand the intricacies of a multi-facet project. Extensive product and application knowledge is a key strength to the Promains offering. The ground water's high temperature of 40°C,low pH and other technical specifications requ ired a customised product offering. The product offering was Superlit Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) pipe, Ductile Iron Fusion Bonded Epoxy (DI FBE) coated and Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) fittings, VonRoll Hydro Ductile Iron Polyurethane externally and internally coated pipe and fittings (ECOPUR), specialised fabrication services for both GR P and DI pipe and fitting products such as flange pipes and offtakes. The civil contract ors undertaking the construction and the consulting engineers who designed the project were invited to att end numerous training sessions developed and delivered by Promains on product specifications and capabilities, handling and installation techniques on behalf of Barwon Water. Contact: sales@promains.com.au, www.promains.com. au
LOCKING IN GREATER EFFICIENCY The Nepean Highway is one of Melbourne's major arterial roads and a recent routine CCTV inspection conducted for South East Water by 'us' Utility Services on some sewer mains in the suburb of Cheltenham exposed a substantial hole in a concrete sewer main running under the Nepean Hwy.
The pipe in question was a 375mm VC pipe ru nning at a depth of 6.5 metres under 7 lanes of heavy traffic, 3 median
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strips and 2 service lanes. As is often the case when 'Murphy is on the job', the discovered hole was 30 metres into the pipe from the manhole on the southbound side of the road. This placed it under the outside lane curb and channel of the outbound lanes of the highway (i.e. pretty much right in the middle).
Given the sensitivity of traffic-related issues and t he need t o repair the hole quickly, 'us' - Utility Services chose to use a new technology called Quick Lock to repair the fault at a conservative cost saving of over $20,000 to South East Water. Quick Lock is a pipe relining technology which enables trench less pipeline repai r using st ainless steel pipe lengths that expand under air pressure with a one- way, locking ratchet system. The result is an almost seamless pipe repai r for holes, cracks, fissures and leaks.
Using remote controlled closed circuit television technology to identify the exact location of a hole or leak, the operator can then guide the stainless steel sleeve into place on a carrier unit pushed along by the CCTV trolley. From the comfort of an airconditioned CCTV van, the operator then uses air pressure t o inflate t he carrier unit inside the sleeve. Under pressure the sleeve expands via a oneway ratchet system until it locks to form a structural and seamless seal inside the existing pipe.
Quick Lock has been used to great effect within South East Water's network
for the following (i llustrated by the image below): • Blocking Root Intrusions • Stopping Leaking Joins and Couplings • Locking Blind Inflow Closures • Sealing Water/Sewer Leaks • Repairing Cracks and Fissures
In comparison, Quick Lock only required an 'us' - Utility Services CCTV crew of th ree operators, less than three hours and the cost of the Quick Lock materials. A conservative estimate of the savings to South East Water in dollar terms would be in excess of $20,000 just for this repair. The savings in terms of community frustration through road closures and inconvenience on a major arterial. .. that is without doubt 'priceless'!
' us' - Utility Services estimates that this technology could be used effectively in a large number of pipeline repairs for 150mm to 700mm pipes. For South East Water's network alone, Quick Lock has the potential to provide substantial cost and resource savings, particularly against traditional methods of digging and replacing sections of pipe. Lastly, what may take three or four days of work by a pipeline repair crew, can now be identified and repaired within a couple of hours, with very minimal OH&S risk, regardless of the depth of the pipe. For further information, contact 'us' Utility Services which holds exclusive rights for Quick Lock in Australia and New Zealand, issued by Uhrig in Germany. Contact Steve Webb at 'us' Utility Services on 03 8788 4200 email: steve.webb@usus.com.au or visit www.usus.com.au.
sewerage systems STRIKING THE RIGHT BALANCE What is the most cost effective way to save water? Never before has t his question been more relevant, especially before comm itting to a grey or black water recycling or sewer mining plant. The global financial crisis has put additional pressure on justifying any capital expenditure - if not trying to scrap it altogether. Four key drivers deter mine how to deliver a sustainable integrated water cycle management solution. One is the availability of water. The second is a lack of infrastructu re to either deal with t he wastewater of a new development, or to supply sufficient water. The third is where a particular sustainability rating, such as a Green Star accreditat ion is to be achieved. The final driver can be of a t ruly commercial nature. With recent changes in legislat ion it is now more readily possible to offset headworks con nection charges. If a new development can provide (part of) its own
wastewater and water supply infrastructure then a significant red uction in developer charges can be negotiated. Yet, rarely is there a t rue rational analysis of all the costs and benefits of an integrated water conservation solution. Instead of considering t he issue holistically, t he approach is often driven by Green Star requirements, marketing issues or subjective ambitions of wanting to provide a 'sust ainable' water supply without fu lly und erstanding what sustainable means. Is it truly providing recycled water at any cost? Has the cost and energy input been f ully considered? The treat ment standards requi red should also be reviewed in this context. Rather t han selecting the fanciest, most technologically advanced treatment opt ions, just because we can, we should go back to basics, take advantage of the legislation (incl uding the Nat ional Recycled Water Guidelines) and ask ourselves: What is t he minimum t reatment needed to t reat t hat particular source water to appropriately manage t he scheme risks?
This will demand robust discussions with the approving authorities, but it is a discussion we must have. Otherwise, we will soon find t hat whilst trying to create a more sustainable water solution, we end up expending more energy than what other alternatives consume including large central recycled wat er pipeline and desalination schemes. Without this scrutiny it will lead to the sub-optimal allocat ion of scarce funds. We will install water tan ks that are too large, recycl ing schemes that cost far more than what they need to, that save far less and use more energy t han required, had they been properly integrated into an overall water conservation strategy. Efficiency gains, supported by smart metering, saving water in the first place that t hen doesn't even have to be treated, is sti ll the best starting point. Extra effort spent up front, and selecting a company to work with that understands these issues, will lead to a truly sustainable outcome that will also have t he best chance to attract funding
Water Advertising To reach the decisionm a k e rs in the water field,
you
should
consider advertising in Water Journal, the official journal of Australian
Water
Association. For information on advertising rates, please contact Brian Rault at Hallmark Editions, Tel (03) 8534 5000 or email brian.rault@halledit.com .au NO - DIG PIPE REP LACEMENT
water AUGUST 2009 107
sewerage systems length and diameter. The pipe material for the project had been specified as being SDR 26 sewer pipe and availability was never a problem. Contact: sales. haestad@bentley.com, www.bentley.com/A WA
RENEWING THE WATER SYSTEM IN LOGAN Logan City Council's Pressure and Leakage Management Program is one of a range of regional water saving projects introduced by the SEQ Drought Management Strategy in response to the current drought. The $26 million program is currently Logan City Council's largest water supply capital works project. The project started in April 2006 with the majority of construction sched uled to take place in 2008 and 2009. The project will be fully implemented by June 2010. Reg Bailey, Project Manager for Logan City Council, says that the benefits of the project are twofold: it saves water by reducing leakage and, secondly, it extends t he asset lifespan by lowering pipe pressures with the added benefit of reducing the frequency of supply interruptions due to bursts in the network. Implementing t he project requires the large water supply zones to be divided into smaller areas with accurate metering and pressure management technology. A small portion of the pipe network in the new district metered areas needs to be augmented to maintain peak demands and fire flows.
In April 2009, Pipe and Civil commenced works on Logan's Reticulat ion Augmentation project under the supervision of Wide Bay Water. The scope of works include t he upgrade of over 5km of the existing water supply network and involved excavation, footpath removal, boring beneath private driveways and short term water shutdowns all in a shared traffic environment. These works are located within residential and park areas and t herefore impact on the local community and residence. Sharing the construction footprint on a day-to-day basis with the public takes careful planning and execution. This
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Acacia Filtration Systems Pty Ltd Tel: 02 9756 6077 Fax: 02 9756 0173 sales@acaciaproducts.com.au www.acaciaproducts.com.au
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ensures that the disruption to the public is minimal, and that the p roject can st ill be delivered on time to a high standard of quality. "Working in the public eye and keeping the public happy is a challenge," said Martin Shaw, project supervisor from Wide Bay Water. "We have focused a lot of personal attention to each job activity to minimise t he impact. We implemented the use of temporary poly water services to maint ain the residential water supply during the replacement of existing water mains ensuring minimal disruption to customers, " says Clint Paul, supervisor, Pipe and Civil Constructions. "Our team focuses significant effort on ensuring our work sites kept safe and t idy throughout t he construction period. We ensure any shutdowns are kept to a minimum and we reinstate work as quickly as possible to ensure minimal impact to the commu nity," said Miranda Chapman, project engineer with Pipe and Civil. Unlike our large scale water infrastructure projects that Pipe and Civil is known for, these smaller total solution jobs enable the Pipe and Civil team to experience the reward of delivering benefits to the community first hand. It gives us a sense of pride in our work. For more information, tel: (07) 3262 4600 www.pipeandcivil.com.au
sludge management & biosolids RECONDITIONING OF HEAT EXCHANGERS Teralba Industries have ex panded their refurbishment opt ions for Spiraflo Tubular Heat Exchangers. This includes S5.5 & S6, which were installed into many heat transfer systems and pasteurisers in 1970s and 80s. Most Spiraflo Multi-annular Heat Exchangers sold over the last 35 years in Australia can be cost effectively retubed and reconditioned.
Environment w ill design, construct , maintain and operate the biosolids drying facility for a term of 20 years. The biosol ids pellets will be processed using the Keppel Seghers HARD Pelletiser, which relies on indirect, gaspowered heating to dry t he biosolids, reliably red uce a w ide range of pathogens to low levels, and form stable granulated pellets. As New Refurbished Spiraflo HE.
For further information, contact Teralba Industries 02 4626 5000, Email: sales@teralba.com, www.teralba.com
MARKET FOR PELLETISED BIOSOLIDS
Damaged Spiraflo HE.
Reconditioning can included new spiral led tubing, new gasket s sets, high pressure cleaning and hydrostat ic testing to applicable Australian Standards. If a Spiraflo is unrepairable then a replacement Dimpleflo Tubular Heat Exchanger can be supplied with exact d imensions to fit into pipework or plant where the Spiraflo was. Repair and recertification of ex isti ng heat exchangers to new condition is both cost effective and tax effective, as the repairs are f ully tax deductible in most cases.
L. V. Rawlinson & Associates (LVRA) is working with Plenary Environment (Barwon) Pty Ltd and Barwon Water to provide sustainable and diverse end use markets for T1 Grade pelletised biosolids that wi ll be produced from the new Black Rock Biosolids Treatment Facility. -,
The Biosolids Treatment Facility w ill be operated by Plenary Environment (Barwon) Pty Ltd and construction of the faci lity, approximately 18 km south of Geelong, is well advanced and d ue for completion in January 2010. Plenary
The Pelletiser will thermally t reat the incoming dewatered sludge to produce consistent T1 treatment grade biosol ids pellets that have a dry solids content of over 90%. T1 is the highest quality treat ment grade for biosolids under the Victorian EPA classification system and the pellets w ill be su ited to a wide range of beneficial uses including agricultural and non-agricultural uses.
Beneficial use of the pelletised biosolids will be managed by LVRA (a Transpacific Industries Group Company) which has managed the beneficial use of biosol ids for Barwon Water si nce 2004. As a recognised leader in biosolids management in Australia, LVRA provides specialist services for the management of biosol ids, effluent and other organic by-
Beneficial Solutions to Organic Waste Problems Professional services for biosolids and organic waste management. Lan d application of organic wastes to agriculture, forestry and land rehabilitation. Complete range of specia lised biosolids injection and spreading equipment. Biosolids, soil and water monitoring and reporting. Biosolids and effluent management plans and EPA approvals.
~-:;, - "' TRANSPACIFIC INDUSTRIES GROUP LTD
L.V. Rawlinson & Associates an operating company of Transpacif ic Industries Group Ltd 19 Riverleigh Ave Gerroa NSW 2534 ph 02 4234 4444 fax 02 4234 4422 email rquinane@transpac.com.au w ater AUGUST 2009 111
sludge management & biosolids products and has been operating since 1994. Services offered by LVRA include: beneficial use of biosolids, organic byproduct land application, land suitability assessment, management plans and audits, product sampling , grading and application rates, effluent management plans. LVRA also provides spreading and injecting services for biosolids and other organic by-products and consulting and management advice for water authorit ies, local councils , state agencies and food manufacturers. LVRA manages over 275,000 tonnes of biosolids and other organic by-products each year. Major clients include municipal wastewater treatment plants, food processing companies and nationwide waste management companies. The company owns and operates tractor-drawn and self-propelled spreaders for application of non-liquid waste organics. Purpose built sl udge
date, over 81,000 tonnes of air dried biosolids have been beneficially used on over 10 farms.
injection vehicles are used to manage liquid residuals, including biosolids an d food products.
LVRA has carried out many successful beneficial use projects in Victoria and other states including Barwon Water's current land application program. Barwon Water's air dried biosolids are applied to agricultural land by LVRA in the Werribee Plains area as a soil conditioner and fertiliser to grow a range of crops includ ing canola, wheat and barley. This program is conducted under the management controls of the Victorian EPA biosolids guidelines.To
Production of a high quality T1 treatment grade pelletised product is an exciting biosolids industry advance for Australia. The pellet s are easy to handle, store and transport, w ill be available on a year round basis and have little or no odour. This wi ll significant ly expan d the potential end use market s for the biosolids. Ag ricultu ral end uses include vegetables, pasture, cereal crops and non food crops such as turf, woodlots an d flowers and non-agricu ltural end uses include: landscaping of public use land (public par ks, sportsgroun ds), forestry and site rehabilitation. Further information is available from L VRA (02) 4234 4444
rquinane@transpac.com.au or at http://www. barwon wa ter.plenaryprojects. com
ADVERTISERS' INDEX 'us' Utility Services
42
Ecowise Environmental
87
ABB Australia
65
Environmental & Process Technologies
41
Global HOBAS Pipe Australia
23
Grundfos
19
Hanna Instruments
89
Heraeus
26
lnfralight
28
ITS Trenchless
57
ITT
45
James Cumming & Sons
97
John Morris Scientific
77
102
KASA Redberg
67
Bintech Systems
84
KSB Australia
9
Brown Brothers Engineers
22
L.V. Rawlinson/Transpacific Group
Acacia Filtration Systems
110
Agilent Technologies
63
AIRVAC
17
Allflow Supply Co
47
Australian Pollution Engineering 53 AWMA Water Control Solutions AWMA Water Control Solutions
33
101
Bentley Systems, Inc inside front cover Bentley Systems, Inc
Creteleak Solutions
108
CRS lnsustrial Water Treatment 39 Systems
Plasson
25
Plasson
27
PPI
95
Projex Group
99
Promains
11
ProMinent
62
Repipe Rubicon Systems Australia
93
Schneider Electric
59
SPIRAC Trojan UV Tyco Water
50-51 55
7
Vinidex Systems & Solutions inside back cover Vinidex Systems & Solutions
111
107
43
Wallingford Software outside back cover
MWH
3
MWH
105
Water Conservation Group
109
CST Wastewater Solutions
91
Orica Watercare
31
Water Infrastructure Group
83
Dotmar
37
Pipe Lining & Coating
15
Westwater Enterprises
61
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lnfoWorks - proven hydraulic modelling software from Wallingford Software: leading the worl d in provid ing smarter so lutio ns for the water in dustry. With the industry's largest software development t eam complemented by Wallingford Software's highly renowned technical services staff, users are assured of continuous product development and support.
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Wallingford Software Ltd . Wallingford Software Pty Ltd , Level 20 Darling Park Tower 2, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW2000 Telephone: 02 9006 1603 Email: sales@wallingfo rdsoftware.com
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www.wattingtordsottware.com lnfoWorks is a registered trademark of Walling ford So ftware Limited