eFlash #496

Date: 10-Aug-2021

1. Three Waters (NZ) Update

Eflash #492 provided the last update, since then the NZ Central Government has announced $2.5B funding to support local governments in transitioning through the reforms to NZ’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services. It includes $2B for councils to “invest in the future for local government, urban development, and the well-being of their communities.”

“New Zealand’s water system is one of the country’s most significant infrastructure sectors, touching every aspect of our lives. Our communities will need to invest between $120-185 billion over the next 30 years to maintain, replace and upgrade ageing assets and to provide for growth.”

More information on the support package here including the allocations to each council.

2. WIOA – 2021 Census Night

With Tuesday 10 August 2021 being Census night, WIOA would like to encourage all operational employees in the water industry to use one of the 28 occupational titles (ANZSCO Codes) listed in the Water Industry Occupational Framework that is available on the WIOA website - https://wioa.org.au/anzsco/

As organisations have various titles for similar positions, the water industry is significantly undercounted due to the lack of water-specific occupational codes recognised by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. For example, the title of someone in an operator role in a treatment plant can be a: Water Operator, Treatment Plant Operator, TPO, STP Operator, Water & Sewerage System Operator, Water Treatment Plant Operator, Water & Sewerage Operations, Water & Wastewater Treatment Operator, WTP Operator, Water & Sewerage Officer, or a Water Treatment Technician to name just some. If all these different titles are used, it is a case of potluck regarding which ANZSCO Code the ABS will use to categorise a person.

We encourage individuals to use the listed occupations to help define the industry. Information from the Census is used to help make informed decisions about communities, governments infrastructure and business across the country. It also helps plan local services for individuals, families, and communities.

3. Chlorate Risk Assessment

At the recent Charters Towers Regional Conference, there was discussion on Chlorate Assessment.

Queensland Health prepared a document for the Water Supply Regulator to encourage testing of Chlorates without burdening WSR with notifications of low detections and therefore not a health concern.

Please find here

https://www.qldwater.com.au/public/2018-RA-Chlorate-in-drinking-water.pdf?downloadable=1

4. Newswimlocal Web Reports Tool

qldwater has developed, with the aid of some forward-thinking Service Providers, a new Web-based Reports Tool for SWIM/swimlocal.

All current qldwater members can freely use the new tool to look at/extract their SWIM Annual Data and create graphs.

Website: https://swim.qldwater.com.au/reports. You will need your swimlocal login details and Region Id to access the site. If you have trouble locating these details, then please contact your organisation’s SWIM/swimlocal administrator.

For those Service Providers that use the fully licensed version of swimlocal for managing their daily data you can use the full version of the Web Reports Tool for a small additional fee.

We have added a short ‘swimlocal Web Reports’ training video to the qldwater SWIM Help & Information website (https://qldwater.com.au/SWIM_Help). This shows the basics of how the system works and looks.

If you have any questions, troubles or would like a look at the system please contact David (dscheltinga@qldwater.com.au).

5. The [Your Name Here] Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test.

Back by popular demand and open to all qldwater members, the Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test competition will establish who has the best tasting tap water in Queensland in 2021. If you plan to enter a sample at our Annual Forum in September, now is the time to start thinking about your top drop. Some of our members take the competition more seriously than others and even host their own taste test events to select their best sample to enter!

Each year the competition gets bigger and better. Since its inception in 2011, the competition now crosses borders with WIOA taking the challenge to NSW with the Water of Origin Taste Test. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania followed with the first National Ixom Australia Best of the Best Tasting Tap Water competition held in 2015.

Sponsorship of the 2021 Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test is still available, so get your name in the game by contacting Naomi Carragher.

6. AWA NQ Conference: Reef Catchments and Resilience

The AWA NQ Conference was held last week, and attendance was a record with more than 180 delegates. The networking was constrained by the COVID safe requirements (e.g. social distancing and mandated masks for all visitors from SE Queensland even before lockdown), but was well managed and people who had not met for a long time were able to reconnect safely with a coffee in hand.

The program included presentations from a diversity of northern councils: Fraser Coast, Townsville, Bundaberg, Whitsunday, Isaac and several presentations from the host council Mackay. The Office of the Great Barrier Reef was also in attendance, with several presentations on their work with councils in the region.

Two key themes resonated from the presentations: firstly, recycled water presents a solution for reducing nutrient discharges to the reef, but it is particularly subject to the economies of scale that make it very expensive for smaller treatment plants. Secondly, there are substantial opportunities for maximising the value from existing infrastructure with novel solutions. This conference provided an excellent opportunity for these important messages and experience to be shared.

qldwater’s own Carlie Sargent hosted a panel session on “Attraction and Retention of Skilled Resources in the Region”. The anticipated themes of the ageing workforce were once again foremost, but the panel discussion suggested that there were opportunities to attract younger professionals through the lifestyle on offer in regional areas. This opportunity could be leveraged through expanding industry placements for tertiary students and trainees.

The best paper award was won by Kezia Drane (James Cook University) & Anna Wheelan (Townsville City Council) for “Marine Testudines as Sentinels for Monitoring the Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance in Marine Environments” which raised the spectre of antibiotic resistance in the receiving environment and impacting sea turtles. We look forward to seeing the paper reprised along with other presentations at the upcoming QWater conference in Brisbane in November.

7. ***qldwater*Annual Forum 2021 – Register Now**

We have had people contact us asking if the Annual Forum is still going ahead with the current lockdown situation.

If lockdown in SEQ is lifted soon and it is still legally possible to host an event with social distancing and masks, we will be proceeding as planned for the 7th, 8th, and 9th September at Alexandra Hills and the North Stradbroke Island Day trip.

We will have Zoom setup to connect in interstate visitors and presenters who are unable to attend in person to present. At this point in time, we won’t be live streaming, however we will be recording key presentations to be available for viewing post the event.

In the instance that the lockdown in SEQ is significantly extended, we have tentatively booked Alexandra Hills again for the 9th, 10th and 11th November as a backup and we will be aiming to postpone and preserve as much of the program as possible.

At this stage we cannot speculate what will be the case as it is still too early to make any final decisions. We will be waiting until the 16 August before making a decision on continuing as planned or postponing the event until November.

Only four weeks leftto register for our upcoming qldwater Annual Forum which is being held on the 8th & 9th of September with an additional ‘Automated Metering’ themed workshop being held on the 7th of September.

This year’s forum is being graciously hosted by the Redland City Council with most events based at Alexandra Hills Hotel and at North Stradbroke Island for our day tour.

A copy of the draft programs for the three days is available on our event website.

7 September – ‘Automated Metering Workshop’It will be a great opportunity to share experiences in automated metering and our increasingly digital operating environment, as well as the chance to connect with industry experts and vendors.

8 September – A Day on North Stradbroke Island visiting the Seqwater Dunwich Water Treatment Plant & Redland City Council Point Lookout Sewerage Treatment Plant and other fun activities including the Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test!

Followed by the Annual Forum Dinner where you have the opportunity to network with other delegates over a three course meal and have the opportunity to listen to our keynote speaker Adam Lovell from Water Services Association of Australia.

9 September – The Annual Forum day will be focused onIndustry Strategy (building on the highly successful 2019 event) and 'Is Asset Management for Water and Sewerage in Queensland broken?' Speakers from around the state and nationally will provide case studies on how AM is improving.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available across the three days. If you are interested in sponsoring any of the days, please contact Naomi Carragher on 07 3632 6850 or ncarragher@qldwater.com.au.

Thank you to our confirmed sponsors Calibre Group, Royce Water Technologies, Taggle, Veolia, Aquatec Maxcon, Suez.

8. Next Essentials Webinar – Register Now

qldwater's next Essential Webinar will be taking place on Thursday 19th August at 10am. You can register here

The session will focus on ‘Drinking Water Quality’, bringing together two speakers that are passionate on this topic.

Our two presenters are:

Terry Fagg (Western Downs Regional Council)

Enhanced Coagulation in practice - A useful tool in the management of disinfection by products.

Terry, as an experienced and well-respected water treatment manager will provide a background to how enhanced coagulation can be used to help manage raw water high in organics, and lead to better DBP outcomes.

Mark Harvey (Charters Towers Regional Council)

DWQMP: After 10 years, have we taken them off the shelf yet?

Mark will reprise his presentation from the Charters Towers regional conference for a wider audience, talking about the challenges and improvements that the industry has faced since the introduction of the DQWMPs in Queensland.

Registrations will be required to participate in this webinar. Click here to register and lock it in to your calendar.

9. Job Opportunity – Redland City Council

Redland City Council is currently seeking a Water Quality Officer

The Opportunity

As a supplier of drinking water to the community, Redland City Council carries significant responsibility with regard to protection of public health through the provision of clean safe drinking water. To ensure that the supply of water is of the highest standard we conduct rigorous testing to monitor the quality and safety of drinking water. Our drinking water quality monitoring program is designed according to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) to comply with statutory requirements under the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008.

A Water Quality Officer is needed to ensure the drinking water that is supplied to the community is safe, of high-quality and consistently meets our regulatory requirements whilst ensuring that our monitoring is both efficient and effective.

About You

We are seeking an individual who loves our organisational values and will fit in with our newly created team. This is your opportunity to expand our thinking about drinking water and bring excellent knowledge of the statutory framework for managing drinking water supply at National, State and Local Government levels, including the identification and control of associated drinking water aspects and impacts.

With your exceptional customer experience skills, you will enjoy building professional working relationships across our organisation to provide your technical, operational and planning advice to senior managers and stakeholders, which will involve researching, data analysing and reporting.

In addition, your experience with risk and quality management systems to assess performance, interpret trends and implement continuous improvement processes will be highly valued in our team.

To Apply

Applications will only be accepted through Council’s Web Recruitment system or through OURspace for current Council employees. Hard copy and e-mailed applications will not be accepted.

To be considered, applicants must submit a:

Cover letter (maximum two pages) briefly addressing the selection criteria; and
Current resume that demonstrates how you meet the requirements of this role. Please read the Position Description and selection criteria-based application instructions before applying for this role.

Specific information on the position (201386) can be obtained by contacting Salim Vhora on 0481 479 326. Applications for this position close at 11:59 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) on Thursday 19 August 2021.

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