eFlash #607

Date: 03-Sep-2024

In this edition: Celebrating Excellence with Luke Reid, Young Operator of the Year | SWIM reporting champions for 2024! | Annual Performance Reporting | Annual Forum Presentations | Taste Test Winners in the News | Infrastructure Asset Management Planning for Elected Members | Safety by Design Partnership Project – Water and Energy Industry Workshop | Electrical Safety Fortnight | Sign up to Water Night | PFAS in Regulated Waste | Non-Transport Utility Management and Design Manual

NEW / HOT TOPICS

Celebrating Excellence with Luke Reid, Young Operator of the Year

It was great to catch up with our Young Operator of the Year, Luke Reid from Bundaberg Regional Council, to talk about his recent win and what the recognition meant to him. Follow this link to read about Luke’s career journey in the water sector.

SWIM reporting champions for 2024!

Congratulation to Peter See and his team at Quilpie Shire Council for being first to complete their SWIM Annual Water and Sewerage Data for 2024! They retain the crown from last year.

Quilpie was closely followed by Mareeba (2nd) and Cook (3rd) Council’s. Well done all.

Annual Performance Report (KPI and NPR data via SWIM): Due COB Tuesday 1 October

The annual Performance Report (KPI and NPR data via SWIM) is required under s142A of the Water Supply Safety and Reliability Act 2008 and is due for the 2023-24 financial year by COB Tuesday 1 October 2024.

PINS (fines) can be applied for late or non-submission of data.

DUE: 5pm Tuesday 1 October.

If you would like any further information or need help/advice please contact David (dscheltinga@qldwater.com.au)

Annual Forum Presentations

qldwater Annual Forum attendees can now download all presentations from the day at https://qldwater.com.au/annual-forum-2024

The page is in a secure zone, so please log in to access it. Please email enquiry@qldwater.com.au if you have problems logging in.

Photos of the event, including the technical tours, are available at https://qldwater.smugmug.com/Annual-Forums/Annual-Forum-2024

Taste Test Winners in the News

Congratulations to our taste test winners who made it into the news – follow the links below.

https://utilitymagazine.com.au/queenslands-water-put-to-the-taste-test/

https://www.ecovoice.com.au/isaac-and-fraser-coast-councils-make-a-splash-in-best-of-the-best-queensland-water-taste-test/

OTHER NEWS AND EVENTS

Infrastructure Asset Management Planning for Elected Members

The Institute of Public Works Engineering is hosting an online course for elected members to help Councillors gain the knowledge and tools to better manage the services infrastructure assets provide to their communities.

For more information and to register, follow this link.

Please forward the details on to your elected members!

Safety by Design Partnership Project – Water and Energy Industry Workshop

Thriving Communities Australia (TCA) invite energy and water organisations to join a workshop and discussion on better practice approaches to family violence safety in the water and energy sectors. The online workshop will take place on Tuesday, 1 October from 11.00am – 2.00pm.

Please nominate up to two delegates from your organisation who have knowledge and understanding of how your organisation supports people impacted by family violence and have the authority to speak on behalf of the organisation. Alongside operational leaders, other roles to consider are staff in policy, risk, governance, and IT.

If you have any case studies relating to water customers and domestic and family violence, please pass them on to Ciara.sterling@thriving.org.au prior to the workshop.

Please note, no organisations or consumers will be identified, and the de-identified components of these case studies may be used in workshop development or Safety by Design materials.

Electrical Safety Fortnight

Get involved in Electrical Safety Fortnight (2 – 14 September 2024). Week one is packed with events for contractors, workers and the community, while during week two hear from key stakeholders to deliver targeted safety activities, forums and events to specific groups across regional Queensland.

Book your online seat at the electrical safety summit, webinars, forums or engagement activities state-wide so you can keep up to date with the latest in electrical safety.

Find all you need to know about Electrical Safety Fortnight by booking via the link at https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/resources/campaigns/electrical-safety-fortnight

Sign up to Water Night

The Water Conservancy (TWC) are running an exclusive giveaway for the water industry!

Water Night aims to build water literacy by asking people to go without taps, showers and running water from 5pm-10pm on the Thursday of National Water Week which is 24 October this year.

The theme this year is, 'Tap Off, Tune In', asking Aussies to tap off auto-pilot water use and tune into resources to help you and your family understand water better.

As an industry, we collectively need to address water literacy issues to boost uptake of calls to action, especially when Australia routinely goes into drought. The best place to start? Within our own organisations!

The local water utility or water business with the most sign ups in their organisation, based on percentage of employees, will win. From this organisation, an employee registered for Water Night will be chosen by chance to win the prize.

CURRENT CONSULTATIONS

PFAS in Regulated Waste

On Friday the DESI Office of the Circular Economy announced a consultation on PFAS in Regulated Waste.

For background, when the Environmental Protection Regulation 2019 (EPR) was enacted, it included a zero limit for PFAS as a precautionary measure. The outcome of this was that the detection of PFAS in any tested waste led to that waste being classified as Category 1 Regulated waste, with all the included cost implications.

The good news is that there has apparently been some work carried out for a proposed amendment to the EPR to include PFAS limits – with a view of lifting the current zero threshold.
The bad news is that the newly proposed limits are very low… lower than the comparable limits in the PFAS NEMP 3.0v2.

Given the importance of this proposed change qldwater will be preparing a submission on the proposed limits, and we call for your assistance. Please email Louise Reeves and/or Georgina Davis with your feedback.

The consultation closes on 27 September 2024.

View the consultation page here.

Non-Transport Utility Management and Design Manual

The next round of consultation on the Draft Non-Transport Utility Management and Design Manual has commenced. The consultation will close on 22 November 2024.

Download the document here. (Members only zone so please log in first before clicking the link)

This is an important document that has the potential to impact all water utilities that place assets in state-controlled road corridors. We would encourage you to share this with your planning, design and delivery teams. If you have individual feedback, it would be appreciated if you can share it with us at qldwater.

The purpose of the manual is to provide transparency for planning and design strategies, considerations, and criteria. Asset Owners are NOT requested to remove current existing utilities from the corridor in the manual. The manual focus is on new installations or upgrades / replacement of existing installations where improved design outcomes can be reasonably achieved. Treatments to legacy (existing assets) or constrained sites will be assessed on a case by case basis to facilitate improvement to utility management within the State Controlled Road Corridor (SCRC) that has limited room to cater for all secondary purpose / usage.

The design manual is not expected to resolve or provide criteria for a myriad of potential treatment scenarios, intent is to indicate the preferred and constrained situations, and where criteria cannot be met to have collaborative discussions between parties to devise a mutually beneficial outcome. These design exceptions require time and effort and should be conducted long before contractors are on site about to move dirt.

The utility specific clauses in the manual focuses on the alignment of utility standards with TMR Standards relevant and specific to SCRC only.

Once published, all stakeholders will continue to have the opportunity to provide ongoing suggestions for improvement of the document in line with TMR’s other standards and specifications released to the public.

If you require any further information, please contact the TMR team at PDOUtilities@tmr.qld.gov.au