Four QWRAP-funded projects have been recognized in the current awards season, with two QWRAP regions carrying off awards.
The RAPAD Water & Sewerage Alliance was jointly awarded winner of the IPWEAQ 2020 Excellence Awards in the category of Environment & Sustainability for its Sewerage Treatment Plant Regulatory Investigation Project.
The Project was a collaboration between six of the seven RAPADWSA member Councils (the seventh not having any STPs). The STP Regulatory Investigation was a priority project for the region to achieve two primary objectives for member councils: to assess suitability of the existing EA conditions for the STPs and to determine if the STPs were achieving water treatment standards in accordance with the EA conditions.
Stage 1 of the project included a thorough investigation of the member councils’ STP EA conditions. The conditions were scrutinised to determine if they were reflective of the operation of the plants. The conditions were also assessed against modern model conditions to determine if a streamlining of conditions would be favourable for individual councils.
Stage 2 of the project required a collation and analysis of monitoring data from STPs across the region. The analysis provided findings in relation to member councils’ level of compliance against their conditions of approval and information relating to specific water quality criteria.
A second QWRAP project undertaken by the RAPAD Water & Sewerage Alliance was nominated for an IPWEAQ 2020 Excellence Award in the category Innovation & Sustainability in Water. The Telemetry and SCADA project was a collaboration between six of the seven RAPADWSA member Councils. The region's Telemetry and SCADA systems were identified as a significant operational risk through a joint-strategic planning initiative involving all seven councils’ technical personnel and councillors. The region's Telemetry and SCADA systems have been in a state of decline due to years of minimal technical support for councils.
A consultant was engaged to conduct the review and prepare a program of works for the project. The purpose of the review was to investigate the performance of current Telemetry and SCADA systems, identify potential upgrades and replacements to improve the operation of each system, and recommend any actions needed to mitigate relevant risks of the systems to cyber-attack.
The project is now progressing to the next stage which includes a “Concept of Operations” workshop, leading to an implementation plan to roll out improvements across the region (see below).
Another QWRAP-funded project: Shared Superintendency - Mirani Water Recycling Facility/Bowen Sewage Treatment Plant was also nominated in the IPWEAQ 2020 Excellence Award in the category of Innovation & Sustainability in Water. The Whitsunday, Isaac, Mackay Alliance engaged a joint superintendent to oversee the Bowen Sewage Treatment Plant and Mirani Waste Recycling Facility upgrades in a three year forward works program (see the previous QWRAP newsletter for more information).
At the Australian Water Association’s Queensland Water Awards the QWRAP-funded Regional Water Industry Worker Pilot Program was awarded the Organisational Excellence Award. This project, jointly run by Mackay Regional Council, Whitsunday Regional Council, Burdekin Regional Council, Townsville Regional Council, Cairns Regional Council (see the previous QWRAP newsletter) was also nominated for an IPWEAQ 2020 Excellence Award in the Innovation category, and was recognised as a finalist in the 2020 Premier's Industry Collaboration Awards.
Congratulations to all the project teams nominated, and to the winners. QWRAP is proud to be involved in facilitating the success of such diverse projects.
Feature image: Linda Dobe from DRDMW and the RAPADWSA Strategic group Chair, Blackall-Tambo Mayor Andrew Martin
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