Mothballing purified recycled water

After recent floods in Brisbane in 2011 and 2013, it would appear we (collectively) have forgotten the Millennium drought from 2002-2009.

The Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant (AWTP) located in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia is to be mothballed. 

The AWTP, built as part of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project (WCRW) to solve the water scarcity problem in south-east Queensland, has never been used for its intended purpose.

Built at a cost of $380m, the plant can produce 66 ML/day of treated water, from tertiary treated sewage treatment plant effluent.

The purified recycled water produced by the plant is of very high quality and could be safely used directly or indirectly as potable water.  

Construction of the plant started in September 2006 and was carried out in two stages - Stage 1A and Stage 1B. Stage 1A was completed in August 2007 and Stage 1B in March 2008. The plant became fully operational in June 2008 but has never run at full capacity.

During the Millennium drought (2002-2009) it produced water to provide security of supply and operation for Tarong and Swanbank power stations.  However, there are not sufficient demands for high quality (relatively expensive) purified water to match the capabilities of the AWTP (apart from potable reuse).

The plant is not only capable of purifying sewage effluent but the back end of the plant includes technologies that remove nutrients and pollutants from the effluent (that are otherwise discharged to our Rivers and Moreton Bay).

Continuous microfiltration, reverse osmosis, advanced oxidation processes are quite energy intense, but the AWTP certainly a cheaper and more efficient process than seawater desalination.

In 2011, Seqwater released the third Water Quality Report for the Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant, with results confirming the excellent quality of purified water it produces and proving the water is safe to add to the drinking supply.

More than 27 000 water quality tests were conducted in this reporting period from July 2010 to June 2011, taking the total amount of tests now performed to more than 92 100. The tests showed the treatment process was 100% effective in removing contaminants present in the inflowing water as prescribed by the relevant guidelines.

These results confirm the findings of the previous water quality reports and prove we can be confident that when we need to add purified water to Wivenhoe Dam it will be safe to drink.

The Independent International Expert Scientific Advisory Panel reviewed the results and Panel Chair, Paul Greenfield said the panel had “concluded the treatment process barriers are able to control any water quality hazards and produce purified recycled water suitable to augment a drinking water supply”.

Sustainable & Resilient Water & Sewerage Infrasturcture

EPBC

A Senate inquiry is underway into a Bill that amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to prevent the Commonwealth from handing responsibility for approving proposed actions that significantly impact matters protected under the EPBC Act to a State or Territory.

Sustainable & Resilient Water & Sewerage Infrastructure

Engineering Consultants: Arup have provided some interesting commentary on properly understanding resilience following on from natural disasters.   The rationale: knowing if replacement infrastructure will be any more resilient than that which it replaces.

David Singleton has been asking on twitter: "what do you think are the key planks of #resilientleadership?"

If water and sewerage infrastructure is to be truly sustainable, one needs a way to understand what resilient infrastructure looks like.  One also needs a way to compare infrastructure designs and systems to achieve the most resilient outcome. Sustainability ratings tools have the potential to do this.

It is no longer enough to merely say that one is ‘building green’.  Australian consumer law is clear on the obligations regarding environmental claims under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.  Manufacturers, suppliers, advertisers and others are required to assess the strength of any environmental claims.  Claims have to be demonstrated and certified.  Methods of measuring sustainability are vital.  There is also a renaissance in driving sustainability up and down one’s supply chain.

The Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star environmental rating system for buildings and communities and the Australian Green Infrastructure Council’s IS rating scheme for infrastructure setting benchmarks.  Ratings tools allow one to assess and certify best practice.  

These ratings credentials will demonstrate that one can create better water and sewerage infrastructure for communities and cities in Australia. 

There are also opportunities to export these skills.  Sustainability ratings tools will be vital if Australians are to realise the opportunities from the current scale and pace of urbanisation in Asia.

The Australian Government’s recently-released ‘Australia in the Asian Century’ white paper points to the fact that Asia will soon be home to the majority of the world’s middle class, all of whom need water and sewage networks, treatment infrastructure and utilities.  In the wake of recent natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy and the Queensland floods, major infrastructure programmes are planned or are underway in several countries.

The Great Stink in the summer of 1858, the city of London (an overwhelming stench from the River Thames, that shut down Parliament) led to the construction of sewer in London.  Infrastructure investment decisions have long-term consequences, as the assets can shape development for decades – often beyond their lifetime.  So decisions on infrastructure should anticipate the long-term environment, needs and constraints under which it will function.

However, our ability to predict the future has been shown to be limited.  Climate change is introducing deep uncertainty that makes this even more difficult. The environmental conditions under which infrastructure performs are likely to change radically and its design needs to take this into account.

Sustainability thinking is crucial for making clear the connections between the infrastructure project and the local and wider society, economy, environment and businesses. It is also vital to spotting where these connections could cause serious vulnerabilities that put the entire system at risk. Ensuring that these connections are elastic, adaptable and resilient will benefit society, the economy and the environment.

Rating tools not only provide a way to determine an infrastructure asset's sustainability, they also enable comparison of the sustainability of different assets, or of different design solutions for a single asset. While the principal use for these tools is to determine the asset's rating, they can also be used – informally – in 'design' mode.

Using ratings tools to understand resilience is an important area for the development of infrastructure sustainability tools. Significant progress will be made in this direction over the next years, as ratings organisations and universities (University of Leeds Institute for Resilient Infrastructure for example) develop the means to measure water and sewerage infrastructure resilience.

30 Year Water Strategy Policy Reference Group

How can Australians lead by example to ensure affordable, secure, sustainable water and sewerage services in our own communities and developing communities?

On Tuesday 5^th March 2013 from 12 noon until 2pm ASBG are organising a policy reference group for ASBG members to discuss the discussion paper, hosted by Aurecon.

The Department of Energy and Water Supply has launched a discussion paper to guide the development of a 30 Year Water Sector Strategy to ensure affordable, secure, sustainable and high quality water and sewerage services across Queensland. Submissions close Friday 29 March 2013.

The Queensland Water Sector Discussion Paper is designed to facilitate active discussion and participation in creating a new path for Queensland’s water future in urban, rural, regional and remote communities.

If you wish to attend the forum at Aurecon, please RSVP to rowan@asbg.net.au

I give a shit! Do you?

The WTD is a day to raise awareness of how much there still is to do to ensure that billions of people around the globe have access to good sanitation. 

However, World Toilet Day is also a day to celebrate the good work that is being done and what has been achieved already. One way to contribute with the World Toilet Day is to share your experiences from the last year.

So the question is: Since the last World Toilet Day in 2011, what experience, activity or event that you were part of, etc that signals that progress is happening stands out for you?

If you have something to share, please send up to 250 words to P.Bongartz@ids.ac.uk and, if possible, a photo (separately in a jpg file) to go along with what you have written about. 

The responses will be compiled and posted them on the website on World Toilet Day.

Deadline: Tuesday, 13th November

Check out the World Toilet Day Website

Toilet 2.0 - the next Generation

In recent years we have seen a transition from analogue radio and television to digital services.

Smarter telephone technologies including video and net based applications are complementing the traditional voice down a copper wire.

Automotive companies are starting to roll out electric vehicles to replace internal combustion engine technologies.

These processes are transitional.

Prototypes were developed.  They begin as pilot projects, to prove the concept.

This is exactly what is proposed for developing Toilet 2.0 technologies.



The rationale for source segregation is to encourage nutrient recovery and reduce to costs and environmental impacts of the tradition method of aggregating urine and feaces with vast quantities of flush water, grey water and trade waste.

We need to identify pilot projects, to demonstrate the concepts of source separation of urine and feaces.

We need to develop the supporting processes, the institutional arrangements and encourage the social acceptance of the paradigm shift.

We need to develop trade waste policies and charges that incentivate and support source segregation.

Using traditional toilet technologies, there is a peak load of nitrogen, phosphorus that coincides with a hydraulic peak load, every morning and evening.

We need business models and a business case that demonstrates the value of source segregation.  There is a potential for delaying large capital investment for infrastructure upgrades by reducing the peak loads.  There are opportunities to reduce or avoid the operational costs at sewage treatment plants by reducing the need for energy intensive, biological and chemical processes for removing nitrogen and phosphorus.

The Toilet2.0 technologies provide an opportunity to lower the costs of delivery of sewage treatment services and increase the opportunities for resources recovery, energy efficiency, water efficiency and better environmental outcomes.

If Toilet2.0 technologies can be developed and demonstrated in my community, there is a huge market potential to meet the needs of 2.6 billion people who lack access to any form of toilet.

service

As someone who has worked in Customer Service, sometimes it is good to be able to recognise it, when others provide great service and to be gracious in allowing someone else to have the pleasure to serve.

Last night, I celebrated the day of my birth, by dining at Esquire with my beloved wife.  The menu at  Esquire is extraordinary.  We had a degustation menu.


I am convinced that one finds happiness by losing oneself in the service of others.


On this occasion, it was a bloke called Chris, serving my wife and I.  Chris must be very happy.

As someone who does not enjoy cooking, as I rule, I find eating is a chore.   I cannot do justice to try to describe the culinary wonder that were served to us.There was all sorts of gels, foams and sorbets.  There was shredded mud crab with macadamia and coffee crumbs.  We crunched on crispy slivers of crackling (made from the double chin of a fattened pig).  There were crunchy wafers of saltmarsh stuffed cows.  Wavers of honey dipped pumpkin with chocolate.


My beloved wife and I both figuratively and literally sucked the marrow out of life (and the thigh bone of a cow).


Fortunately, Chris was able to talk us through each course, telling us what we were about to eat and equipping us with appropriate utensils.  Chris spoke with passion and clearly enjoyed working at  Esquire.

Across the room sat a renown Sunday Age restaurant reviewer: Dani Valant out on the town with local foodies: Mel Kettle & Fleur Cole.


Dani was in Brisbane running thermomix: "in the mix" cooking classes.  My beloved is a Thermomix consultant in her spare time and had attended Dani's course, earlier in the day.


There were others around us taking photos of their food to post on blogs and their twitter feed.  I refrained from doing similar.  I was to engaged, watching my beloved enjoying and discussing the food, our future and our aspirations.  As parents of infants, we don't get out much.


Recently, the someone at work, gave some examples of good customer service that he experienced at the service department of Llewellyn Motors Toyota.


This led to a discussion of the levels of service.


I work for a water/sewage treatment utility.  My customers have come to expect that my company will deliver them a high quality product, available on demand & remove their poo, their wee, the water from showers, sinks, washing machines.


My 1.3 million customers use the water we supply them.  The soil it and send it back to be treated (and disposed to rivers & the bay).  The pressure is on to reduce the cost of the services that my company provides.  The cost of raw water is fixed by the Qld State Government.  The prices we can charge our customers are capped at Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases.


Meanwhile, there are a billion potential customers (globally) who do not have access to drinking water.  There are 2.6 billion people who could be (or should be) in the market for a service provider to collect and treat their poo and wee.  There are young women who cannot complete their education beyond puberty, because their schools lack the facilities to allow them to change pads.


So the challenge faced by my company and those involved in my industry around the world - is how can we reduce the cost of the delivery of water and sewage treatment services, yet maintain (or provide) an acceptable level of service.  How do we reduce the environmental impacts of providing those services? 


Water treatment and transport is energy intensive.  Sewage transport and treatment is also energy intensive.  Disposal of the effluent and residues also present challenges (and opportunities).


I see a convergence between the needs of developed and developing communities to develop new ways to provide exceptional water and sewage treatment services.


We need to reinvent the toilet!


We also need to develop the institution arrangements, service delivery, the back of house (down stream processing) systems, networks, business models, markets, supply chains etc. to support a new generation of toilet technologies.....

  

Toilet 2.0

Today I had the pleasure of talking about the exciting potential for the next generation of Toilet technologies, to my colleagues at work.  I work for a water and sewage treatment utility.


Our current Toilets are connected to a grid in a way that is analogous to a landline telephone connected to copper wires, telephone exchanges and data centres.  The toilets in my community, are dependent on a reliable water supply, sewer pumping stations and sewage treatment plants.  The floods in Brisbane in January 2011 and the subsequent earthquake in Christchurch and the Tsunami in Japan, demonstrated the vulnerability of these systems.

My ambition (which is shared by many others) is to see the development of the next generation of toilet which are "off the grid".


The imperative is providing services for 2.6 billion people in developing communities, who lack a sustainable place to poo, wee and/or change sanitary pads.


In the developed world, the cost of living pressures, the cost of water, electricity and the cost of running sewer networks and sewage treatment treatment plants are all on the radar.


The regulating authorities in the Qld State Government have capped the price one can charge for water and sewage treatment.  The price of raw water is under review.  All indications are, that Water Authorities are going to be under significant political pressure to reduce the cost of delivery of services.


Climate change, peak oil, peak phosphorus are all driving the need for change, to reduce the energy intensity of water and sewage treatment services and recover energy, nutrients and/or water from the process.


There arises a need for a next generation of toilets.  Yet the toilet is really just a user interface.  We need a whole new "back end" to the process.  


The first distinction between 1.0 series toilets and the 2.0 series is the separation of one's Number Ones from one's Number twos.

Our Number One's a choc full of nutrients: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium....


One person's urine contains enough nutrients to grow enough cereal to feed one person.


In my community, our number twos are not nearly as interesting (or valuable).  We tend to eat too much processed food.  However, the poo from a Vegetarian could be highly valuable. The dry solids can be combusted, digested or under go pyrolysis to generate electricity, heat, light, gas or compost.


The process engineering aspects of Toilet 2.0 are really very straight forward.


The complexity lies in the social engineering.  Some of the greatest resistance to change comes from within the water/sewage treatment industry.  Today I had the opportunity to make a case for change.


I was hoping someone would say: "It cannot be done!".  I was hoping someone might say: " You're crazy!"


However, the questions and discussions were actually intelligent and provocative.  There maybe some who want to work on intermediate technologies.  Perhaps there is still a need for Toilet 1.1.   


My ambitions are still quite modest.  Toilet 2.0 is not a silver bullet.  Toilet 2.0 is the next generation of toilets.  It is time to get Toilet 2.0 out of the laboratories and into your lavatories.

Sustainable Business Weekly Qld Edition [the water blame game]

In the course of the Millenium drought (2002-2009), the Labor Government spent $7b on a water grid & water purification & recycling infrastructure.

This infrastructure included the Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant, designed to produce "Purified Recycled" Water from tertiary treated sewage effluent.

Currently, the Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant provides a little bit of water to local industry, Swanbank Power Station and Springfield township. During the Drought it also supplied water to Tarong Power Station. Since 2011, Tarong has water to spare from its own catchment.

Neither the ALP or the LNP have any plans to utilise the idle water recycling infrastructure & stop the Councils or Council owned Utilities from discharging sewage effluent into the Rivers & Moreton Bay.

It is cheaper, more environmentally sound & climate friendly to recycle waste water than it is to desalinate sea water.

In the process of recycling water, one could recover the nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, etc....) that are currently polluting the waterways. These nutrients could be used beneficially in agriculture.

In the light of this, let us have a closer look at the Liberal National Party's Water Policy. The LNP claim that Queenslanders are facing spiraling costs of living and family budgets are under severe strain because Labor can't get the basics right. The LNP Claim that there is no forward planning, Perhaps they have not read the South East Qld Water Strategy ....or perhaps they have, since the LNP Strategy looks very similar.

The South East Queensland Water Strategy was released on 15 July 2010. The Strategy is a long-term blueprint for ensuring a sustainable, efficient and secure water supply for South East Queensland (SEQ) into the future.

Granted there were some panic decisions by the Qld State Labor Government caused the South East Queensland Water Grid to be undertaken without adequate planning.

The water grid itself was never a great idea but given the circumstances (Water Supply Dams running empty), it was part of the policy of being seen to be doing something.....

To be fair much of the planning for the Western Corridor water recycling scheme was undertaken by Ipswich Water and adopted by the State Government in a knee jerk response to 7 years of consecutive drought.

This led to the a $7 billion price tag for the Water Grid....At least $600 million was wasted on the failed Traveston Crossing Dam (there is no argument with that).

The $1.1 billion for the Tugun desalination plant was probably money well spent. Desalination is an expensive option but it does provide SEQ with a level of water security that a dam cannot ensure. All other capital cities have gone for similar options.

Another $350 million Wyaralong Dam is not connected to the water grid.

There is no basis for the LNP's claim that South-East Queensland water bills are set to double over the next seven years. Prices have been capped to a maximum rise linked to the Consumer Price Index.

In fact: In the last 18 months, Queensland Urban Utilities reduced prices in four of their five service territories and improved network performance.

Under pressure from the LNP & Gold Coast City Council, Labor allowed Gold Coast City to have its water retail & distribution business separated from Allconnex (Discinnex?), leaving Redlands & Logan to go it alone as well.

The LNP's plan for the future looks much the same as the existing SEQ Water Strategy....

So let's have a look at the LNP is committed to:

• LNP Policy Commitment:
• * Plan properly for Queensland's future water needs and creating a sustainable water supply that caters for population increases and meets the needs of households, industry and agriculture; and
• * Increasing efficiency in water delivery from the grid to the household, while maintaining a responsible approach to water use and waste.

This looks a lot like the SEQ Water Strategy:

Conserving water

• Making Target 200 SEQ's voluntary residential water use target.
• Ensuring business and industry consider water efficiency as part of good business practices.

Being prepared

• Investigating potential bulk water supply options and new technologies relating to water supply sources to ensure the best decisions are made in the future.
• Preparing a drought response plan for SEQ to identify what needs to happen in the lead up to, during and after any future drought in the region.
• Reporting on the implementation of the Strategy annually, including a review of the fundamental planning assumptions such as climate and weather impacts, population growth and community water use.

Managing water efficiently

• Operating the SEQ Water Grid cost effectively and efficiently.
• Keeping climate-resilient sources on standby so more can be taken from dams in times of plenty, knowing back-up supplies are available when needed.

To date, the LNP has committed to:

The Four Point Water Plan:

• 1. Amalgamate the four bulk water entities into one entity to reduce the cost of supplying water (this is probably a great deal of sense in this point);
• 2. Hand back control of water distribution and retailing to councils who previously did a far better job of managing water resources than the Bligh Government (as it turns out - one way or another control of water distribution & retailing is already handled directly by Councils or by Council owned Utilities);
• 3. Write off non-performing water grid assets to reduce sharp price rises (is an accounting slight of hand, that make no real difference to water & sewage pricing);
• 4. Adopt a 40 year price path to repay the Bligh Government's $7 billion water grid debt over the economic life of the assets, which will also reduce the cost of water (just postpones the inevitable costs to future generations, as a political expedience).

None of the above will have significant impacts on the bulk cost of water or retail price of water.

an Easter Rant about cars, poo & wee, diarrhea & vomitting

Apparently up to six people will read this rant, if I am lucky. Well, six people will look at this rant. I have seen the statistics, my blog is not very popular. So my blog has become my confessional.

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. This week, I drove a car.

I have given up trying to save the world......It is not my world to save.

However, I have also given up working in the fossil fuels industry.

I once provided Environmental management services to petroleum refineries. I am now a card carrying member of petroleum anonymous....

Up until this week, I could say:

My name is Rowan Barber, I am a petroleum addict, it has been six years since I last drove a car.

......but I have fallen off (or on) the wagon. Last week, I was required to drive a car as part of my new responsibilities, working for a water utility.

It gets worse.

I have taken on a job as an inspector, supervising the installation, renovation &/or repairs to sewers & water mains.

In the past couple of weeks, I have seen first hand - how silly we all are.

We take our Number 1's (also known as urine) & we mix it with vast quantities of drinking water & our Number 2's (also knowns as faeces). This slurry is gravity feed and/or pumped over vast distances (predominantly using coal fired electricity) to sewage treatment plants.

At the sewage treatment plants, we (as a society at Municipality level) spend vast sums of money, time & electricity, separating our Number 1's from our Number 2's and the water (which is no longer drinking water quality).

We (Ratepayers & Taxpayers) have built a vast network of pipes & pumps to move our mixture of poo, wee, water & industrial waste across 100's of kilometres.

Many of these pipes leak.

The slurry of substances in sewage is highly toxic & choc full of human specific pathogens.

This is not wise.

During the floods in South East Queensland in January 2011, (in my view) the system completely failed. Our sewers were inundated with flood water. Many pump stations & sewage treatment plants were also inundated with flood water.

The untreated sewage mixed with flood water & mud, was distributed in and through our low-lying suburbs.

The mud (erosion of topsoil from places like the Grantham, Toowoomba and all the upper catchment areas of the Bremer & Brisbane Rivers), became a nutrient rich matrix for cultivating human specific infectious diseases.

During the peak of the flood (12 January 2011), our former Prime Minister - Kevin Rudd was out wading through floodwaters, assisting to evacuate his electorate. On the 15 January 2011, he was admitted to hospital with some sort of foot infection.

Months later, there is still anecdotal evidence of an epidemic of diarrhea & vomiting, which may have begun from flood water to human transmissions. These illnesses appear to be persisting through human to human transmissions (at Child Care centres, schools & workplaces etc).

As I write this blog post at 4:00 am on Sunday 24 April 2011, I have been up all night looking after my 20 month old daughter.

She has a fever. She has been vomiting. Her poos are liquid. She wakes up coughing. This is her third episode of this kind of illness since January.

She is going to be ok. We have paracetomol to reduce her fevers. We have been able to keep her hydrated & re-hydrated. She is still getting some food & formula and holding it down (or in) long enough for her little body to take in some nutrients.

According to Water Aid,

"Diarrhoeal diseases kill a child every 20 seconds."

So as the carbon tax rages around me in Australia, every 20 seconds a child (like my daughter), dies from easily preventable diseases.

In many developing communities, they poo & wee on the streets. They do not have toilets. Flies, rats, dust, wind & rain transfer human pathogens directly or indirectly from poo to people.

In my own community, we are sophisticated. We poo in toilets. We mix in our wee & we flush it away with lots of water. We all know about Carbon Dioxide now. Some of us deny the impacts. Some of us ignore the consequences, but how many people actually know where their poo goes?

Here is a song I wrote a few years ago, to the tune of the Beach Boy's song - Surfin' USA.

I wrote this song in frustration, at the stupidity of what we do as a society & as municipalities in Australia. In Brisbane we have $7 billion worth of water recycling infrastucture (pipes, pumps, plants) which is sitting idle, because we do not recycle our sewage. We are still discharging tertiary treated sewage back into our creeks, rivers & oceans. When it rains or floods, we discharge untreated sewage back into our creeks, rivers & oceans.

Well everybody did a motion,
Across the U.S.E*....
& it all ends up in the ocean,
We're surfing poo & wee,
You’d see em flushing the toliet
mixing their ones & twos
flushin with potable water,
Surfin wee & poo

Sewage has primary treatment,
To remove the chunks that stink,
By the time its tertiary treated,
It could be fit to drink....
All that embodied energy,
Embodied water too...
Would it not be better to separate our ones & twos?

You see the deep outfalls at Bondi
& discharged at Potter Point
Sepia Depression & Bolivar
Sandgate & Luggage Point
All over Port Phillip Bay
& Gunnamatta Beach

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo

We all mix our wee & poo,
We’re gonna flush real soon
We’re flushing down our faeces
We just waste our poo
We could be growing our veges
We could be growing a tree
Tell Jack Sim were surfin
Surfin poo & wee

Gibson Island desal plant
is keeping Incitec cool
they waste the Nitrogen & phosphorus
then burn the fossil fuel
All over Australia
We mix our ones & twos
Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo.

Everybodys gone surfin
Surfin wee & poo

*United States of emergency