Waterworks SA - Australian Water Association

Waterworks SA
South Australia Branch Newsletter
September 2014
AWA News
Welcome to the September issue. This last three months has seen a time of change for our local Association. After
six years as our Branch Manager, Alison has moved on to a role at the Goyder Institute for Water Research. No
doubt we will still see her as she has stayed within the Water Sector – and we wish her all the best, and thank her
for her hard work and support provided to our Committee.
We have also recently welcomed Amanda Goodfellow to her role as our new SA/NT State Manager. She has
worked across a range of sectors including PR/communications, Not for Profit, and both State and Local
Government. Her most recent role was as Business Manager with JP Media, an Adelaide based PR firm. Her
experience in working within a membership organisation was gained at SA Great as Program Manager where she
delivered a range of programs and events and managed a large team of volunteers. Please join us as we welcome
Amanda to our Association, and introduce yourself to her at your next AWA Event!
Please look out for news on our events going forward, in the local AWA SA emails. These include our annual Gala
Dinner, a couple of events planned by the Young Water Professionals, and a technical forum to be held in October
during National Water Week. To be presented in conjunction with the Goyder Institute, this engaging event will
debate whether South Australia has done enough to secure its future water needs, and will explore future water
scenarios for the State.
Australian Water Association SA Branch:
Diary
SA Branch Calendar
October 2014 – December 2014
Please check our website for updates and to register for events, and
look out for emails sent to our Branch members.
Wednesday 15 October
Friday 14 November
7.30 – 9.00 am
Planning for the future of water and
wastewater treatment for SA Water
Breakfast Technical Seminar
SA Young Water Professionals
7.00 pm
A Classic Affair
SA Branch Annual Gala
Awards Dinner
Adelaide Town Hall
Thursday 23 October
Thursday 11 December
6.00 pm
A Hypothetical Forum: Water
Scenarios for South Australia's Future
AWA Technical Meeting
Bragg Lecture Theatre, Adelaide
University
Technical Seminar and
Christmas Networking
SA Young Water Professionals
Amanda Goodfellow
SA/NT State Manager
Australian Water Association
Tel: (08) 8362 7576
Email: [email protected]
8 Greenhill Road
Wayville SA 5034
www.awa.asn.au
Please send contributions to Waterworks
SA to:
John Skirrow
Senior Water Engineer
Parsons Brinckerhoff
GPO Box 398
Adelaide SA 5001
Tel: 0432 520 579
Email: [email protected]
Amanda Goodfellow
Contact details…as above
AWA News & Events
Meet the New GM of Allwater - Annelise Avril.
Joint Meeting with Water Industry Alliance
15 July 2014
On the 15th of July 2014, the Water Industry Alliance invited AWA members to a joint event which provided
attendees with the opportunity to meet and hear from the new Allwater General Manager, Annelise Avril. Allwater
is a joint venture between Suez Environnement, Degrémont and Transfield Services, working in an alliance
contract with SA Water to provide drinking water and wastewater services to metropolitan Adelaide. Annelise
comes to Adelaide after serving on the Management Team of the Aroona Alliance in Perth where she held the
role of Performance and Improvement Manager. Annelise has over 18 years of experience in water and
wastewater engineering including research in Fluvial Hydraulics and Urban Hydraulics in SAFÈGE (Société
Anonyme Française d' Etude de Gestion et d' Entreprises, a subsidiary of Suez Environnement), and as
Operations Manager at Lyonnaise des Eaux.
Annelise described the role of the Allwater alliance in delivering and improving the provision of water and
wastewater services in Adelaide, and outlined a number of initiatives and pilot studies the Alliance is working on.
These initiatives are all aimed at identifying opportunities for increased efficiencies across the business including
incident response, non-revenue water, and treatment processes.
It was clear from the presentation that the Alliance benefits from the combined strengths of Annelise’s technical
and business skills, and that Annelise is driven to achieve and exceed the targets that have been set. The
presentation was followed by a Q&A session where the audience was able to learn more about the Alliance’s
work and how local companies can get involved in helping Allwater achieve its objectives.
Elsie Mann
Above…GM of Allwater, Annelise Avril
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AWA News & Events
Sharing the Successes of the South Australian Water Industry.
AWA SA Branch Conference
8 August 2014
The annual SA Branch Conference brings together professionals from the water sector in South Australia to
share knowledge, discuss latest research outcomes, and examine operational advancements. This year’s
Conference theme, focusing on the success of the South Australian Water Industry, attracted a range of
presenters who outlined their recent achievements in the areas of water treatment, research and development,
training, as well as stormwater and wastewater management. In addition, speakers from outside the industry
provided a broader perspective on South Australia’s strategic direction and how good water management
practices will impact on the future of the state.
This year’s event, held at the Serafino Winery in McLaren Vale, presented the opportunity to visit some of the key
water infrastructure servicing this part of Adelaide. On the morning of the conference a site tour was arranged to
visit the recently upgraded Christies Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant was initially constructed in
1972 and has recently undergone a $272 million upgrade which has increased the plant’s capacity to meet the
growth in demand forecast over the next fifteen years, as well as reduce the nutrient load discharged to
Adelaide’s gulf waters. After visiting the plant the tour members were driven by bus to the Winery to join the rest
of the delegates at the Conference.
Robran Cock, the Conference Convenor and a member of the local AWA Committee, opened proceedings by
welcoming the speakers and delegates and thanking the Event Sponsors. He then handed over to the Mayor of
the City of Onkaparinga who welcomed everyone to McLaren Vale. Lorraine Rosenberg has been in Local
Government for 20 years and related how water management has changed over that time. In the past the aim
was to get stormwater and wastewater out of the catchment as quickly as possible. Now it is seen as a resource
and the Council has been working with SA Water, the State Government and Willunga Basin Water (WBW) to
recycle it. The Council now has a Business Unit to sell water with an objective to be self-sufficient. In addition,
WBW has proven the value of using recycled water in supporting the growth of the local wine industry.
The conference was divided into three streams, these being Water Treatment Operations, Analysis Transport
and Use, and thirdly, Wastewater Treatment. In all, there were five addresses from the invited speakers as well
as 12 additional presentations of papers. The various papers included a wide range of subjects such as
improvement to filtration in Metropolitan Adelaide Water Treatment Plants, the health, environmental, social and
economic reality of urban stormwater for water supplies, and the successful start-up of a large scale
Deammonification Pilot Plant at Bolivar WWTP. For a listing of the papers, see here.
The variety of the topics covered by the Key Note and Invited Speakers ably illustrated the diversity of the Water
Industry in the South Australia, which was further reinforced by the range of subjects presented in the papers at
the Conference.
The first Key Note was presented by Professor Graeme Dandy, who was recently bestowed with the AWA Water
Professional of the Year award at Oz Water ’14. He was Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of
Adelaide for fourteen years, before retiring in 2014, and is a co-founder, Director and technical consultant for
Optimatics Pty Ltd. The company is based in Adelaide and has undertaken over 260 studies into the optimisation
of water supply and sewerage systems world-wide. Graeme’s talk centred on the search for the Elusive Concept.
By this he meant that research usually only really moves forward when an elusive concept is discovered or
realised. This is the point at which ground-breaking progress is made. He described the innovative work carried
out in the University in the field of optimisation of water distribution networks using Genetic Algorithm
Optimisation. These techniques use guided search procedures that work by analogy to natural selection. The
solutions tend to converge towards an optimum solution, which gets better as the number of trials increases but
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AWA News & Events
then tends to stabilise. It was out of this work that Optimatics grew. They have found savings of capex of between
14 and 50%, when compared with cost estimates for systems designed by traditional means. He also described
further developments in the use of Artificial Neural Networks, and then the use of the two techniques in
combination.
Left…Professor Graeme Dandy
Right…Conference delegates on the site
tour to Christies Beach Wastewater
Treatment Plant
The second Key Note speaker was Dr Paul Heithersay who provided an overview of the current status of the
Mining Industry in South Australia, its importance to the State, and the role that support services such as water
supply have to play in the Sector. Paul is Chief Executive of the Olympic Dam Task Force and Deputy Chief
Executive, Resources and Energy, of the Department of State Development. These divisions manage the State’s
mineral, gas, petroleum and energy sectors on behalf of the people of South Australia.
The State holds world-class assets include gas, copper, uranium, gold, heavy mineral sands-zircon and a reemerging iron-ore sector. Mineral exports at $4.1 billion, account for 38% of total State exports. Since 2005
companies have spent more than $8 billion on capital expenditure to construct new mines and develop existing
ones. In 2013 private investment in exploration summed to $230 million. Geothermal resources hold vast
potential to fuel cost-competitive, renewable, zero-emissions electricity generation.
Dr Heithersay described the search for, and associated development of, copper, iron, uranium, and graphite in
the Eyre Peninsular. The Cooper Basin holds the largest development of unconventional gas in the country, while
off-shore BP has contracts in the Great Australian Bight, south of Ceduna, for the exploration of petroleum.
Olympic Dam (OD) produces 64% of Australia’s copper and is a resource of world stature. He mentioned that, in
the Task Force, the State Government has developed one window for private industry to deal with them
concerning the development of OD.
Right…Dr. Paul Heithersay
Left…the participants from
the Conference
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AWA News & Events
Exploration is key to our State’s mineral and energy development and this is being under-pinned by the
Government’s Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE 2020). It is aimed not only at supporting the search for
new resources but has been designed to encompass all aspects of exploration through to mine development.
PACE Energy also embraces the exploration requirements of the petroleum and geothermal sectors.
PACE Mining is one of four focuses within the overall PACE 2020 agenda. Water for Mining, a sub-program
within PACE Mining, requires the establishment of partnerships between key government agencies and
specialised research organisations to address South Australia’s water resource issues: locating, using and
managing water resources. The Department for Water, the Goyder Institute for Water Research and other
leading water organisations are tasked with mapping the state’s groundwater systems. This program aims to
identify future water resources for sustainable development on behalf of communities and industry in South
Australia’s arid north.
Right…Andrew Lee and, left, Anna Wilson
Two Invited Speakers, Andrew Lee and Anna Wilson, spoke respectively on their research. Andrew is a
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering in the University of Adelaide. He has been involved in
various aspects of micro-algal biofuels for seven years, and spoke about the achievements and technical issues
associated with Muradel Pty Ltd.’s demonstration plant in Whyalla which is Australia’s first fully integrated
continuous micro-algae to green crude production plant.
Anna Wilson was the National AWA Undergraduate Water Prize winner in 2014 for her Honours project
‘Development of rapid tools for Cryptosporidium species identification’. Two species C. hominis and C. parvum
are of public health concern because they cause about 95% of infections. The current molecular tools for
Cryptosporidium species identification have several limitations including cost, contamination risk and long turnaround times. Her work evaluated and improved published polymerase chain reaction assays for
Cryptosporidium species identification, and developed a novel typing assay.
The conference closed with dinner, and an enjoyable time of networking, in the evening. Our thanks go to Alison
and members of the SA Branch Committee for all their hard work in organising this event, and to our Sponsors:
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AWA News & Events
An Insight into SA Manufacturing Plants.
AWA Site Visit
12 September 2014
The most recent Technical Event was a tour of local Manufacturers held on Friday September 12. We had a small
but engaged group who helped make the day very informative and interesting as they weren’t shy to ask
questions. The slightly over-ambitious schedule took us to five sites over the day including Grundfos, Osmoflo,
AVK Valves, Schneider Electric and Sekisui/Ribloc.
At each location we were welcomed by staff who were very keen to show us the unique features of their
processes, as well as telling us their reasons for being based in South Australia. The overall impression at the
end of the day is that we have a wealth of unique skills and diverse technologies being quietly made right here on
our doorstep; something that needs to be celebrated more widely! Each company in their own way demonstrated
a commitment to quality and continual improvement, and pride in the products they produce.
At Grundfos we learned about their long history in South Australia and how the Adelaide headquarters contributes
to the global company, in particular tailoring solutions to the Australian market, including the oil and gas industry.
Participants were then shown how custom-made pumps are assembled, and tested on the shiny new pump test
facility that has recently been installed (at a cost of $1m). The onsite rainwater harvesting system that is used to
supply water consumption around the facility, and for pump testing, was also highlighted.
The next stop was Osmoflo. Here participants heard about the company’s provision of customised advanced
treatment solutions for a wide range of applications, and how this is delivered by a multi-disciplinary team that
includes sales, design, manufacture, delivery and installation, depending on the needs of the client. Again the oil
and gas industry has featured as a growth area for Osmoflo.
The group was provided with the opportunity to inspect the manufacturing facility where there was a system in the
final stages of assembly, and to hear about the project management and quality control systems which are
particularly important when it comes to delivering to client expectations under short timeframes. The final stop
was to see the control room where Osmoflo staff work round the clock to monitor and respond to problems that
may arise at sites that they remotely monitor and maintain from their Burton facility.
Grundfos is a global leader in advanced pump
solutions and a trendsetter in water technology. We
contribute to global sustainability by pioneering
technologies that improve quality of life for people and
care for the planet. Our innovative and sustainable
pumping range ensures there is a solution for any
stage of the water lifecycle.
Osmoflo is the largest Australian owned desalination
and water recycling company. Operating to world
standards, we are a market leader in reverse osmosis
desalination technology. While the focus of our
business is providing technological services in design,
engineering, operations and maintenance; we also
have a large 18,000m2 fabrication facility in Burton,
South Australia.
AVK Valves provided a tour of their valve assembly factory and explained the entire process from acquisition of
the base components through to dispatch. We were able to see the wide range of valves they produce for water,
sewage, gas and firefighting applications. Participants were treated to an up close and personal view of the
powder coating process, and gained an understanding of the rigorous quality assurance testing that is completed
on each finished piece. We also saw the assembly of AVK’s unique gate valves which come pre-assembled with
PE-pipes for fusion welded installation.
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AWA News & Events
The AVK Group is a privately owned industrial group
that currently comprises 77 companies worldwide.
AVK Australia’s core business is the production of
gate, check and butterfly valves, hydrants, couplings
and accessories for water and gas distribution
networks, sewage, wastewater, and fire protection.
Beyond the range of locally manufactured products,
AVK Australia imports strong AVK Group owned
brands supplying valves and controls for water
treatment, dams & reservoirs, HVAC, chemical
processing, marine and other industrial sectors.
In August 2007, Schneider Electric through its Clipsal
brand announced a major commitment to Australian
manufacturing with its decision to relocate its
Adelaide office and principal manufacturing site to
a new facility at Gepps Cross, 9 km north of Adelaide.
Completed in 2009, this state of the art facility
occupies an impressive total floor area of almost
30,000 m2 and is designed to maximise manufacturing
and logistical efficiencies. All key brands within the
group share the facility.
Schneider Electric’s Clipsal factory provided an interesting contrast with a mind-boggling array of products being
produced at an astonishing rate. We were shown how they have developed innovations which help reduce the
need for staff to carry large loads including the ‘water spider’ and a large vacuum delivery system that distributes
materials throughout the factory. We were shown how automation systems have been developed to support the
assembly of high volume components while specialist products such as those for hospitals or legacy products
involve higher amounts of manual input. With a large number of staff working around the clock there is an obvious
need for a focus on safety and training, and we were given an insight into how performance is measured and
reported to staff to provide for continuous improvement.
Our final stop of the day took us to Sekisui SPR. With Ribloc joining the Sekisui family there are new products on
offer including a vacuum sewer system, SIVAC, and an underground water storage/detention system called
CROSS-WAVE. After a demonstration of the CROSS-WAVE installation process, the group toured the factory
which produces the Rib Loc spiral wound lining system invented by Bill Menzel, AO OBE, in South Australia in
1978. We were able to see the process from the blending of raw materials to the extrusion of the product, the
testing procedures carried out on each batch and finally the equipment that is used to install the product via sewer
manholes.
After a busy day a few participants enjoyed a quick drink together before heading home for the weekend.
Many thanks must go to each of the tour host locations who warmly welcomed us into their facilities and provided
a great learning experience for all who attended.
Elsie Mann
SEKISUI RibLoc Australia Pty Ltd is a manufacturer
and distributor worldwide of the Spiral wound structural
trenchless solution for non-pressure pipe applications,
suitable for diameters up to 5m. Within Australia and
New Zealand, SEKISUI RibLoc technically supports
and distributes the Nordipipe and Tubetex CIPP
trenchless pressure pipe rehabilitation systems, the
Cross Wave underground water storage solution,
SIVAC Vacuum Sewer System, Schedule 80 PVC
Pipe and fittings and the full range of Mefco and Eslon
CPVC and PVC valves.
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CROSS-WAVE product from the Sekisui RibLoc range
AWA News & Events
WaterAid News
We have two events coming up in the next couple of months; refer to the adverts in this Newsletter.
The WaterAid Football Tournament will be held at Ellis Park, West Terrace on Sunday 19 October
2014. This is always hotly contested and a lot of fun. A great day for families and team bonding.
The Annual WaterAid Golf Day will be held at North Adelaide Golf Course on Friday 28th November,
with BBQ lunch at 11 am and tee off at 12 noon. It will be followed by dinner and presentations in the
club house.
Points for participation and placing from each event will count towards the Annual Challenge Cup.
Contact me for further details at [email protected]
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Kim Falster
AWA News & Events
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AWA News & Events
Update from our CEO
The AWA’s CEO Jonathan McKeown recently attended a meeting of the South Australian Branch Committee and
provided a presentation on the direction that the AWA will be heading over the next year or so.
The Association is working on its website in order to encourage more engagement with its Members via this
medium. Further, there are plans to make it work with mobile devices, as the internet is accessed increasingly with
these gadgets.
Jonathan then went on to talk about the need for a new Business Plan. The AWA must ensure it offers value to all
its members, and that its operations are based on providing services of value to both individuals and Corporates.
4500 Individual Members and 600 Corporate Members provide 20% and 80% of Membership Revenue
respectively. Over the past twelve months there were 4000 registrations to AWA events; of these, Individuals paid
for 26% of them, with the balance being funded by Corporates. Interestingly, of the payments by Corporates, 63
members paid for 78% of the entries meaning that 10% of Corporate Members are paying for the majority of
attendances. These organisations are also providing sponsorship, and are clearly a very important group.
The Water Industry has been through its toughest times yet seen, over the last couple of years, with major
contraction over the whole country and across different sectors. Jonathan reiterated that the AWA relies almost
exclusively on one event, OzWater, in order to keep afloat as an organisation. This is clearly a vulnerable position
to be in - with all its eggs in one basket. He reflected on how AWA needs to diversify and to be able to offer much
more in order to not rely solely on this one event - in a contracting market. One exciting opportunity of huge
potential is to offer services within the zone of extraordinary growth to be found, to the north, in SE Asia.
Surveys have shown that only 38% of members are really engaged: this is partly why AWA is investing in its
website in order to see how it can offer more of interest. One thrust is to develop it as an information hub, providing
water related information to its members. On another front the organisation is investigating whether to offer an
accreditation scheme for Water Professionals. This is very likely to be worked through and offered in association
with other organisations.
To find out more there is further information on the website. To summarise, the new strategy is based on three
‘pillars’ that will position AWA in close proximity to the needs of its membership by being the essential provider of
high quality and reliable water information and data, creating a strong Professional Development program with a
linked accreditation scheme, and promoting Australia’s water capabilities, technology, services and know-how to
grow the industry and the businesses of its members.
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AWA News & Events
Kiribati: Water resource challenges
ICE WaRM Seminar Series
6 August 2014
The lack of rivers, streams and lakes offer many challenges to low lying Kiribati (pronounced ‘Kiribus’). This nation,
situated in one of the most remote locations in the world, with their increasing population and urbanization will be
among the ﬁrst to be affected by rising sea levels as a result of climate change. Water supply is primarily obtained
from groundwater lenses, beneath the coral and sand atolls, which “ﬂoat” above seawater, providing a very
tenuous water source. The lenses are shallow and fragile and their recharge is wholly dependent on rainfall.
Kiribati has many water related social and cultural issues similar to those faced by Australia’s remote Indigenous
communities. In 2012 local AWA Member Dr Phil Crawley volunteered with Australian Volunteers International,
along with his family, to help in whatever manner he could in the Water Department in this mid-Pacific nation. Phil,
who is a Principal Engineer at Tonkin Consulting, specialising in water and wastewater, gave an interesting and
frank presentation on his experiences as a Volunteer.
Phil‘s aim was to provide those at the meeting with an insight into and
flavour of his experience, as well as touching on technical issues from
his personal perspective.
He went to Kiribati with his wife and two children aged 11 and 9. His
first impressions were of a hot and humid developing country, with
rubbish everywhere and poor infrastructure. There was only one potholed road and it suffered flooding after rain. Things ran on ‘Pacific
time’; very much slower – it took three visits to open an account at the
bank.
Phil Crawley
The country consists of 32 coral atolls and one limestone island all
covering only 800 km2. Most land is less than 4 m above sea level
whilst the highest point is at 80 m ASL.
The country is poor, ranking as 122nd out of 187 countries in the UN Human Development Index and has a GDP of
US$1,420 per capita. South Tarawa is the main island and is the centre of Government and Commerce. 50% of the
nation’s population of 100,000 live on this island, and its growth rate of 3.9% outstrips the national average of 2.3%.
In addition the population is young; 36% of persons are younger than 15. They see South Tarawa as a magnet,
leading to its faster growth rate.
The thickness of the groundwater lenses is a function of land width, rainfall and extraction rates. They can be
‘destroyed’ if over extracted, taking between 10 to 20 years to recover again. The water supply is augmented by
rain-water harvesting where possible, but overall is constantly at risk of failure. It is for this reason that national
legislation is required to protect the precious groundwater resources. Strong leadership at all levels is essential as
well as coordination and cooperation between the multiple and often overlapping Government agencies.
South Tarawa is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. A quarter of its water supply is from
household wells and 67% is from a public reticulated supply. Both draw from the groundwater lenses which are all
contaminated with E.coli, nitrates and, in some locations, with hydrocarbons and heavy metals. All water needs to
be boiled before use. Phil mentioned that the sea near their house, which was otherwise ‘idyllic’, was unsafe to
swim in due to faeces in the water.
The public supply which is treated by aeration and chlorination runs along the length of the atoll. Phil described a
system that is crippled through lack of maintenance, illegal connections, growth in demand, 50% to 60% of water
wastage, and over extraction. One of the water reserves had illegal squatters on it, aggregate mining down to the
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AWA News & Events
water table, and an active cemetery over it.
Clearly the water supply for South Tarawa is in a dire condition. Phil was instrumental in getting a Paper into the
Government, which was endorsed by Cabinet, describing the requirement for protection of the two lenses, a
reduction in wastage, reform of the water supply tariff, and investment in an increased use of rain water harvesting.
Kiribati is currently facing significant water resource issues, with the challenges compounded by political, social and
cultural aspects. Phil said that the way forward requires strong leadership, particularly at a political level, and that
the challenges need to be locally owned but with external support for solution implementation.
Meet the AWA SA Committee
Hobbies past or present? Long distance walking
– I have enjoyed Scotland’s West Highland Way
and England’s Coast to Coast. Playing an acoustic
guitar
Rugby, AFL or soccer? Soccer, but more as a
player in the past
John
Skirrow
Qualifications: Chartered Engineer, Member of
the Institution of Civil Engineers and of
Engineers Australia
Current employer and position: Parsons
Brinckerhoff, Senior Water Engineer
Career path: Land surveyor, structural
engineering technician, various engineering
roles within a major British Water Company
What was your first job? It was a summer
holiday job working as a hired hand for a City of
London banker on his hobby farm in Essex
What are the important qualities required to
be a good manager? Lead by example. Stretch
your team, but with reasonableness and
sensitivity. Engage your whole team. Good
communication.
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What is your favourite film? No stand-out
favourite but I enjoyed Gandhi, The Killing Fields
(in which I appreciated the performance of Haing
Ngor), Forrest Gump, LOTR
What can’t you do without? Being a Pom, I was
happy to find I can buy Branston Pickle here!
What was a defining moment in your life?
Getting married, and fatherhood (three times)
What advice would you give to a young person
just starting out in our industry? The industry
requires so many different skills-sets. Try to
experience different roles in order to find one you
enjoy
What would your dream holiday be? Backpacking around East and Southern Africa. A roadtrip across America
What’s in your music player currently? Bhundu
Boys, Papa Wemba, Gurrumul - I enjoy World
music, particularly from the African continent
What is the most important factor for success?
Practice, perseverance, bravery

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