Water Journal May 2004

AWA AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION

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Volume 31 No 3 May 2004 Journal of the Australia n Water Association

Editorial Board F R Bishop, Chairman B N Anderson, G Finke, G Finlayson, G A Holder, B Labza, M Muntisov, P Nadebaum, J D Parker, F Roddick, G Ryan, S Gray, A Gibson, P Mosse

OPINION

', Water is a refereed journal. This symbol indicates chat a paper has been refereed.

6

Submissions

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Instructions for authors can be found on page 24 of chis journal. Submissions accepted at: www.awa.asn.au/publicacions/

WATERAID

Managing Editor

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

2

The National Water Initiative; CSDl 2 - The Process Explained; My Point of View, Integrated Water Cycle Management: A Way Forward, F Sartor

ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES AWA Endorses Outdoor Water Saving Scheme

INTERNATIONAL

12

Including IWA Australia Report and WEF Report WaterAid-Styled Charity in Australia

Peter Stirling

14

Technical Editor

ENVIRO 04

E A (Bob) Swinton 4 Pleasant View Cres, Wheelers Hill Vic 3150 Tel/Fax (03) 9560 4752 Email: bswinton@bigpond.nec.au

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SUSTAINABLE WATER USE

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Australian Water Association

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AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION

Chris D avis Australian Water Association (AWA) assumes no responsibility for opinions or statements of fuccs expressed by contributors or advertisers. Editorials do not necessarily represent official AWA policy.

AdvercisementS are included as an information service co readers and are reviewed before publication co ensure relevance co the water environment and objectives of AWA. All material in Water is copyright and should not be reproduced wholly or in pare without the written permission of the Managing Editor.

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THE AURORA ESTATE. YARRA VALLEY WATER'S APPROACH The water company's business assessment of the development. T Kelly ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES: THE PIMPAMA-COOMERA SCHEME Novel plans to meet the anticipated demand on the Gold Coast. S Cox

46

ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES: SYDNEY WATER'S EXPERIENCE To become less "alternative" incurs both barriers and challenges. J H ansen

50

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS CAN DELIVER SUSTAINABLE WATER USE An international program to assist local governments. J Nechwatal

REGULATION 55

ASSET MANAGEMENT: WHY IS THE REGULATOR INTERESTED? Victoria's new system for controlling the water industry. J Tamblyn

CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT 57

PATHOGEN FATE AND TRANSPORT IN SURFACE WATER FLOWS Measuring the transfer from cow paddock to reservoir. C Davies, C Kaucner, N AJtavilla, N Ashbolt, W H ijnen, G Medema, D Deere, M Krogh, C Ferguson

63

IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THE ANSWER FOR ICM? A proper learning process can influence community decisions. C Phillips, W AJlen , M Kilvingcon

Water is sent to all AWA members eight times a year. Ic is also available via subscription.

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A THIRD PIPE RECYCLED WATER SCHEME: BUSINESS RISK CONSIDERATIONS The Aurora development near Melbourne is novel but new risks have to be managed,

42

Chief Executive Officer

WATER POLICY IN AUSTRALIA: HEALTHY COUNTRY SCIENCE Outlining the National Research Flagship Program. C C reighton

is published eight times a year in the months of February, March, May, June, August, September, November and December.

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3rd IWA Specialised Conference on Sequencing Batch Reactor Technology, J MendozaRoca and the Local Organ ising Commi ttee; Oz Aquarec Update, M M uston; Onsite and Small Systems Conference, C D avis

Water (ISSN 0310 - 0367)

Rod Lehmann

Featuring selected highlights from the AWA email News

CONFERENCE REPORTS

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N ational Sales Manager: Brian Rault T el (03) 9530 8900 Fax (03) 9530 89 I 1 Mobile 04 11 354 050 Email: braulc@halledic.com.au

Conference Report: A useful conference with some valuable papers on the CD ROM with a selection published in this issue, R epo rt by EA (Bob) Swinton

CROSSCURRENT 26

Water Production

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WATER BUSINESS 67 SPECIAL FEATURES:

ODOUR CONTROL; INSTRUMENTATION AND SCADA

OUR COVER: Enviro 04: Sustainability was the dominant theme in this year's conference.

Our demands on the water environment are increasing year by year and it seems that the yields in our catchments will probably decrease. Can we learn to cope? Alternative sources will have to be harnessed ... not in the distant, but in the foreseeable future.

from the president

THE NATIONAL WATER INITIATIVE Ir is pleasing to report on another successful Enviro Convention. With 1323 delegates and 234 trade exhibitors Enviro04 exceeded our expectations after a nervous previous month where the number registrants looked like b eing lower than our expectations. The trade exh ibi tion was outstanding and attracted 2 168 visitors.

Our thanks to the C hair of Enviro04, Paul H owlett for his outstanding efforts and organising committee chairs Allen Gale (Sustainable Industry), Or Peter Nadebaum (AWA Water), Mark Glover (WMAA Waste), Fiona W ain (EBA Business of the Environ ment) and Robin Ormerod (CASANZ O dour) as well as all those who contributed their time to making this conve ntion a success.

An issu e which received a lot of discu ss ion at Enviro04 was water allocation and water trading. Keynote speaker Professor J oe D ellapenna from Villanova University noted that the best app roach was to treat water as public p roperty for which basic allocation decisions are mad e by public agencies. H e noted char in the US, state governments had concluded that d espite

distribut ive justice. He noted rhar p rivate-property markers did not work well for water where one user attempts to con vey a water right to another particularly to one seeking to make a substantially di fferent use of the water as the problem of "externali ties" arises. H e stared that treating water as private p roperty rends to freeze patterns of use rather than create a market.

As I write this, the round of consultative meetings for the N ational W ater Initiative (NWI) have come to an end and organisations will be preparing to make final , written submissions to reinforce whatever points they made at the meetings held around the country. If we draw upon Professor O ellapenna's findings, an area of particular interest in regard to the NWI would be the proposals regarding water trading. U ndoubtedly, water trading has already been very successful in some regions of Australia wh ere the trade h as enabled more profitable enterprises to buy water from ones with lower margins. This may have b een b en eficia l in improving rhe efficiency of farm production , bur may result in other disbenefits. For example, selli ng irrigation

There seems to be a sort ofgentlemen's agreement in place that the Commonwealth will not attempt to ride roughshod over state or territory sensibilities, so the net result in water reform, as I dare say in any other reform, is slow progress. considerable difficulties in defining what were the proper goals or in making the right decisions to ach ieve those goals, public property offers signifi cant advantages over common and private property in terms of effi cien cy and

2 MAY 2004

water

water from a low-margin operation to a high-margin operation further down stream migh t make economic sense, but th e impact of irrigation on the new sire, and the change to the river flow regime, may well be more environmentally

competition or opposition to others, and these need to be talked through. It is encouraging rhat they all seem to be acutely aware of the need for speedy resolution and a general forward momentum. Ir seems, too, that Commonwealth offi cials are equally keen to find a way fo rward.

severe than the original situation - this may not be captured in the trading process and regulations would be needed to limit the damage.

No doub t our regularors and our technical experts face many challenges when designing the environmental fl ow rules associated with water trading. There have been many forum s on this issue held around the country over recent rimes and I'm sure there is need for more.

Perhaps A WA co uld facilitate some of this discussion.

AWA had representatives at most of the regional meetings for the NWI and they noted char the issues may well be turning o ut to be more complex than they fi rst appeared. This is indicated by two facto rs: firstly it is now about seven months since the fi rst communique was released; and secondly th e discussion paper released was still quite general and 'h ighlevel' in nature, and d idn 't deal with the myriad, derailed questions that will h ave to be add ressed. I t also appears that the energy to in troduce more reforms in the urban water area has waned a little, at least relative to the focus on water entitlements, trading and the carrying of risks.

Obviously, protagonists representing a range of interests have views and need s that are often in direct

Experience has shown chat it is difficult to bring together the various jurisdictional governments, with their various policy and statutory frameworks, into a single natio nal accord. Many would say that there is no need to, as long as they all work to a commonly agreed set of principles. There seems to be a sort of gentlemen's agreement in place chat rhe Commonwealth will nor attempt to ride roughshod over state or termory sensibilities, so rhe net result in water reform , as I dare say in any other reform, is slow progress.

As an outcome of the NWI paper, AWA has made a submission to the NWI. In it we offered the cautio nary observations of Professor D ellapenna on water trading, endorsed whatever the NWI might be able to do ro help es tablish some sort of framework to prorecr rivers of high conservation value ('wild' or 'natural' rivers) and offered to do whatever we can to progress matters, particularly in the area of new u rban water reforms. T he early indicatio ns from chis area were char it is intending to address some exci ting challenges in the areas of water conservation and water recycling, including stormwarer management. As you well know, these are matters on which AWA has much to offer. I'll keep you informed as the development of the NWI progresses.

Rod Lehmann

conferences

One of the lively discussion sessions.

• Technical guidelines fo r sire evaluation, design, construction, operation and acceptable prescriptive designs fo r specific sire conditions • Education and training fo r all practitioners in rhe onsire profession, along wi th system planners and owners • Certification and/o r licensing fo r all practitioners co mai n rain standards of competence and conduce • Program review co identify knowledge gaps and im plemen tation shortco mings followed by necessary co rrective actions.

Prof Peter Wilderer pointed our char fl ushing sewers have become rhe backbone of urban wastewater systems, bm char the concept of using precious water and mixing it with wastes co propel ch em down gravity sewers is nor sustainable. For

developing co mmunities the coses are unsupportable and fo r developed ones, the enviro nmental outcomes are nor acceptable any longer. H e urged a flexible, communitydriven approach co fi ndi ng approp riate solutions.

Ian Gunn (NZ) gave a sweep ing history of the evo lmion of onsite systems in New Zealand and Australia, fro m a 1950s, command-andconrrol, arbitrary set of rules about septic ranks (which were, once in, left co their own devices) chat grad ually evolved co a much more scientific and pragmatic approach. He noted char technology is no longer a barrier, bur stressed the need fo r professional training and for an integrated approach co site assessmenr, design, installation, maintenance and monitoring of onsite systems.

THE BELLAGIO PRINCIPLES 1. Human dignity, quality of life and environmental security at household level should be at the centre of the new approach, which should be respo nsive and accountable to needs and demands in the local and national setting.

2. In line with good governance principles, decision making should involve participation of all stakeholders, especially the consumers and providers of services.

3. Waste sho uld be considered a resource, and its management should be holistic and fo rm pare of integrated water resources, nutrient flow and waste management.

4. The domain in which enviro nmental sanitation problems are resolved should be kept co the minim um practical size (household, commu nity, rown, district, catchment, city) and wastes diluted as little as possible.

Roland Schercenleib (Switzerland) also poinred up the fu ndamental deficiencies in our current water-borne sewerage model. H e explai ned the Bel lagio Principles relati ng co sanitation, as agreed by rhe Water and Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council in 2000 (see box) and noted that sustainable, ecosanitarion will require a fu ndamental rethin k of many activities. H e stressed that fastgrowing metropoli ses are characterised by considerable heterogeneity, so it will be necessary co adapt solutions co local cond itions and co know no t only treatment options, their perfo rmance and cost, bu t also the institutional and human resource requirements and human resource implications.

Peter Beavers (QLD) outli ned the challenges facing regulators in the field of onsite

_ANALYSIS CONSENSUS DESIGN MANAGEMENT

wastewater systems. They have co assist in developi ng technology as well as advising proponents, then try co police the outco mes as wel l. He noted that embarking on new technological directions always involves an element of risk, so regulators have be rolerant of that risk when they move fo rward with the industry co adopt new approaches.

A vibrant series of papers and panel discussions followed , and tea and meal breaks were characterised by animated discussions.

This event was underwritten

by IWA, AWA, AWA's N OSSIG and the US National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association (NOWRA). Prof Goen Ho, as Co nference Chair, was ably supported by Dr Kuruvilla Mathew, who shouldered most of the burden of pull ing this successful event together.

STORM_CONSULTING is proud to launc h its new look to the industry. With the new look comes a ra nge of new services providing a one-stop-shop for catchment managers and developers alike. Also note our two new South Coast NSW office locations.

Email info@stormconsulting.com.au or call 02 9499 4333 to find out more.

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water

Eurobodalla MAv 2004 33

Managing water tO meet agricultural, fisheri es, urban , community and environmental needs is the key t0 Australia's future. Our develop ment depends upon it.

As the scarce resource, water dominates much of Australia's natural resources debate, as it does, indeed, global ly.

Australia 's continued comm itment tO policy improvement through the Cou ncil of Australian Governments is world leading.

Australia's communi ty respo nse, required of all water users, is also unsurpassed world wide. Our graziers, dryland farmers, irrigarors, urban dwellers, fish ers, water auth orities, irrigation scheme managers, miners, processo rs and heavy industries are all improving practices.

So what of the science - is it d el ivering t0 policy and user needs? Again our science is up there with the best in the world, but again, it needs to continually improve its game. Science is comparatively na'ive in comparison co the complex decisions chat all of us as water managers make daily. Science may never deliver the co mplexity of information rapidly and in forms which we can assimilate co make the trade offs and valu e judgments requi red in water use decisio ns.

So the managers make decisions anyway and as scientists we strive t0 improve information to fo ster even better decisions.

With time we also add exp erience and feedback on previous decisions so we all continuously improve the management decisions.

34 MA y 2004

water

Our Challenges T here are three big and Australia-wide scien ce challenges for us in water. Getting more information on these and improving practice based on chis information will underpin Australia's development - its economy, social n eeds and environmental values.

In summary they are water access, smarter water use and system-based water management

• Better water access - Improving systems for entitlements and access rights for water we can only do this if we better understand wh ere the water (surface or groundwater) is in che catchment and beccer predict how these water accounts migh t change wich climate variab ility and changed land and water use • Smarter water use - to improve efficiency and productivity for all water uses. We need water accounts, bu t with an intensity of scale and coverage that will facilitate economic decisio ns at suburb, farm and scheme levels to maximise water b enefits. In both urban and rural settings we must ask what are the values we are curren tly gaining, and can we sh ift water t0 a higher value use. In other words, can smarter water use wring o ut more benefits from che same amount of water. On che ocher hand we have co balance rhe coses against th e returns, socially, economically and en vironmen tally.

• Systems-based water management protecting, repairing and managing key natural assets and ecosystems. These are particularly our rivers, estuaries, wetlands and riparian systems. D ecisions for investm ent can be best made followi ng pred ictive analysis of various opportunities and interactio ns between scenarios layered on top of a natural tapestry of climatic and wildlife pop ulation variability.

We are aiming for multiple objectives, bu t can we even agree on what they are?

We have to measure, or estimate, the relative impacts of quantity, quali ty, hydrology, cemperacure, habitat, tidal flow , ecc. boch spatially down a river, and for the d ifferent components, not only the river itself, but the associated riparian zones, wetlands and floodplain s. This is com plex science matched of course by the complexity of decision making required. At the very lease our science should be designed co provide knowledge so th at these complex d ecisions are made in an informatio n co ntext.

T h e Waterfor a Healthy Country National Research Flagsh ip is working in four key areas, all with their particular water managemenc challenges and oppo rcunicies: • Great Barrier Reef catchments • M urray River • SW Western Australia, the entire SwanAvon • Urban Australia - starting with Melbourne, Sydney and Perch

Below briefly describes rhe Murray as an example of rhe multi-disciplinary science embodied in rhe Flagshi p.

The Murray Initiative T he key challenge is to deliver a healthy trip le bottom-li ne system based on scenarios of land use practice and water management for rhe Murray catchment.

We are researching rhe narural resource landscapes, use patterns, productivity and opportunities for improvement from rhe uplands above Albury down to rhe Lake Alexandrina-Cooro ng esruary and nearshore mari ne areas, including bur nor restricted ro rhe six recently named iconic areas. We are building our science program to be multi-disciplinary and through ongoi ng comm unity interactio n ensuri ng our science is done to and with a clear understanding of community needs. T he needs of these co mm unities vary region by region down rh e length of the Murray.

We are aiming at whole-of-system understandin g, sufficient to underpin rhe Mi nisterial Council and Prime Minister's visio ns fo r rhe Murray, bur also providing local and tactical recipes, suffic ient in scale to info rm and support rhe in vestment strategies being developed by catchment management groups. We need our science to highlight policy opportu nities while right now deli vering information that ca n underpin and provide directions for smarter water management, healthier ecosys tems and profitable rural co mmunities. Certainly rhe cross-disciplin e challenges and multiple scales required of our information to foster improved management are worthy of a Flagsh ip-sryle i ni ciacive.

Attitudes Parr of what our science must deliver is the increasing use of "benefits" and "opporrn niries" as the language of decision maki ng. We need a shift in our commu nity attirudes and thus our language. There has been much ralk of "500 mega lirres for the Murray" . We should be talki ng instead of benefits in terms of com modities, social satisfaction and ecological improvement.

Likewise, instead of 'salinity at Morgan' we should talk of water co ndition , and what uses the water can support, or, instead of water quality entering rhe Great Barrier Reef, the loss of fish and prawn popul ations.

As scientists we have to go beyond the usual measures of science to talking in terms char allow the commun ity to make better decisions, thus helpi ng managers to better apportion water reso urces to our multiple community needs.

Our roll-out of the Flagship is already in progress with scientists from across a seri es of insrirurions, including Universities, Cooperative Research Centres and Government agencies already involved.

For Australia's future it is imperative that we succeed in smarter water management our economi c prosperi ty depends upon it whether ir is the Murray and irs essential irrigation industry, the Grear Barrier Reef and its world renown fisheries and rourism or urban Australia and the contin ually increasing demands for more water as cit ies expa nd.

The Author Colin Creighton is Direcror of the CSIRO National Flagship Program, Water

for a Healthy Country. colin.creighton@csiro.au

water

MAY 2004 35

A THIRD PIPE RECYCLED WATER SCHEME: BUSINESS RISK CONSIDERATIONS P R Nadebaum, F Pamminger, L Moore Abstract

Aurora Third Pipe System Conceptual Design """~'.oi

VicUrban is develop ing approximately 8500 residential lots co 'show case' new standards for environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development in Victoria., including an alternative water cycle Adopting chis will bring new scientific and legal risks. T he key is co ensure chat the risks are suitably managed. The largest residual risks at Aurora were assessed as ensuring chat reclaimed water was actually used in balance, and improper use of reclaimed water and cross connections were avoided.

Trctn(.1(1 lO W asttwatCf

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36 MAY 2004

21

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VicUrban is undertaking an 8500 lot residential development north of Melbourne at Epping North. named Aurora. T heir objective is to use chis to 'show case' new standards for environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development in Victoria. Water conservation will be a key fea ture, and it is proposed that chis be achieved by using AAA rated household appliances (low water use), rainwater tanks, and recycling treated wastewater back via a third pipe for toiler flushing and garden use, where it will be disposed of by 'land use'.

It is projected chat these methods will: • reduce the demand for potable water to 30% of that normally required, and • avoid the need co discharge sewage from the development, avoiding a long and costly outfall sewer from the estate.

VicUrban proposes chat the responsibility fo r water supply and wastewater disposal will lie with Yarra Valley Water Ltd (YVW), che water authority responsible for provision of these services in the region.

YVW strongly supports the initiative.

H owever, because the development introduces a number of new concepts and operational requirements chat are different from chose involved in servicing a normal residential development, there is potential

water

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Figure 1. Conceptua l flow diagram for the Aurora System. for a significant business risk to the water authority. In order co ensure that the risks had been identified and would be acceptable, YVW undertook a business risk analysis co identify new risks.

They also support a pilot scheme being operated in the CERES sire, Brunswick, Vic and are mo ni toring water quality. (Robercs & King, 2004).

Objectives and Guiding Principles The objective of ch is study was to undertake an independent review of the Aurora project co determine the business risk associated with the proposed services and, where the risks exceeded chat for rradicional services, co recommend options co reduce the risk co acceptable levels together with reporting on the red uction in risk that can be achieved. YVW's guiding principles with respect to the system were: • YVW will assume ownership and management respo nsibility for the provision of all water, sewerage and recycled water services within the estate.

• Customer service standards for services provided using a non-traditional service option should nor be materially inferior to

the service standards provided using trad itional approaches.

• Department of Human Services guidelines and standards will be achieved and Environment Protection Authority approval will be achieved prior to im plementation of alternative service options chat could impact healch or the environment.

• An y potential risks associated with an alternative service option will have a management plan chat will include monitoring and the capacity to revere to an option carrying the same risk as traditional services.

• Developer prices will be set to recover YVW's costs, established using an 'open book' cost model.

Methodology The review was based on the Framework for Management ofDrinking Water Quality being incorporated in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, and the risk management principles outlined in AS4360 (Risk Management). This involved: • An in-house review of the proposed system against the management elements of

the Framework to ensure char the elements of good management relevant to the water supply system are in place.

• A review of rhe proposed system against a checklist of possible causes of system failure and risks to identify possible fail ure modes and risks, and to consider what disadvantages, such as loss of water saving, and benefits would occur if measures were ro be taken which would reduce rhe risk.

• A review of the legal aspects of the proposed scheme. Risks char were determined to be high or extreme were further assessed to determine how the risk may be reduced.

The Proposed Aurora System Flow schematics for rhe Aurora system and the house co mponent are shown in Figures I and 2. Key features are: • Conventional domestic gravity sewerage collection system.

• Conventional sewage treatment system with no tertiary treatment for nutrient removal, achievi ng a Class B effluent standard.

• Emergency and balancing storage, with created wastewater lagoon storage sufficient to provide storage of effluent du ring winter when demand for reclaimed water is low • Emergency discharge to creek • Recycled water treatment plant creating to a Class A standard including chlorination • Dedicated reclaimed water rericulation system (th ird pipe system).

• Use of reclaimed water for municipal and ind ustrial uses (eg watering of playing fields and grassed areas), fire-fighting sys rem (hydrants), external garden use by residents, and hard piped fo r toiler fl ushi ng.

• Rainwater collection and storage system.

First flush bypass. Rainwater pumped to pressure solar hot water system (gas boost) operating at 65°C to provide for disinfection . UV may be added to provide additional disinfection. Potable water will be piped directly into the inlet to the hot water system for make up as required. Cold potable water wi ll be supplied at mains pressure and mixed with hot rainwater through a tempering valve to reduce rhe hoc water temperature to 45 - 55°C. There will be a Customer Contract between YVW and the customers. T his will exclude certain uses (eg drinking) .

Issues Identified from the Management Systems Review In undertaking the review of management systems for the scheme, it was assumed char: • YVW will develop a HACCP plan for rhe new scheme as an extension to YVW's existing HACCP Plan.

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Figure 2. Conceptual flow diagram for the Aurora Individual House System.

• YVW will extend compo nents of its existing management system as required for the new scheme, eg for emergency response, training, com munity consultation, audit, and management review and contin uous improvement. The management systems review indicated char: • The EPA Guidelines fo r use of Reclaimed Water (EPA, 2002) provide guidance on rhe requirements for reclaimed water schemes.

These provide an important set of requirements for rhe management system to comply with, including HACCP Plan Critical Control Limits. They do nor extend

co certain uses (eg recreational use of water including make up for swimming pools a nd playing under sprinklers, potable use, or watering of garden crops which are consumed wet) . The ability to exclude th ese uses by residents' use needs carefu l consideration.

• If more sensitive uses of reclaimed water were to be proposed (such as recreational use) , validation of critical limits for these uses would be an important requ irem ent and could be di fficult.

• Traini ng of staff and contracto rs will b e an important component of rhe

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MAY 2004 37

sustainable water use management req uirements. YVW has an existing program of training chat will need to be extended.

• Important considerations relating to the Customer Charter include: - the extent of liaison with the community, prior to building the schem e, required to confirm their acceptance of the restrictions associated with che proposed scheme (such as restrictio ns on use of reclaimed water) and requirements regarding access prior to bu ilding rhe scheme; - the ex rent of liaison with customers, when rhe sch eme is operati ng, required ro ensure their customers' awareness of rhe requirements; and - whether YVW has legal rights to access to customer's properties as requ ired under rhe scheme, and rhe restrictions imposed on rhe usage of water supplied are reasonable and con sistent with the req uirements of the Trade Practices Act.

Issues Identified from the Assessment of the Water Supply Systems Many aspects of the proposed scheme involved water and sewerage system s chat were co nventional in narnre, and did not give rise to an u nusual level of risk . These included, for exa mple: • Domestic wastewater collection, transfer and storage systems;

Table 1. Higher Risk aspects of the Water Supply Scheme.

Aspect Risk Minimisation

Strategy

•

Potable water supply system d irectly connected to the reclaimed water supply for make up

Desi gn system so that direct connection is not requ ired

•

Accidental cross connection between the recla imed water system and the potable system

High Level of Scheme Management

•

Improper use of reclaimed water where the water is used for watering of public open space

Comply with guidelines

•

Failure of treatment and d isinfection systems

Design and operation of systems

•

Use of reclaimed water from fire hydrants by water carters

Signage and community awareness program

•

Improper use of reclaimed water by residents (eg swimmi ng pools)

Awareness program

•

Accidental cross connection within households

High level of scheme management

•

Management of systems (cost)

Careful planning

•

Insufficient treated effluent storage leading to requirement to dispose of effluent that does not comply with requirements

System design

•

Developer - YVW agreement that gives rise to loss of income if scheme does not proceed

Planning

•

Prici ng structures

Careful pla nning and agreement wi th Government on pricing

•

Design of scheme, particularly related to the overall water balance and provision for disposal of excess effluent (avoiding need for outfoll sewer)

Planning

•

Customer acceptance and customer use of water (and hence inability to achieve the assumed water balance)

Customer awareness program

•

Service provision within customer properti es

Pla nni ng

•

Training of YVW staff, and plumbers and contractors

Training scheme

• Sewage treat ment;

YVW to greater legal liability. For th is

• Reticulation (including the third pipe system);

reason , YVW commissioned a legal analysis to determine rhe potential sources of legal

• Fire fighting sup ply;

liability associated with the supply of

• Rainwater systems.

reclaimed water fo r residential use, and how

However, some aspects of the proposed scheme did present a high level of risk.

These are su mmarised in Tab le 1.

legal analysis revealed that two of the m ost

th ose legal risks could be red uced .. The significan t areas of exposure with respect to

Issues Identified from the Review of Legal Aspects

the supply of reclaimed water for res idential

T he additional risks associated with the Auro ra sch em e h ave the potential to expose

• reclai med water not m eeting the quality

use were associated with : requirem ents for C lass A water; and

• customers improperly using reclaimed water in their residential households.Given the d esign of the Aurora schem e, the m ost likely " improper uses" chat were identified were: - a person d rinking reclaimed water fro m an external tap ; or - a person d rinking reclaimed water after a cross connectio n between rhe potable and non potable water supply systems occurred.

Whilst YVW is exp erienced in managing water "quality" risks, managing the risk of "im p roper use" by customers is somewhat

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more di fficult, and required consideration of how che scheme could be designed and managed so as co minimise rhe risk of improper use.

Statutes In Victoria, there are a number of Aces, Regulations and Guidelines rhac impose legal obligations on a water company chat supplies reclaimed water. While this report specifica lly addresses Victorian requirements, similar legislation ex ists in other jurisdictions.

Relevant Vicrorian scacu ces include (a mong ochers) : • the Environment Protection Act l 970 (Vic); • the Health Act 1958 (Vic); • the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Commonwealth); and • che Water Industry Act 1994 (Vic).

The Victorian Environment Proter:tion Act im poses liability on persons who cause or permi t pollution. If a water authority supplies reclaimed water with out im plementing appropriate management controls, there is a risk char the reclaimed water could cause poll ution of surface or groundwater bod ies. T he Victo rian

Environment Protection Authority's Guidelines for Environmental Management: Use of Reclaimed Water sec our a range of management controls des igned co ensure chat the supply and use of reclai med water does not pose a risk co the environment or co human health. Compliance with che Guidelines is likely co reduce the risk char poll ution will occur. If pollution does occur, compliance with che Gu idelines may reduce the likelihood char che Environment Protection Authority will seek co prosecute fo r an offence under che Environment Protection Act, or may mitigate the penalty char may be imposed by a Court as a consequence of convictio n for a pollution offence.

Co mpliance with the Guidelines may also be a co ndition of che environmental approvals issued by che Environment Protection Authority fo r che construction and operation of che sewage treatment plane or che reclaimed water treatment plane.

Fo r these reasons, ir is considered highly important char the management system fo r che Aurora scheme is developed in consulration with the Environment P ro tection Authority and che Department of Human Services, and is approved by

chese authorities as complying with rhe requirements of che Guidelines.

Ocher relevant Victorian seacures incl ude che Health Act, which makes it an offence for a perso n co cause a nuisance by doin g something char is dangerous co healch, or noxious or injurious co personal comfort.

The Trade Practices Act imposes liability if goods and services are nor fie fo r their intended purposes or are defective. Ir also imposes liability for co nduce char is misleadi ng or deceptive.

W ith regard co offences under rhe Environment Protection Act and che Health Act, ic is co nsidered unlikely char a wate r company would incur liability if a perso n uses reclaimed water for an improper purpose, or if a cross co nnection occurs for which chey were nor responsible, provided che water company implements appropriate management controls co reduce che risk of . . improper use occurring.

With regard co the Trade Practices Act, the water co mpany needs co ensure that it info rms cusco mers of the nacure of the reclaimed water and what it can be used for.

T his is no different co the issues that wa ter companies face in delivering potable water, or co those who deliver uncreated water. I r

sustainable water use is the supply of defective goods, as defined in the Trade Practices Act, which introduces a new dimension probably not normally faced by a water company. A 'defect' may exist if the good is not what a p erson is generally entitled to expect. From that perspective, it is p robably reasonable for a person to expect to be able to drink from an outside cap. To reduce chis risk of liability, customers need to be made fully aware of the purposes for which reclaimed water may be used, including by implementing measures such as colour coding and labelling external reclaimed water caps and erecting warning signs in suburban streets.

The Victorian Water Industry Act gives water and sewerage licensees in the Melbourne metropolitan area powers to construct and operate its systems. There is uncertainty as to whether the statutory powers granted to YVW under the Water Industry Act and other governing instruments made under chat Act extend to che supply of reclaimed water. If YVW cannot rely on its statutory powers to impose conditions about che use of reclaimed water an d to monitor customer compliance with , it must rely on its limited powers as a company. As a company, YVW would be unable to The Victorian Environment Protection Act imposes liability on persons who cause or permit pollution. If a water authority supplies reclaimed water without implementing appropriate management controls, there is a risk char the reclaimed water could cause pollution of surface or groundwater bodies. The Victorian Environment Proceccion Authority's Guidelines on the Use ofReclaimed Water sec out a range of management controls designed to ensure chat the supply and use of reclaimed water does not pose a risk to the environment or to human healch.

Compliance with the Guid elines is likely to reduce th e risk char pollution will occur. If pollution does occur, compliance with the Guidelines may reduce the likelihood chat the Environment Protection Authority will seek to prosecute for an offence under the Environment Protection Act, or may mitigate the penalty ch at may be imposed by a Court as a con sequence of conviction for a pollution offence.

C ompliance with the G uidelines may also be a condition of the environmental approvals issued by the Environment Protection Authori ty fo r the construction and operation of the sewage treatment plant or the reclaimed water treatment plane.

For these reasons, it is considered highly important chat the management system for the Aurora scheme is developed in consultation with the Environment Protection Authority and the D epartmenc of

40 MAY 2004

water

Human Services, and is approved by these authorities as complying with the requiremencs of the Guidelines.

Other relevant Victorian statutes include the Health Act, which makes it an offence for a person to cause a nuisance by doing something chat is dangerous to health, or noxious or injurious to personal comfort.

T he Trade Practices Act imposes liability if goods and services are not fit for their intended purposes or are defective. It also imposes liability for conduct chat is misleading or deceptive.

With regard to offences under the

Environment Protection Act and the Health Act, it is considered unlikely chat a water company would incur liability if a person uses reclaimed water for an improper purpose, or if a cross connection occurs for which they were not responsible, provided the water company implements appropriate management controls to reduce the risk of improper use o ccurring.

With regard to the Trade Practices Act, the water co mpany needs to ensure chat it informs customers of the nature of the reclaimed water and what it can be used for.

This is no different to the issues chat water companies face in delivering potable water, or to chose who deliver untreated water. It is the supply of defective goods, as defined in the Trade Practices Act, which in troduces a new dimension probably not normally faced by a water company. A 'defect' may exist if the good is not what a person is generally encided to expect. From that perspective, it is probably reasonable for a person to expect to be able to drink from an outside cap. To reduce chis risk of liability, customers need to be made fully aware of the purposes fo r which reclaimed water may be used, including by implemencin g measures such as colour coding and labelling external reclaimed water caps and erecting warning signs in suburban streets.

The Victorian Water Industry Act gives water and sewerage licensees in the Melbourne metropolitan area powers to construct and operate its systems. There is uncertainty as to whether the statutory powers granted to YVW under the Water Industry Act and other governing in struments made under chat Act extend co the supply of reclaimed water. IfYVW cannot rely on its statutory powers to impose conditions about the use of reclaimed water and to monitor customer compliance w ith , it must rely on its limited powers as a company. As a company, YVW would be unable co impose conditions on customers about the use of reclaimed water via the mechanism of the "implied customer contract". As such, it would n eed to enter inco a separate agreement with each customer for the supply

of reclaimed water. Clearly, chis is a disincentive co the supply reclaimed water. It would be preferable if the current uncertainty surro unding the extenc of YVW's statutory powers in relation co reclaimed water was resolved by legislative amendments to the Water Industry Act to make clear chat th e supply of reclaimed water falls within its statutory fun ctions as a water and sewerage licensee.

Common Law In add ition co potential liability for offences under legislation, a water company may also be exposed co liability under the common law of negligence or nuisance in relation co the supply of reclaimed water for residential use.

The most likely cause of action against a water company is in negligence. To successfully sue in negligence, a claimant essentially needs to establish that the water company breached its "duty of care" to the claimant, and the claimant has suffered an injury or loss as a result. A water company will breach its duty of care to a person if it should have reasonably foreseen chat its con duce in supplying reclaimed water could cause harm co a person, and it failed to do what a reasonable person in the water company's position would do co avert that harm.

Recent decisions in the High Court indicate chat it is necessary to undertake a risk analysis to determine if a duty of care has been breached. This requires the likelihood and consequence of a particular risk co be determined, together with an assessment of what could be reasonably taken to eliminate the risk in light of the cost inconvenience and difficulty of doing so.

Minimising the Risk of Legal Liability One obvious way co reduce the risk of legal liability is co ensure the system is designed co minimise the risk of improper use. T he Guidelines provide excellent advice in chis respect, and the risk of legal liability will be reduced by taking measures such as : • Colour coding of pipes, meters and taps; • Keyed locks; • Potable caps ou tside; • D ifferent hose fittings; • Running a community awareness program; • Educating employees; • Operating the reclaimed water supply system at a lower pressure; and • Keeping abreast of scientific knowledge and acting on this knowledge. (Also see Moore (2003).

Discussion and Conclusions The key areas of residual risk idencified in the risk assessment from a third pipe system,

assumi ng rhar design issues were able to be satisfactorily resolved, were: • Uncertainty in the extent to which residents will use potable water and not use reclaimed water. If residents use more potable water and less reclaimed water than assumed, this could lead to excess water which is not able to be disposed of in an acceptable way. T he residents' usage of reclaimed water instead of potable water will depend on a variety of facto rs, includi ng whether usage is mandatory (eg use of reclaimed water for toilet flushing), the co nstraints and coses associated with the usage of reclaimed water and potable water, and the extent to which res idents will accept those constraints and costs.

• Improper use of reclaimed water by residents. This can be minim ised by colour coding, signage and keyed caps. T he likelihood of improper use could be further red uced by imposing constraints on its use (eg only to subsurface garden use); however, ch is less usual and may reduce the usage of reclaimed water and may lead to an increased risk of not being able to dispose of excess reclaimed water.

• The potential for cross connection occurring between the reclaimed water system and the potable water system. Cross connection may occur with in che reticulation system (less likely), or within residences (more likely). Experience elsewhere (eg Rouse Hill, The Netherlands and che USA has shown char ensuring the absence of cross connections is difficult to achieve, and may resul t in che req uiremenr to rreac to a higher level such chat cross co nnection would not be expected to present a health risk. le muse also be acknowledged chat a possible strategy to reduce these risks is to rrear rhe reclaimed water to a higher standard, eg to a level at which accidental use of the water for potable or recreational purposes would not be expected to adversely affect che health of persons involved. Th is is an approach that has been adopted in The Netherlands. Resolution of the appropriate level of treatment requires a business decision considering benefit, risks, and risk management processes.

Acknowledgements T here were valuable inputs to che assessment by various staff withi n GHD

and YVW, includ ing Michael Chapman, Russell Hawken, Clare Porter of GHO; and Mon Gan ofYVW.

The Authors Peter Nadebaum, is Senior Principal wirh GHD Pcy Led, peter_nadebaum@ghd.co m. au; Francis Pamminger is Strategic Water Services Planner, Yarra Valley Water Limited; Lisa Moore is an environmental lawyer with Blake Dawson Waldron .

References CRC Water Quality and Treatment (2003), H eald, Stream, "Setback fo r Netherlands Dual Supplies" June 2003 .

EPA Victoria (2002), "G uidelines for Environme ntal Manageme nt: Use of Reclaimed Water", Publication 464, Augu st 2002.

Moore L (2003) Reclaimed Water: Managing t he Legal Risks Wtlter 30 8, December pp 70-74 .

NSW Recycled Water Coord ination Comm i ttee (1993) "NSW Gu idelines for Urban and Residential Use of Reclaimed Water", 1st Edition, May l 993 Robercs M, King 0; (2004) Proposed Rainwater Harvesting System fo r Aurora. Wtlter 3 1 (2) pp 82-84.

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MAY 2004 4 1

THE AURORA ESTATE - YARRA VALLEY WATER'S APPROACH T Kelly Following Peter Nadebaum's presentation on Legal risks, Tony Kelly, Managing Director ofYarra Valley Water, outlined the Likely impact of the project on his company. The following is an edited summary ofhis presentation.

Editor's note:

The Vision Aurora is a 8500 lot (668 ha) development b ased on sustainability principles that is located in the suburb o f Epping North, approximately 20km north of the Melbourne Central Business District.

The developer is Victorian Urban D evelopment Authority (Vic Urban).

Construction of roads and services commenced in February 2004, with the house co nstruction startin g in July 2004 and che first h omes being occupied in early 2005. Ir is expected chat the development will take 15 years co be fully d eveloped.

The developer, Vic Urban, has endeavoured to include sustainability principles in all decisio n making co achieve the highest possible level of sustainability that will pave the way and set benchm arks for other developments. The sus tainabili ty approach will cover the social aspects, energy, transp ort, narural habitat and constructio n materials in an integrated way, with the water and wastewater cycle being only a part of the vision .. Yarra Va lley Water w ill assu me responsibility for the ongoing operation of all water services, including rhe delivery of key water infrastructure, ie: • a sewage treatment plant with storage dam and irrigation • a recycled water treatment plane, pump station, sto rage tank and distribu tio n main • a potable water storage tan k and distribution mains T his paper focuses on rhe implicatio ns fo r Yarra Valley Water of supplying recycled water, and the way we are managing the issues. It is still early days and while we are making good progress many issues are still co be resolved.

Some of the issues that we are dealing with include: • Developing n ew design standards for water efficient developments • Shorr and long term risks and control strategies • Reviewing service levels and Customer C harter for recycled water

42 MAY 2004

water

CBD

• Changes co our Asset Management systems • C ustomer education, initial & ongoing • Cha nges co our pricing and billi ng systems • Im plications for our existing maintenance and servicing co ntracts • Developer charges • Q uantifying environmental benefits • Who pays?

• Responsibility for management of rainwater ranks systems I n partnership with the developer V ic U rban and the C ity of Whitdesea Yarra Valley Water has elected co establish a Sustainability Covenant for the Project.

Covenants are derived from Victorian Environmental Acts and co mmit the voluntary sign atories co continuous improvement in environmental performance guided by sustai nability principles. An EIS will also be prepared and signed off by relevant parties.

We will build and operate a Sewage treatment plant and a water treatment p lant

designed co deliver Class A recycled water at customer's taps. Recycled water will be used for toiler flu shing and outdoor use. A winter storage basin is also required (the local geology does not allow for ASR).

Noting th at the majority of the dwellings will be 'cown houses' with limited gardens we also have co rely on the Local Government co provide suffi cient irrigated open space co balance the water cycle.

The significant practical risks are insu fficient garden demand , though we have access co a creek for emergency o verflow of treated water, an d we may be able co develop external customers for the recycled water.

We h ave also committed to a fu lly independent assessment o f the project and publication of the findings so chat th e whole water industry can benefit from the experience at Aurora.

The Author Tony Kelly is Managing D irector of Yarra Valley Water ckelly@yvw.com.au

ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES : THE PIMPAMA-COOMERA SCHEME S Cox In his oral presentation Shaun Cox discussed aspects ofthe Gold Coast's plam not covered in the written paper. Bob Swinton reports them here as an addition to this important paper.

He said "The driver for our development ofalternative water sources is twofold, firstly a lack ofwater and secondly keeping ejfiuent out of our waterways. We are also aiming to reduce the amount ofstormwater and associated nutrient runofffrom new developments. We have to find alternative means ofmanaging our water resources in light ofthe comiderab!e population growth we face.

"The yields ofour current dams are diminishing (from a maximum of 440 ML/d before the drought to our current yield ofonly 190 ML/d. but we wi!L not be able to develop more dams. Yet we are asked to provide higher levels ofservice because our community is not responding to restrictiom. It seems that we wi!L need some 465 ML/d. Even with an intemive water use efficiency and leakage reduction campaign and possible seawater desalination, we will sti!L be short ofwater. On the other hand, volumes ofejfiuent wilL grow and stormwater run-off wilL increase as more and more impermeable surfaces are comtructed.

"The MasterPlan adopted by the Gold Coast Council schedules a number ofgreenfield developments, the first being the Pimpama Coomera region. Our Waterfi1ture Masterplan for this development, described in the paper, has been adopted by Council. Happily we have less institutional barriers than other organisations because the Gold Coast Council controls alL services, including water supply, stormwater and wastewater. However, we can foresee some problems.

"With regard to health, we are concerned about decentralising responsibility to householders. Although adults will respond to an education program, we have properties occupied by young people whose priorities rarely include household maintenance, or acceptance of regulations.

"We wi!L also have to develop a new commercial model for our business, to cope with the vastly different water cycle.

"Rainwater tanks will have to be designed, not only of optimum size, but also ofshapes and materials that can be fitted into the Lots. We would welcome innovation in this respect. We also have to organise maintenance and monitoring, and devise a fair system for a/Locating both the capital and operational costs.

"Fina/Ly, we compliment Sydney Water and the Olympic Park Authority for their courage in implementing third pipe systems. We look forward to the National Guidelines for Water Quality for Recycling. This will assist greatly in resolving differences ofviews on the appropriate standards for uses such as fire fighting. We also support the WSAA initiated projects, being the standardisation ofrecycled water infrastmcture guidelines as weLL as developing a best practice guide for assessing the merits ofalternative water supply systems''.

Introduction T he Gold Coast is one of th e fastest growing urban regions in th e cou ntry with a current population of 450 ,000 expected to increase to around 1.1 mi ll ion by 2050.

Although the region is diverse in ind ustry and geography, the Gold Coast lifestyle and culture are built arou nd water from its beaches and canals to its wetlands and Broadwater. Like many other areas of Australi a, the Gold Coast is cu rrently in the grip of a drought that has exceeded all previous records. A review of the C ity's current bulk water supply st rategy indicated a significant decrease in the safe yield of existing and plan ned bulk water storages ultimately leading to a shortfall in available bulk water resources for the C ity.

The combination of these factors coupled with the ecological sign ificance of the region has highlighted the need to develop an Integrated U rban Water Management Master Plan fo r the Pimpama Coo mera region of the Gold Coast. The Pimpama Coomera Waterfuture Master Plan will be a blueprint fo r the sustainable use o f water resources in the C ity's P impama Co om era (growth) region.

Pimpama Coomera Waterfuture Master Plan

and stakeholder input into development of the fi nal Master Plan.

The Pimpama Coomera Waterfuture Master Plan wi ll establish more sustainable use of the region 's water resources by movi ng away fro m contemporary "supply side" water solutio ns toward more integrated source su bstitmion alternatives assessed against Triple Bottom Line sustainability criteria.

Development of the Master Plan involved the assessment of a variety of options (more sustainable app roaches for providing water resources) against the Business As Usu al baseli ne. O p tions are assessed and scored against established T riple Botrom Line sustainability criteria.

The following process was used to d evelop the Master Plan:

The Pimpama Coomera region presents the C ity with a un ique opportunity to pilot the implementation of more sustainab le approaches to the provisio n of the C ity's growing need for water resources. T he regio n is located with in the Gold Coast's growth corridor and is largely in an undeveloped fo rm. T he region is located adjacent to some of th e most environmentally sensitive waterways in the C ity including the Moreton Bay Marine Park. T he population of the region will grow from its current base of ap proximately 5000 to around 150,000 at ultimate development.

• Grouping complementary water sensitive initiatives to fo rm "optio ns" for consideration as the basis for the M aster Plan;

T he Master Plan is being overseen by an appoi nted stakeholder Advisory C ommittee that has th e role of providing community

• Assess options against Triple Bottom Line assessm ent criteria and compare against the Busi ness As Usual case;

• Estab lish objectives for the Master Plan and assessm en t criteria in terms of T rip le Bottom Line ou tcomes; • Identify a co mprehensive series of "water sensitive in itiatives" aimed at achievement of more sustainable outcom es (an example of a water sensitive initiative is the installation of rainwater tanks o n all new houses ro supplement water su pply and attenuate srormwater runoff);

water

MAv 2004 43

sustainable water use • The preferred option becomes the basis for the Master Plan; • T h e Master Plan is the blueprint for infrastructure plans, and development plans in the region.

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The magnitude of this proj ect is evidenced by the 4 0+ technical papers and investigations prepared ro support the development of options and assessment of optio ns. Key investigations undertaken included the fo llowing (eg. Apostolid is, 20 04): • Develop m ent of a water balance model to ensu re that the urban water cycle would remain in balance for the region ; • Salinity model to assess the impact of T D S co ncen trations in options; • Greenhouse Gas E missions assessment to assess the impact of GGE's from alternative op tions and compared with the business as us ual case;

Trunk Sewer

Wastewater R1s1ng Maln

Pump

Sun,on Fire Hydran~

Figure l. Preferred option for the Pimpama Coomera Waterfuture Moster Plan.

• Water supply an d wastewater collection network analysis;

• Strategic level risk assessment to assess a broad range of high level risks across the range of master plan op tions;

• A Strategic Stormwater Study to assess the impact of stormwater initiatives in terms of water quality, quantity and cost;

• Externalities assessment to assess the impacts of options on a range of externalities.

• W hole of life fina ncial analysis;

o

All of the options were assessed using the following process: • C h ecking that the option met a minimum requ irement; • Evaluation o f the options against target performance values established ;

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www.civeng.unsw.edu.au/futurestudents/ 44 MAY 2004

water

Table 1 Key Aspects of Integrated System

Performance

Reduced consumption of drinking water

Up to 85% reduction

Reduction in unoccounted for water

85% reduction

Reduction in nitrogen released to the Pimpama River

87% reduction

Minimise quantity of recycled water releosed to Pimpama River

3.6ML/day Ave

Reduced nutrient and SS export within catchment

87% reduction

Reduced stormwoter runoff

17% reduction

Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions

30% reduction

• Determination of Comparative Criteria sco res for each op tion; • Ranking of each option based upo n: - A self suffi ciency index; - A non-cost sco re; - A who le of life (cost) sco re; and - A value for money score (non-cost score divided by rhe cost).

Ar rhe end of chis p rocess, a preferred option was identified. The p referred optio n incorporates rhe fo llowi ng key components in achieving a more sustainable water cycle for rhe region: • Class A recycled water reticulation supplying water for toiler flushing, garden watering and external maintenance; • Rainwater ranks (topp ed u p by potable water) supplying the bathrooms, laundry and hot water service; • Po table water supply only to the kitch en tap and to top up the rainwater tank; • Srormwarer attenuation capacity in the ra in water tank; • Water sensitive urban design in developments within the region; • Use of aqui fer storage and recovery as a means for scoring and balanci ng recycled water flows; • Other elemen ts including demand management, pressure reduction, improved ed ucation and awareness.

Figure I illustrates the preferred option.

Key o utcomes of the preferred option are included in Table 1.

Achieving sustainable outcomes from the Master Plan 's implementation will require broad scale implemen tation of rhe key elem ents of the Master Plan. To ch is end implementation of the Master Plan wi ll involve the mandatory provision of elements such as dual reticulation and rainwater ranks in all new developments in rhe region. Mandating these initiatives allows cerrai nry in regional infrasrrucrnre planning as well as ensuring the benefits, including cost savings due to downsizing of regional infrastrucrnre, are ach ieved.

OPTI ON 3 Class A recycled water for toilets, gardens and fire hydrants with

aquifer storage and recovery, rainwater tanks for bathroom, laundry and hot water, plus 'smart' sewers.

Fire Mandatory p rovision of these elements will be effected th rough amendment to Council 's p lanni ng scheme and associated land development guideli nes and policies.

Following adoption of the Master Plan implementation activities will include working collaborarively with the

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development commu nity ro phase in the new elements of rhe strategy as well as specificat io n of operation and maintenance requirements.

Conclusion The Pimpama Coomera Waterfurnre Project shows great potential as a more sustainable approach ro rhe delivery of urban water resources. W hen completed , the project will provide rhe dual benefits of reduced demands on water reso urces and reduced impacts on the environment, ie. a smaller ecological footp rint. T he project demo nstrates the developing maturity of endeavours ro move cowards more sustainable outcomes through the integrated management of rhe water cycle and the use of T riple Bottom Line assessment criteria in m easuring performa nce.

Development of rhe Pimpama Coomera Waterfurnre Master Plan is a 15 month endeavour due for co mpletion in M arch 2004. T his paper p resents rhe outcomes of

the preferred Master Plan option as at January 2004.

The Author Shaun Cox is Director of Gold Coast Water, scox@goldcoasc.qld.gov.au Reference Aposrolidis N (2004) Integrated Water Management - Pushing the Boundaries.

Water 31, I pp 40-46

We maq be YOUNG but we have awealth of experience!

USE OF ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES SYDNEY WATER'S EXPERIENCE J Hansen Abstract

U11g1 of rec.ye ltd water by Ron, Hill 1lng l1 dwelling,

This paper provides an overview of key alternative supply initiatives being undertaken by Sydney Water including residential wastewater recycling, rainwater ranks, new servicing strategies such as onsice wastewater treatment for new growth areas and industrial and agricultural recycling. The paper outlines some of the issues and challenges that arise when implementing alternative approaches and shows h ow Sydn ey Water is addressing them . The paper also o utlines barriers co be resolved co further implement sustain able alternative supply initiatives.

Introduction

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Sydney and its surrounding regions face significant challe nges in water resource management. Despite a substantial commitment o f resources co demand management programs and an 18% reduction in per capita water use since 1991, the demand fo r water in Sydney, Blue Mou ntains and Illawarra co ntinues co exceed what can be safely extracted from its water storages. In addition , pop ulation growth of around 1 000 people per week, uncertainties about long-term climate change and th e need co provide more water co maintain the health of the H awkesbury Nepean River are placing increasing pressure on the water supply system.

To meet these challenges Sydney Water is working with Government and ocher stakeholders co improve and increase che existing range of demand management and alternative sup ply initiatives . This paper will discuss a number of Syd ney Water's alternative sup ply initiatives in cluding the Rouse Hill recycled water scheme, use of rainwater ranks, new app roach es co residential and commercial greenfield developmen t as well as industrial and agricultural recycled water schemes. The paper will also examine che way forward co address the issues and challenges faced in delivery of these p rojects .

46 MAY 2004

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Figure 1. Single dwelling property co nsumption (200 l and 2002 calendar years) for properties served by Rouse Hill recycled water.

Rouse Hill Recycled Water Scheme Since 2001 , Sydney Water has provided recycled water for toiler flushing and outdoor use co 12,000 properties in the Rouse Hill development area in Sydney's north west. Development conti nues in the area and is expected co grow co 35,000 lots, housing 100,000 people (De Rooy & Engelbrecht, 2003). The Rouse Hill Scheme was developed in response co plan ning approvals for the development area that required the 'after development' impact on receiving water quality at the Cactai C reek/Hawkesbury River confluence be no worse than 'pre-development' water quality.

T his has been achieved by implementing an integrated water cycle managemen t scheme chat includes h igh level tertiary treatmen t of sewage, provision of recycled water co homes for toiler fl ushing and outdo or use, wedands for assimilation of created effiuent prior to d ischarge co the creek and treatment o f storm water in ponds and wetlands.

As this scheme was che first of its kind in Australia, Sydn ey Water has learned some key lesso ns in relation co: • higher rates of plumbing errors

• higher coral water consu mption than exp ected • high variability in seasonal, daily and d iurnal demands • the need co ensure education and pricing co allow customers co correctly value recycled water • the cost of p roducing recycled water

Plumbing errors In order co prevent any health risks posed by accidental cross co nnection berween the potable and recycled water supply, Sydney Water undertook an intensive program of plumbing inspections during construction and commissioning of the scheme. Sydney Water also conducts an ongoi ng education program for builders, plumbers, n ew residents and visitors and a rolling program of 5 yearly p lumbing inspections. In addition , che treatment system is designed co ensure that che quali ty of recycled water supplied is such chat it is unlikely co cause harm if inadvertently consumed (De Rooy & Engelbrech t, 2003).

Demand and Supply Research indicates chat customers using recycled water are less likely co conserve

water chan if chey were using potable supplies. Water usage patterns show that coral water consumption at Rouse H ill fo r single residential dwell ings currently exceeds the Syd ney average (Figure I), with residents using approxi mately 20% more chan the average in the summer months and comparable amounts during wi nter months.

Stage I of the recycled wacer plane is designed co meet an average demand of 5ML/day for I 5,000 properties (1 06 L/person/day) . However, summer daily demand for 12,000 properties exceeds this already, with rhe maximum daily demand recorded at 14.5 ML. To ensure continuarion of service, potable water substicution occurs during any shortfall in meeting demand or when main tenance activities are undertaken. T his reduces potable water savings and increases costs as potable water added co the system is sold at the lower price of recycled water.

In addition co high to tal demand, the demand is highly variable on a seaso nal, daily and hourly basis due co the effects of weather on ourdoor warer use. For example in rhe 2002/03 sum mer daily demand ranged from 2.5ML to 14.SML, giving a variabiliry factor in demand of almost 1:6 a few days apart. In addirion, hor, dry afternoon peaks can cause a variability factor in demand of over 1:20 wirhin rwo hours. T his variabiliry has also increased the amount of potable warer added to rhe scheme.

The second srage of rhe scheme will include sto rage capacity before and afrer che rreatmenr rrain co add ress rhese issues.

Sydney Water also hopes co create a more srable level of reuse by increasing ch e amount of indoor water use, such as in wash ing machines. Co mmun icy awareness programs, a review of rhe price of recycled water and warer resrricrions are iniciarives being considered ro address rhese issues in the next srage.

Rainwater Tanks Rainwater tanks in residential areas are another possible source of alternative water supp ly. T here are approximately 45,000 rai nwater ranks in Sydney with an average annual yield of approximately 120,000 li rres per year per rank. Rainwater ranks are primarily used for outdoor use, which represents approximately 30% of coral usage in an average detached residential dwelling.

Based on the above estimated an nual yield, about 1% (0.6 GL) of Sydney's annual demand is currently supplied by rainwater ranks (Howe & Sherb, 2003).

If all of che expected 54,000 lots in the north west development secror install a similar rank chere is a pocencial saving of 2.4 GL per annum (H owe & Sherb, 2003).

Given the porencial water savings offered by rai nwater ranks Sydney Water has undertaken preliminary modelling co compare the benefits of different size rainwater tanks. T he model suggests char for a house on a lot ranging fro m 230-450m 2, using rainwater fo r ourdoor uses and toilet flushi ng will achieve the best com promise berween rank size and warer savings wirh a rank size of 5000 kJ. Beyond 4,000 co 5,000 lirres, there are diminishing returns from increases in rank size.

Sydney Water is undertaki ng a number of acrivicies co increase custo mer uptake of rai nwater ranks an d to maximise the water savings they provide, including: • Provision of rebares for the inscallarion of rainwater tanks, rebates range from $ 150$500, depending on che size of the rank and what ir is used for.

• Working wich Government to simplify plumbi ng regulations and planning approvals for the installation of rainwater ranks.

• Assisting the Department of In frastructu re, Pl anning & Natural Resources wirh the developmen t of BASIX (B uilding and Sustai nability Index). T his initiative requires all new developments in

Syd ney co be 40% more efficient than th e current baseline by July 2004, as manda ted by the NSW Government. Achieving chis target will requi re new residences co include alternative supplies, with che easiest option for single dwell ings being rainwater tanks.

• Participating in research co understand che health risks associated with rainwater can ks and che suicabilicy of va rious creacmenc systems.

T he rainwater tank rebare scheme ru n by Syd ney Water in 2003 had a very low cakeup race wich only 794 rebates requested.

This is due primarily co the installation coses and minimal financial savings for owners due co che low price of potable water. T he in troduction of BASIX will play an important role in improving water use and providing incentives for install ation of rainwater tanks in new homes. Howeve r, much larger gains can be made through encouragi ng installation of rainwater ra nks in existing homes. In Sydney, up co 300,000 dwellings may have rainwater tanks over the next decade co mpared co 58,450 existing dwell ings. This could be achieved either through conditions for building approvals fo r home renovations and/o r as a requirement co be completed prior co placing houses on the ma rker.

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New approaches to residential and commercial greenfield development Sydney Water has been actively working with a variety of stakeholders, including stare agencies, local government, other utilities and private developers co establish a benchmark for providing sustainable water services co the proposed greenfield development at H oxcon Park.

Hoxcon Park is in Sydney's south west and iris expected char 15,000 dwellings will be developed over che next 12-20 years.

Sydney Water co mmissioned investigations co determine the best servicing strategy fo r minimising demand for potable water and che export of wastewater from proposed developments in rhe Hoxcon Park area.

Sixteen options were developed chat could achieve these aims co varying extents. All options involved water efficient fittings and fixtu res and rhe use of alternative water supplies for non-potable uses, such as toiler fl ushing and outdoor use. Alternative water supplies investigated included rainwater ranks, recycled water from ST Ps or from sewer mining and greywarer recycli ng.

The options were initially subject co a "fatal flaw analysis" co determine chose that should be subject co detailed investigation.

The analysis was undertaken by a multidisciplinary ream which analysed the feasibility of che options. For example, precinct-based and local STPs were eliminated because they were more expensive and had a significant risk of salinity build up from multiple passes th rough a closed loop system. Following the initial analysis, a multi-cri teria analysis (MCA) was undertaken on the remaini ng eight options. The cri reria used in the analysis included life cycle assessment, energy use, health risks and visual impact.

As a result of the MCA three options were shortlisted. These were: • conventional servicing • potable supplies supplemented with water from rainwater tanks for toiler and outdoor use • potable supplies supplemented with recycled water from the nearby proposed H olsworchy recycled water scheme These three options were investigated further, with rhe recycled water option being selected based on the potential ro minimise potable water use and discharges ro receiving waters.

Lessons learnt from the Rouse Hill Recycled Water scheme will be incorporated at H oxron Park, particularly the need to incorporate storage capacity co meet highly variable demands and the importance of focuss ing on water conservation, regardless of the water source.

48 MAY 2004

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Onsite wastewater systems In Austral ia onsice wastewater systems have been predominantly used in rural settings. These systems are now gaining more support in urban areas due ro increased co mmunity awareness of rhe need for water conservation and improvements in onsite system technologies and opportunities.

Sydney Water is undertaking a number of projects to test technologies and investigate issues surrounding the use of onsite wastewater systems in urban and peri-urban areas. These projects will serve as demonstration projects fo r both Sydney Water and rhe public. Two new projects are now starting at Galston High School (residential application) and Parramacca Civic Place (co mmercial application).

Galston High School Sydney Water is investigating options for providing onsice treatment in areas where the cost of co nventional reticulated services is prohibi tive such as "back-log" areas. A pilot onsice wastewater management project has been initiated ac Galston High School on the rural fringe of northern Sydney. The school currently has rradicional septic rank pump out services.

Sydney Water is currently co nducting prelim inary studies of risks, soils and topography co allow the selection of a preferred on-site solu tion. If these studies show chat an on-s ite solucion is feasible, Sydney Water will work with the school and local counci l ro implement on-sire waste water treatment generating recycled water that can be used fo r sub-surface irrigation of open spaces ac the school.

Parramatta Civic Place Sydney Water will be relocating co new premises in Parramatta in 2006. The new building will be both water and energy efficient and will be pare of an overall redevelopment of rhe city block currently occupied by Civic Place in rhe centre of Parramacca. This provides an opportunity co demonstrate sustainable redevelopment of a commercial building in a heavily urbanised city centre. This type of project is not yec common in che Sydney area. Sydney Water has undertaken studies co develop options for water efficiency measures including water efficient design and fixtures, on-sire treatment and reuse of wastewater and capture and reuse of rai nwater and srormwacer. The building will be designed ro allow rhe water conservation initiatives co be demonstrated and studied by building and development professionals as well as the general public.

Because the building will be part of a larger re-development, Sydney Water and

Parramacca Cou ncil are also investigating rhe potential fo r comm unity based approaches for providing sustainable water cycle management solutions for the whole site, rath er than approaching che servicing on a building by buildi ng basis.

A guiding principle for the servicing approach will be rhac initiatives muse be cost effective, reliable and economic co operate and maintain. Sydney Water's intent is co provide a case study chat will be practical and economically feasible for ocher developers to adopt. Sydney Water will work with the Green Building Council and other stakeholders during the project co disseminate the lessons being learned as various issues and challenges arise through che project.

Recycled Water for Industrial Users

Sydney Water also has a number of schemes providing recycled water for commercial and industrial users. Currently Sydney Water recycles 36.3 ML/day. Of chis 77% is associated with recycling within sewage treatment plants (STPs), 19% fo r irrigation and 4% for residential recycling.

T his figure will increase by 20ML/day in August 2004. As part of the Illawarra Wastewater Strategy, Syd ney Water has commissioned works co upgrade Wollongong Sewage Treatment Plane (STP) and co transfer sewage flows from Bellambi and Pore Kembla catchments co Wollongong. This STP will produce at lease 20 ML of near-potable created effluent each day. The recycled water will be transferred co rhe nearby steelworks for industrial uses.

There is further scope co expand rhe production of recycled water co accommodate increases in demand either at che steelworks or in ocher uses nearby.

This project comes on scream during 2004 and will be one of the largest recycled water schemes in Australia. In future schemes, Sydney Water will apply lessons learned from chis project, in terms of technology and commercial agreements and ocher instru ments required ro ensure chat Sydney Water's costs are recovered whilst customers realise a commercial advantage.

Agricultural Reuse of Treated Wastewater Sydney Water has a number of schemes chat provide recycled water for irrigation purposes such as golf courses and agricultural users. These projects replace potable or river water used for irrigation, with recycl_ed water.

Sydney Water provides recycled water from the West Camden STP co nearby agricultural land operated by rhe University of Sydney. In addition, Sydney Water has created agricultural businesses around the Picton and Gerringong-Gerroa STPs. As

with Rouse Hill, che initial focus of these schemes was to minimise the discharges from ST Ps into highly sensitive receiving waters. However, chey have demonstrated char agricultural reuse of recycled water is a genuine option in the Sydney Basin and has potential benefits in terms of: • reduced river extractions and therefore opportunities for improved environ mental flows • reduced draw on the potable storages • reduced treatment coses • benefits in terms of recycling nutrients as well as water

Barriers to alternative water supplies There are a number of key issu es to be addressed to allow further su ccessful implementation of alternative water sup p lies. Key barriers include cost, pricing, regulation, maintenance respo nsib il ities, ind u stry maturity and customer acceptan ce and acricudes. The coses of providing alternative water sources are often higher tha n chose for potable water. For example, che cost of producing the recycled water at Rou se Hill is approximately $3-4 per kL compared to the 35c/ kL charged (cost is set by the Independent Pcicing and Regulatory Tribunal). Financial sustainabil ity will be an important factor in implementing any similar projects in che future and Sydney Water and its regulators muse resolve the issu es coses incurred and revenue generated .

It wi ll also be important to ensure chat recycled water schemes are designed co m ax imise water conservation as well as receiving water benefits, and to maximise return on capital invescmencs. The success of alternative water supplies are also affected by the price of potable water, and pricing potable water to better refl ect its real value will make alternative supply options more competitive. Sydney Water's prices are regulated by che NSW Independent Pricing and Regu latory Tribunal (]PART). The Tribunal has com menced ics 5-yearly review of water prices in Sydney. As part of the review che Tribunal is assessing op tions fo r including price struccures and marker mechanisms.

The regulatory framewo rk for use of recycled water is currently fragmented, inconsistent and complex. A framework chat addresses appropriate treatment and management for different uses, inscallacion , plumbing and main tenance requirements and produce liability will provide a solid fo undation from which to develop alternative supply schemes. Alcernacive supply options could create new m aintenance responsibilities and introducing alternative sup plies on a broad scale could create substantial public heal ch

issues, if systems are nor properly maintained. As such, future alternative supply options wi ll need to include education on maintenance requirements and possible regulatory mechanisms to ensure maintenance is undertaken. This will increase regulatory responsibilities and could also require the establishment of new service industries. Current research indicates that centralised management of onsice wastewater systems provides the best option fo r ensuring systems operate correctly (W est, 2003).

In implementing a number of its alternative water supply options, Syd ney Water has found the alternative water supply industry to have limited market capacity.

Water utilities wi ll need to work with suppliers in order to respond co d emand increases tl1ac result from mandatory requi rements and additional incentive p rograms for alcernacive supplies. Any m andatory changes will need to occur in conjunction with market d evelopment.

Activities to assist che industry include undertaking research and develop ment in to technologies for greywacer reuse, decentralised treatment and reuse of wastewater, improving water efficiency design and assisting wich che development of guidelines and regulations for alternative supplies .

In addition, Syd ney Water and NSW Government are invescigacing the establishment of m echanisms to p rovide incentives to encourage che private sector to implement water efficiency and co utilise alcernacive supp ly schemes.

C ustomer accicude and acceptance is a significa n t facto r in the successful implementation of alternative schemes.

Residential , commercial, industrial and agricultural customers all curren tly have unlimited access to potable or river water at low cost and customers must place an appropriate val ue on recycled water supplies.

Experience at Rouse Hill has shown chat there is potential fo r a read y sup ply of non potable water to increase overall water use behaviours. Fu cure schemes will need to employ a combinatio n of education, design and p ricing to ensure chat water conservatio n messages are not lost with che provision of alternate supplies.

Sydney Water is planning to develop a portfo lio of demonstration projects chat will increase both Sydney Water's and our custom ers' understanding of alternative supplies and their suitability for different app lications.

Conclusion Alternative water supplies will play an increasingly important role in the provision

of sustainable water services. Syd ney Water's experience with the provision of sustainable water services suggests chat while substantial benefits can be obtained they are not guaranteed and careful plan ning and implementation are required for alternative supply schemes to be successful. Neither is there a single "magic bullet'' solution chat ap plies co all sicuacions. Water-smart servicing is very much about tailoring solutions to che constraints and opportunities of any given site. Mose importantly che message that all water sources are precious and need to be used conservatively must be d riven ho me. In order for alternative supplies to become less 'alternative' a number of issues need to be addressed . The regulatory framework needs to be m ore consistent buc with eno ugh flex ibility to allow fo r the use of new techn ologies. Work needs to be do ne to ensu re chat industry is able co respond to requirements for alternative supplies.

Similarly we need to u nderstand the issues chat will influence customer acceptance of alternative sup plies and design systems accordingly. To achieve chis, demonstration projects will play a vital role in informing government, industry and che community of the benefits and issues surround ing alternative su pply schemes.

Customers will need to be p rovided wich access to competent and reliable installers and maintainers of the alternati ve approaches. The demonstration projects will provide insights into che most effective arrangements for ensuring chis access.

Finally issues of coses and affordability of alternative sup plies need to be addressed so chat che accracciveness of alternative approaches from an enviro nmen tal perspective can be enhanced by che removal of the financial disi ncentives on cheir implementation.

The Author Judi Hansen is General Manager of che Suscainabilicy Division of Sydney Water judi.hansen@sydneywacer.com.au

References De Rooy, E. & Englebrech, E. 2003, 'Experience

with residential water recycling at Rouse Hill; Presented at \Xlater Recycling Australia - 2nd National Conference" September 2003 Howe, C.A.& Sherb, M. 2003, 'Susrai nable Water Services: Sydney's getting smart abour water', Ozwater Handbook 2003, Australian Water Association.

West, S.M. 2003, Reuse and Management

Systems in Northern Europe & the USA Report ofa study tour - February to November 2000, Sydney Water Corporation.

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LOCAL GOVERNMENTS CAN DELIVER SUSTAINABLE USE OF WATER J Nechwatal Executive Summary Local councils, both large and small, play a significant role in water resource management in Australia. They are significant users in water through open space management and their build ings, whilst their daily operations can also influence water quality of receiving waters.

The influence of local councils also extends co their community where they can support water sensitive urban developments and an ability co educate their communities water consumption practices and land use activities.

The Water Campaign TM is a voluntary capacity building program of the Internacional Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) for local governments. T his paper outlines the pilot water program and its fu rther appli cation across Australia.

Introduction Background on ICLEI and the Water Campaign™ ICLEI is an international non-profit local government association, foun ded in 1990.

With the global headquarters based in Toronto, ICLEI in the Asia Pacific region has offices in T okyo, Seoul and Melbourne.

Our Melbo urne office is responsible for the Australia and New Zealand region and is hosted by the City of Melbourne.

ICLEI's mission is co build and support a worldwide movement of local governments co achieve tangible improvements in global environmental and sustainable development co nditions through cum ulative local actions.

ICLEI can empower local government by helping co build their capacity for sustainable development.

ICLEI conduces three voluntary campaigns: Local Action 21, Cities for Climate Protection™ (CCPTM) and the Water Campaign™. The Australian CCP™ program is the largest local greenhouse program in che world with 181 councils participating in the program in This paper was presented at Enviro 04.

so MAY 2004 water

Australia. O ur campaigns are based on best practice international models and have been successfully applied co che Australian situation.

The concept of a water program was endorsed at the ICLEI World Congress in June 2000 in Germany as a response co a call from ICLEI Local Government members across the globe, fo r a water program based on che successful CCP™ model.

The Australian Office of ICLEI responded co chis call and commenced the development of che Australian Water Campaign TM . Its pilot stage commenced with five ICLEI member councils across three states testing the Milestone Framework of the Water CampaignTM. T he volu ntary program was then made available fo r councils nationally in July 2002 and has si nce seen significant momentum developing across five states of Australia.

Vision of the Water CampaignTM in Australia The Water Campaign TM will be able co demonstrate support for and recognition of local governments participating in a wide range of water conservation applications and water quality improvement initiatives. The focus of the Water Campaign™ spans urban and rural issues, where local governments can participate as a key player in the area of integrated water resource management.

Interest in the Water Campaign™ expressed co date by councils, indicates chat the Water Campaign™ will be the preeminent water program chat local governments will use co assist them in managing their water resources cowards suscainable levels.

Through the Water Campaign™ ICLEI will be promoting the development of bench marks in water efficiencies chat span irrigated open space, council buildings, recreational centres, swimming pools, childcare centres and residential use across high, medium and low density developments.

Over the next five years ICLEI's vision is co have councils covering more than 50% of

Australia's population participate in che Water Campaign™.

Delivering the Water Campaign TM to Councils ICLEI uses a range of approaches co ensure the Water Campaign™ delivered co cou ncils has relevance and is embedded into the structure of council, che following sections identify the approaches we take.

Building capacity There are a number of basic premises char drive the concepts behind ICLEI campaigns. One of these fun damental areas is that by bui ldi ng che capacity of local government, they can more effectively engage, respond and support national and state government's efforts co deal with water resource issues.

Our campaigns are designed so that local governments work on areas chat they can control with in their own operations or influence the behaviour of their community first, prior co cackling the issue on a larger regional scale. The process ensures that co uncil attempts 'co gee their own house into order' and lead by example, which makes significant differe nces before working with ocher councils, agencies, partners and stakeholders.

Performance based milestone approach T he Water Campaign™ has the same performance based approach that ICLE[ have used successfully with local governments in the Cities fo r Climate Protection™ campaign in Australia fo r 6 years.

It begins with a council comm itment and in order co become a participant, the elected members of council must adopt a Local Government Resolution co ensure political com mitment is established at the commencement of the program. Once it has become a campaign participant, che council proceeds co undertake and complete the five performance milestones. They are: 1. Establish an inventory on water consumption patterns and water quality management issues.

2. Set a consumption reduction goal and water quality improvement goal.

3. Develop and adopt a local action plan to achieve chose goals.

4. I mplement che local action plan.

5. Mo nitor, review and report on the outcomes of councils water management ini tiatives in both consumption and quality.

The five milestones are intended to be a flexible framework chat can accommodate varying levels of analysis, effort, and availability of daca. The key point is chat rhe local government gains an understanding of how municipal decisions effect daily operational decisions while ai ming to also enha nce community quality of life.

T h e ocher aspect of the Water Campaign TM is chat it co ntains three modules which councils need to undertake for each of the Milestones.

Corporate - what councils can control withi n their own operations Community - what councils can infl uence through land use planning, regulation and education Catchment - what councils can undertake wich ocher councils and key stakeholders to achieve long term improvements in water quali ty

Inventory process The campaign methodology provides a simple, standardised process for mo nitoring, measuring, and reporting performance.

ICLEI has developed a water inventory database rhac co nsiderably eases che ana lytical work involved and permits quantitative comparisons among different cities in Australia.

Employing chis methodology, cities across Aus tralia have gai ned a new perspective on how daily municipal decisions affect local and national issues. With che knowledge gained through che invencory process, participants wi ll use their local action plans co direct urban planning, educational programs, policy implementation and promotion of best managemenc practices to posi tively affect local and national water reso urce issues.

ICLE/'s quantification methodolog y ICLEI has been ac che forefro nt of quantifyi ng che mulriple benefits char accrue from action at the local level. ICLEI's approach has been to ensure a thorough and tran sparent accou nting system co quanci fy these benefits. The Water Campaign™ quanti ficatio n process focuses on the reductions made in potable water consumption, implementation of best management practices and the financial invescmenc and savings made by councils as key indicators for progress.

Role of local Government in Water Management

Local governmencs have direct control over a large range of practical actions chat are often highly visible to che comm unity (such as watering of public open space and management of swimming pools) and therefore have enormous influence in their local communities.

If we are to ensure chat che in frastructure chat is built over che coming years is as sustainable as possible, then we will need to use che leverage of counci l policies and roles in the implementation of these policies on the ground. T his is also a great opporcunity co develop long-cerm educational perspective's chat are based on real action and involvement.

Through che involvement of local governments already in the Water Campaign™ we have identified chat chey have an active role in local water action ch rough: • Implementation of direct actions in water consu mption, such as more effective managemenc of open space and recreation centres • Implementatio n of direct actions in water qual ity, such as best management practice in street-cleaning and crapping of gross litter • Implemencacion of direct actions in local water management, such as drai nage management incorporating water sensitive urban design • Indirect infl uence with local co mmuni ties in water quality, such as encouragement of sed imenc craps at construction sires and appropriate use and disposal of chemicals • Significant influence in catchment managemenc authorities and ocher regional approaches co water management, by bringing practical experience, political mandates and budgetary and policy responsibilities co che region.

T hese actions, in chis order, will allow local governments co cake their place with ocher local governments, the private sector and com mu nity organisations, regional authorities and state and federal bodies with demonstrated credibility. They also bring practical implementation approaches, real budgets, pol icy mechan isms, developed com mu nity consultation and systems co support engagement.

Derai led actions chat are currently being undertaken by some Water Campaign™ co uncils will be explored in the Case Study sectio n of chis paper, however the following actio ns demonstrate a sample of ocher initiatives already in place.

• Recroficring recreational centres with water efficient devices in coilecs, showers, basins.

• T he use of steam application on weeds co reduce herbicide application.

• T he aucomaced and moisture sensor use of irrigation systems co efficiently use water for open space irrigation.

• Incroduccion of land use policies chat promote water sensitive urban design.

• Introduction of policies chat support rainwater rank inscallacion in new and refurbished residences.

• Inscallacion and maintenance of gross liccer crap devices.

• Street cleaning practices chat rely on suction of dry matter.

• Selection and planting of drought tolerant plane species fo r feature roundabouts.

Water Campaign Pilot learning

The Water Campaign™ was piloted with five ICLEI member cou ncils, which included che Cities of Mitcham, Poet Philli p, Melbou rne, Wollo ngong and che Shire of Sutherland. These councils sought co be pilot councils in che Water Campaign™ because they were members of ICLEI and they wanted co demonstrate leadership in the area of water management withi n the local government seccor.

Land use within the boundaries of che pi lot councils was largely representative of established residential, ind uscrial and commercial sectors. Therefore che focus of the pilot Water Campaign™ was largely as a response co urban issues which included: gross liccer management, construction activities, open space management and reliance on piped water systems co supply potable water for all uses. The rural use of water and activities influencing water quality was nor addressed in the pilot stage.

Adaptations The rollout of the Water CampaignTM highlighted the need co address pressures from urban sprawl and rural issues when urban fringe and rural councils started co join the program. The program adaptatio ns undertaken co address their issues have been infl uenced largely by a group of cou ncils in the Peel Harvey region of Western Australia.

Councils in the Peel Harvey region are deal ing with risi ng sali ni ty, reliance on grou ndwater, urban growth, eucrophicacion of che Peel inlet and H arvey Estuary, dewatering of wetlands and the management of acid sulphate soils. However, it is important co recognise chat not all of these issues are under the control of individual councils, but rather being influenced by che policies and directions of ocher parties.

The corporate and commun ity modules of the Water Campaign TM provide a process where councils can respond co these issues.

They can identify what councils can cake

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control of or influence through improving land use policies and supporting planning instruments, promoting efficiencies in water usage particularly of groundwater through changing irrigation practices and overseeing the management of residential developers through the develop ment of guid ance documents to control activities.

In rhe catchment module, councils will need to rake an active role in integrated water resource management for their catchment, by sharing knowledge and working with scare agencies and key stakeholders for long term improvements in rhe catchment.

Water CampaignTM Delivery The Water Campaign™ provides a framework char responds to water management issues that have a national , scare or regional focus and identifies how these can be aligned with local priorities, spanning the areas of efficient water use, promotion of recycled water and rhe improvement of water quality.

National approach Many of rhe water initiatives char councils can implement will affect the quality of water within the municipality and at the catchment level. I r is for these reasons chat Water Campaign™ includes a catchment module in its program, which is currencly being piloted by a group of councils in the Peel Harvey region of Western Australia.

The catchment module will seek ro promote local governments as legitimate stakeholders in catch ment management, bringing with chem a willingness to invest resources and share knowledge. The pilot phase of the catchment module will explore how the Water Campaign™ can activate councils involvement in the delivery of a regional approach cons istent with the objectives of the Natural Resource Management Regional Investment Strategies for their catchment.

State based approach - Western Australia The Government of Western Australia included the delivery of the Water Campaign™ ro WA councils as a recommendation in the State's Water Resources Strategy. The Water Campaign™ was seen as a program that could actively engage councils in working cowards the water reduction goals for the Perth region of l 55kl per capita per ann um and the reuse of 20% recycled water by 2010. With a commitment ro fund the Water Campaign™ for three years in WA, ICLEI has commenced working with councils to achieve these aims.

52 MAv 2004

water

The delivery of the WA Water Campaign TM is focusing on key areas in the scare where urban water use is high, rhe ecological values of water bodies are being threatened and areas where population growth places pressure on existing water supplies.

Regional based approach - Port Phillip region, Melbourne Whilst the Water Campaign™ is for individual councils, we have also focused our recruitment on regional groupings of councils, which is either based on catchments, are neighbouring councils and have experience in working together, are well networked or who share a commo n partner, such as a water retailer. Working at a regional level ensures that councils are able to engage fu lly with the objectives of rhe key stakeholders in their region.

The councils in the Port Phillip region share a number of common themes: • The waters they influence affect the health of the Port Phillip and Western Port Bays; • They have one Catchment Management Board in the Pon Phillip and Western Port Bay Catchment Management Board; • They are well su pported by three water retailers, grouped largely on a catchment basis - Ciry West Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water; and • They share one water manager Melbourne Water who manages the reservoirs, sewage treatment plants and Melbourne's waterways.

Results of Inventory Report The Inaugural Inventory Report p roduced for rhe ICLEI World Congress in November 2003 incorporated the inventories from councils who had completed components of Milestone 1 across the corporate and community modules. The cumulative results of the inventories described indicates: The expenditure incurred for councils water consumption by urban Water Campaign TM councils indicated that rhe greatest use of water for the three years of 1999/00, 2000/01 and 2001/02 occurred across open space and playing fields with swimming pools fo llowing as rhe third highest use. The combined average expenditure per counci l for open space and playing fi elds was $35 0,000 with swimming pools expenditure equating to $62,000 fo r 2001/02. The external use of water is inextricably linked ro the type of irrigation system being used, the selection of turf species, the climatic and seasonal conditions and legislated water restrictions.

The inventory results for community consumption indicated the average water consumed in rhe urban residential sector as

94 kL per resident per annum in 2000/0 1, whilst 2001/02 resulted in a 10% reduction.

One reason for the reduction maybe due to an increased awareness by the community on water effi cient practices because water restrictions were nor brought into force across many states until the su mmer of 2002/03 .

The corporate water quality priorities of 17 Water Campaign™ Councils indicated erosion and sediment control, gross litter and pollution management and wastewater treatment as receiving the most focus of participating councils.

Goal Setting ICLEI introduces goal setting to councils as a goal ro aspire too through the implementation of various actions identified to progress rhe aims of greater efficiencies in water use and rhe implementation of best management practices. Separate goals are required for both corporate and community modules, yet they could be the same goals for both modules.

The Water Campaign™ has taken different approaches fo r the setting of water qual ity and water consumption reduction goals ro reflect the inventory processes for the d ifferent elements of the program. A goal for water consump tion is expressed as a percentage or per capita consu mption against the base year, for a particular target year. A goal for water quality is expressed as achieving points cowards actions, which promote best management practices.

There are a range of issues which may infl uence a council setting goals for the Water CampaignTM and these include: State and regional strategies/goals; demographics of a municipality; climate variables; landuse changes; population growth; initiatives fo r a municipality or region; council culture and the target year. The following section reports on the goal setting approaches for the consumption and quality elements o f rhe Water Campaign™.

Water consumption goals Councils may differ in their approach to setting water consumption goals for their community. W hilst the p referred methodology is to base goal setting on water reductions of gross consumption such as 20% o f 1999/2000 figures, councils who are experiencing population growth may need to set goals that reflect a per capita consumption reduction because their gross consumption may remain stable or increase overall.

When councils set goals fo r their own operations they have much more control in their ability ro achieve these goals, as they are less impacted upon by external influences. T herefore, council goals are

largely sec on water reductions of gross consumption such as 30% of 2000/2001 figures. Occasionally a council wi ll experience additional responsibilities in open space management and therefore may have difficulties in setting gross consumption reduction goals and will need to work through ocher approaches to set goals. These may include the setting of separate goals for particular activities within council or setting goals for the number of council employees.

course. The project can also be adapted for use in any washdown facility with in council and commercial operations.

Environmental benefits The bioremediacion washdown bay treats and reuses wastewater reducing potable water demand by approximately l 00 ki lolitres annually. Uncreated wastewater was previously discharged to sewer, with the potential co enter stormwater drains if the sewer became blocked or overloaded.

Wate r quality goals The water quality goals for the corporate and commun ity modules are reported as ach ieving a minimum of 50 points cowards actions chat support best management practices. T he actions fo r implementation will be representative of the priorities char a council identified in their inventory results, where they had to identi fy three priority areas to focus on. Some counci ls wi ll be demonstrating their leadership in chis area by setting a goal higher than the 50 point minimum.

Washdown Bay Approximately $3,060 is saved annually in the washdown bay ch rough reduced potable water consumption and sewage disposal costs.

Cose co Council: $33,000

Case Studies An im portant element of the Water Cam paign™ is the development of case studies to showcase water actions chat can generate water savings and water quality im provements. Case stud ies provide a va lu able resource to councils, where they can learn from the experiences of ocher cou ncils crialing new initiatives and can be identified as an action in the local water act ion plan as part of Milestone 3.

T he fo llowing case smdies have been produced by Water Campaign™ cou ncils and include: • T reatment and reuse of wastewater through bioremediacion • Uses of recycled water in council activities • Promotion of green gardening practices

W ater treatment a nd reuse at Freeway Go lf Course - City o f Boroondara Project Outline The City of Boroondara has insralled a Bio remediation washdown bay at its new maintenance shed at Freeway Golf Course, Balwyn. The bioremediacion washdown bay bio logically treats washdown wastewater fro m maintenance and spray equipment through use of a bacterial culrnre and aeration. The created wastewater is then reused to wash machinery. T his innovative syst em is the first of its type to recycle water.

Benefits and Savings

Social benefits T he project has educatio nal benefits fo r ocher golf course operators and owners throughout Australia and visitors to the golf

Financial savings for Council

Motivation for installation of washdown bay Machinery and spray equipment washdown water contai ns grass clippings, oil, grease, petrol, and chemicals such as herbicides, insecticides and fe rtilisers and previously chis wastewater was directed to sewer.

The Bioremediacion washdown bay treatment trai n consists of a filter unit for removal of grass and ocher suspended matter, a 2,000 litre settl ing rank with oil removal cushions, a 2,000 litre organic removal tank, which has a bacterial culture added regularly and is aerated and a fi nal 2,000 litre tank which is also aerated.

The raw and treated waste water is reseed and results show the system performs well and removes most of the herbicides, pesticides, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids and turbidity.

Average removal rates are: • Herbicides and pesticides - 80-98% - 87% • BOD • Suspended solids - 99% - 94% • Turbidity There is also some removal of phosphorus and nitrogen due to biological activity.

For more details contact Sarah Eggleton, City of Boroondara.

Street Trees a Greener Approach - Hume City Council Project Outline With a focus on environmental suscainabilicy, H ume City Council is working in partnership with Western Water to use recycled water from its treatment plane located in Su nbu ry. The plane produces 2200 megalicres of Class B recycled water every year.

Initially Hume City Council approached Western Water with a pilot project designed co use recycled water for the watering of

street trees in Sunbury, a process which also required EPA approval of a recycled water management plan.

The benefits of street trees are well documented bur many councils, including Hume, have trouble ensuring the trees survive during warmer months. Th rough chis project more than 800 trees in Su nbury are watered regularly with recycled water from Western Water's Sunbury treatment plane.

Council waters street trees for two years pose planting, thus increasi ng the survival race. Most of the watering occurs during the warmer mon chs of September co April.

However, during dry winters the planes may be watered on a fo rtnightly or monthly basis.

Benefits and Savings By usi ng approximately 56,000 litres of recycled water on Sunbury's street trees each year, more than 672,000 litres of potable water is being saved per an num. This is expected co increase each year as more trees are planted and the use of the recycled water is expanded.

T here are nor only water savi ngs, bur also sign ificant fina ncial savings resulting fro m chis project. Recycled water costs approximately 28 cents per 100 li tres (1 kL) compared with 70 cents fo r l kL of potable water.

Motivation for water recycling Hume City Council 's motivation co use recycled water was simple - better environmental practices. With recycled water read ily avai lable locally, an immediate and ongoing sustainable practice could be easily implemented, thus increasing the survival rate of an imporranc asset.

For more details contact Tim Goddard, Hume City Council.

Great Garde ns - community wafer use re ductions a nd wafer quality impro ve ments - Town of Kwina na, WA Project outline Grear Gardens is an educational show with workshops char targets chose residents who rend co use lots of water and nutrients gardeners.

Benefits and Savings

Social Benefits Participants have indicated chat they enjoyed com ing co Great Gardens and meeting ocher community members.

Ultimately, the preservation of Cockburn Sound, the Peel-Harvey estuary and local weclands will enable che community co continue co enjoy the recreational attributes of these valuable water bodies. They will also help people enjoy visits fro m wi ldlife associated with local native gardens.

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MAY 2004 53

sustainable water use Environmental Benefits · Reducin g nutri ents entering Cockburn Sound and rhe Peel-H arvey estuarine system will help to conserve the aquatic hab itat and ecology. Likewise, local wetlands and associated wi ldlife will also benefit from improvement in water quali ty. The reduction of water use will also have a positive impact on the vegetation and wetlands, which are currently stressed by increased, bore use.

About the project The sca rci ty of water in Western Australia is prompting local governm en ts to promote water co nservation to rhe community as a · whol e, in the hope char the cumulati ve effect of each household's reductions will reduce the pressure on this viral resource.

Water quality is also an important issue with nutrients in creasing growth of nuisance algae and loss of marine habitat in WA's most intensively used Marine Embayment: Cockburn So und and rhe Peel-Harvey estuarine system .

The Grear Gardens format includes question rim e, small wo rkshops on Fertilise W ise, Water and So ils, and Sustainable Garden Design and opportunities for one on one discussion. By having question rime nI5[ aJJowtD

ptDp.lt W a5k rhtir mDH

burning questions, so char they wouldn't be distracted when listening to green gardens co ncepts. Ir also established char having lawn and European gardens can be troub leso me and made people more open to an attitude change towards sustainable gardens. The informal and humorous way in whi ch the questions were answered established the presenters as entertainin g and knowledgeab le.

Participants were asked to fill our a questionnaire on their water and fertiliser use, wi ch sectio ns to be filled in before and after Grear Gardens. They were also asked to sec goals and indicate if and how Grear Gardens had helped chem. Responses to rhe questionna ire indicated rhe wo rkshop had convinced them to make immediate behaviour changes char would reduce their water consumption by an average of 806 litres of water a week, each. This figure was based on their com mitments in reducing watering rimes and reducing the number of rimes per week, and the amount of water used in a sprinkler being l0L/min. Further reductions were indicated (although not quantified) from participants' commitments ro reduce high water consumption areas such as lawn or changin g from using sprinklers to subsurface irrigation and greywarer syste ms.

Ocher "green goals" included reductions in fertiliser consumption, planting of native species and "one-drop" drought tolerant

54 MAY 2004

water

EVEN THE BRITS HAVE PROBLEMS The urban garden of the future? City rooftop water recycling system wins new national green award

A new rooftop water recycling system designed for blocks of flats will save water and reduce bills. Installed at stude nt acco mmodation at Cra nfield University in April in its first full-scale trial, GROW (the Green Roof Water Recycling Sys rem) proved irresistible to rhe judges of C IWEM's first World of D ifference Award, 1 supported by Black & Veatch .

GROW processes 'g rey' water (co ll ected wash water), fi ltering it through a bed of aquatic plants containing bacteria whi ch cleanse rhe water. The installed cost is estimated at about £60 per person, and it has been developed by Water Works UK Lrd 2 specifically for low ri se, multi-storey, multi-occupancy urban dwelli ngs. Ir is easy to maintain - occasional attendance by a caretaker will keep it up and running.

GROW is an ecosystem in itself and a roof where it is installed ca n act as a wildlife sanctuary (a lth ough tigers might be hard to co me by!). It ca n also function as a dust crap, a heat regulator and a way

Award, com mented: "Water Works UK Led has come up with an incredibly novel, yet practical, way to replace the 40% of expensively-produced drinking water char households currently waste in domestic toiler flushing, irrigation and public area cleansing. " Two other entries were hi ghly commended by the judges: • Knorringley Flood Alleviation Scheme & Wetland Creation Project, whose objective is sustainabl e flood ri sk management for the Yorkshire town, integrating eco nomi c, techni cal and enviro nm ental iss ues. The proj ect involves settin g back the flood defences and rakes the opportunity to create a new sixhectare wetl and adjacent to the town.

• AFM (Active Filtration Media) Water Filtration - a substitute for sand, used in sewage and other wastewater treatment, made from reprocessed glass bottles.

Notes

Nick Reeves, Executive Director of C IWEM, sa id : "With water prices set to ri se by up to 30% and water wastage in the UK runn ing millions of litres down the drain every day, GROW is cheap, sustainable and timely. As an international body concerned with the ethics of water use, we are also pleased to support a system ideall y suited for export to waterpoor co untries."

I. Th e C IWEM Wo rld of D ifference Awa rd , supported by Black and Veatch, was established in January 2004 as a means of rewarding th e practical applicatio n of sdence and' eng;'neer;'ng for env;°ronmenta l improvement. The Award focuses on innovative design in water and wastewater projects .. For details of how ro enter for next yea r's award, co ntact Alastair Chisholm: alastai r@ciwem .com.

2. Water Wo rks UK Ltd was established in 2003 ro conti nue the initiatives of the former Metropo litan Water Co mpany in ch e use of gro undwater and recycled water to relieve the growing demand on high quali ty potable water, especially in the South Ease of England .

Bill Thomson, Business Development Director ar environmental cons ultancy Black & Veatch, which supported the

Contact Ilana Cravitz, CIWEM Press Officer, 020 7269 5820 or ilana@ciwem.com

o( reducing ambient noise.

planes. Participants were also encouraged to set overall water and fertilising reduction goals. The resultant goals ranged from 1530% reductions.

Participants were strongly supportive rhe program and said chat they wou ld be interested in further shows and more detailed garden design workshops.

Lessons Learnt Feedback forms were very important in trying to gauge the success of Grear Gardens and estimate co nsequent reductions in wate r use and fertiliser loss through intended immediate behaviour change. Using the forms as entry into rhe prize draw helped their return, although som e were incomplete. For future workshops ir is

intended to spend more rime explaining rhe intent of the forms and making sure char everyo ne understands them and has suffi cient rime to fi ll them our. Fo r smaller sustainable garden design wo rkshops, we wi ll also cry and get merer readings before and after the workshop to show actual sav111gs.

For more details contact Rosalind Murray, Town ofKwinana.

Recycling of swimming pool backwash at Pelican Park - Shire of Morning/on Peninsula Project outline Pelican Park is a recently co nstru cted $7 million scare-of-the-arr Recreation Centre.

Continued over page

ASSET MANAGEMENT: WHY IS THE REGULATOR INTERESTED? J Tamblyn Abstract The Essential Service Commission becam e the eco nomic regulator of the Victorian wa ter sector on I Janu ary 2004.

T his involves regulating price, and th e standards and conditions of services and supply fo r each of the 24 Victori an water businesses.

T h is pape r ouclin es approaches that have bee n effective in enco uraging regul ated businesses in other sectors to fo cus on effi cient asset man agement and inves tment practices, and have delivered im provem ents in the quali ty and reliabili ty of service to customers. T he Co mmission is currencly co nsiderin g th e appropriateness of each of T his paper is an edited ve rsio n of his presen tation at Enviro 04.

Continued from previous page T he Centre co ntains aquatic facilities, health and fi tness gymn as ium , outdo or leisure area and the Pelica n Pant ry.

Located on th e pi cturesque H as tings fo reshore the facility is flood ed with natural light and allows patrons tranquil views of the bay and n atural surrounds through rwo large skylights and a wall of windows .

T he Mornington Peninsula's Community Visio n advoca tes sustainable livin g and is emb odied in th e environmenta lly fri endly design of Pelican Park. The water recycling sys tem used in the pool compl ex (the first of its kind in a municipal aquati c ce ntre in Victoria) reduces demand for potable wa ter.

Benefits and Savings T he wa ter recycling sys tem uses a state of the art backwash filter, usin g reverse osmosis techn ology. This sys tem will recycle 70 - 75% of the filter backwash water that would normally be di scharged as was tewater. G reenhouse gas emissions are also reduced because the hea t of the recycled water is retained, redu cing the need to reheat th e water again before reentry into the pool.

Additi onal wa ter efficiencies are made by low volume showerheads, and selection

these approaches to the Vi ctorian wa ter industry.

Introduction T he Commission is an independent eco nomic regul atory es tablished in 2002 under ESC Act (havin g subsumed th e role of the Regul ato r-General). le is res ponsi ble fo r regul ating of a ra nge industries incl uding: electri city, gas, ports, rail freight, export grain handlin g and statuto ry insurance. It ass um ed res ponsibility fo r the economic regul ation of the V ictori an water secto r on I January 2004, although it has bee n responsible fo r the service regulation of the three metropoli tan wa ter retailers since

1995 .

As part of thi s expanded rol e, th e Co mmission is respo nsible for maki ng decisio ns associated with custom er service of hardy low wa ter use plant species in the landscaping.

For more details contact Vanessa Petrie, Shire ofMornington Peninsula.

standards, arrangements for supplying se rvices berween water Businesses, perfo rmance moni to ring and rep orting and th e app roval of prices that are to apply fro m I July 2005.

In performing this ro le, the C ommission aims to among other things: • provide appropriate incentives for wa ter businesses to deliver efficient, reliable, sustainable and affordable services • ens ure that prices for services provide businesses with suffi cient revenue to deliver their se rvices given th e need to m aintain asse ts, achi eve obligati ons imposed by other regulators (s uch as standards fo r efflu ent discharges and drinking water qual ity) and meet th e needs of customers.

Effective and effi cient asset management is central to achiev ing these objecti ves.

Importancly, th e Co mmission does not wa ter resource management in Australia is signifi ca nt, with the sharing of resources and kn owledge being mobilised to suppo rt th e water reso urce age nd a's from nati onal and sta te gove rnm ents.

Conclusion The Wa ter C amp aign™ has see n significa nt growth since Jul y 2002, where councils are vo luntarily taking up th e challen ge of wo rking with state and nati onal gove rnm ents and their age ncies, in working towards th e sustain able management of Australia 's water reso urces .

The Water Camp aign™ offers co uncils a stru ctured mil esto ne fra mewo rk where they ca n: meas ure their own co nsumption of water and that of rheir communi ty and identi fy practices that may influen ce the wa ter quality of receiving wate rs; set goals to reduce co nsumption and improve wa ter quality; identi fy actio ns to achieve the goals set; implement actions whi ch ca n achi eve signifi cant progress towards meeting the goals and measure and revi ew th e progress towa rds th e set goals.

ICLEI supports co un cils throu gh a ran ge of mechanisms to ensure rhat once a council commits to the requirements of the W ater Ca mpai gn™ it becomes embedded in th e culture of council.

The contribution local governm ents ca n make on th e debate towards sustainable

Acknowledgements I would like to acknowl edge the foll owin g people for th eir contributi o ns to the local governm ent case studi es: Sa rah Eggleto n - C ity of Boroondara, Rosalind Murray - T own ofKwinana, Tim Goddard - C ity of Hume and Van essa Petrie- Shire of Mornin gton Peninsul a.

T he C ity of Boroo nd ara case study was prepared with ass istan ce from T 2G ree n Solutions who developed and installed the Bioremediation washdown bay.

Thanks to the pi lot W ater Campaign ™ co un cils - C ities of Melbourne, Mitcham, Port Phillip, Wollongo ng and Shire of Sutherland, who without their leadership in the ea rly development stages of th e W ater Campaign TM, th e program would nor be as advan ced.

The Author Janine Nechwatal (BAppSc (Env M gr), M SocSc (Env Pig)) is the N ational Water Campaign Manager for the International Council for Local Enviro nm ental Initiati ves, Australia/ ew Zealand Office, jnechwa tal @iclei. org

water

MAY 2004 55

regulation decide on the day-to-day operat ion or management of assets. Rather ic seeks to provide the incen tive and capacity for water businesses to maintain service quality and su pply reliability in line with che needs and preferences of customers; and to deliver services effici encly, so that customers pay n o more than they need to.

Framework - overview The Commission's gen eral app roach to asset management in regulated industries has been to: • establish meaningful performance requirements and output targets, articulated through codes of conduct; • establish generic cescs of good asset management against which businesses are evaluated by suitably qualified independent auditors; • develop appropriate incentive to encourage efficient service delivery.

Examples of each of these approaches are briefly discussed below.

Establishing service standards and asset management obligations The first step in determ ining prices chat wi ll deliver a regulated businesses' required revenue is to clearly establish the service standards and other outcomes that are to be delivered over che regulatory period . The clear specification of chese service levels forms an important reference point for making assumptions about future capital and operating expenditure requirements along with providing certain ty to customers as to the services they will receive.

Generally, service standards and targets are based on: • historic performance trends; and • consultation between regulated businesses and their customers as to service preferences and cheir willingness to pay for improvements.

Service standards and targets are built into regulatory codes of conduct. These codes may also include explicit asset management obligations. For example, regulated electricity businesses are required to: • assess and record the nature, location, condition and performance of their distribution system assets • develop and implement plans for che acquisition, creation, maintenance, operation, refurbishment, repair and disposal of its distribution system assets • to comply with the laws and ocher performance obligations which apply to che provision of distribution services • co minimise the risks associated with che failure or reduced performance of assets

56 MAY 2004

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• in a way which minimises coses co cuscomers

co achieve cost reductions could be pursued ac che expense of service levels (S factor)

• undertake contingency planning.

• identifying services chat should be subject co guaranteed service level payments (GSLs), which thereby provide an incentive for businesses co address performance to individual customers chat are poor when compared co the average. In the en ergy sectors, the Commission introduced GSL payments for customers who experience lengthy o r multiple interruptions, and fa il co keep ap poin tments o r make new connections with in a specified time. The primary purpose is co provide an incentive for businesses co improve key aspects of service rather chan co provide some form of compensation co affected cuscomers. GSL schemes also complement other regulatory incentives in che sense chat they d eal with service levels experienced by the most poorly served customers whereas other incentive mechanisms (such as performance monicoring and S Faccor approach) typically foc us on average performance

Incentive to encourage efficient service delivery Economic regulators generally seek to ensure chat regulated businesses have sufficient incentives to: • achieve effi ciencies in relation co minimise che actual cost of provid ing a particular level of service and • deli ver the desired level of service over che regulatory period, nocwichscanding incentives co achieve effi ciencies.

Recognising che tradeoffs chat can often occur between chese cwo competing incentives, incentive-based regulatory approaches are often designed co address both price and service dimensions. I t is imporcanr co recognise that these incentives do not operate independencly. For example, in che absence of any countervailing service incentive, the incentive to minimise costs may be achieved by lowering service quality. In developing well- focused incentive mechanisms, it is necessary to consider the interactions between various incentive mechanisms.

In the ocher regulated seccors (particularly electricity and gas) , che Commission has adopted an incentive based apptoach that has typically involved a number of aspects: • setting a price path for a five year period on che basis of forwa rd looking forecasts of the key components of revenue (including expenditure, returns) and then allowing businesses co retain any benefits that arise from out-performing against the forecasts and equally requiring them to bear any losses resulting from their performance during the regulatory period. One of the stren gths of chis approach is chat it enables the regulator co adopt a more strategic approach and co leave the day-to-day operational and commercial decisions co the regulated businesses • enhancing incentives co achieve efficiencies within the period by allowing the businesses co retain any efficiency savings for a full five years after che year in which they have achieved any efficiency savings, and chen requiring chem co share a proportion of chose savings with customers (efficiency carryover mechanism) • in the electricity sector, the Commission has sought co balance the financial incentive co achieve efficiency savings with a financial incentive co pursue service improvements by adj uscing che price caps to reflect actual performance against service and reliability targets. This reflects che face that incentives

• reporting and auditing the performance of businesses against various performance indicacors, and thereby providing a sol id basis for delivering on che incentives described above. The Commission publishes annual performance reports for electricity and gas businesses and mecropolican water retailers covering key aspects of quality, reliability, affordability and customer service. The experience from these sectors suggests that public d isclosure and reporting of information can b e a strong performance driver and provides a reliable sou rce of information co customers about the services they receive.

Conclusion Together, these incentives, performance reporting and code compliance measures have proved co be effective in the energy industry in encouraging regulated businesses co focus on efficient asset management and investment practices, and have delivered improvements in the quality and reliability of service co cuscomers.

Such arrangements in the water industry are expected co be effective in similar ways, but the Commission is considering che appropriateness of each of these approaches co the water industry.

The Author Dr John Tamblyn is Chairperson of the Essential Services Commission, Victoria. john.tamblyn @esc.vic.gov.au; 2nd fl oor, 35 Spring St, Melbourne Vic 3000; Phone: +61 3 9651 0222; Fax: +6 1 3 9651 3688; Website: hctp://www.esc.vie.gov.au

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catchment management

PATHOGEN FATE AND TRANSPORT IN SURFACE WATER FLOW C Davies, C Kaucner, N Altavilla, N Ashbolt, W Hijnen, G Medema, D Deere, M Krogh, C Ferguson Abstract This project was designed to advance rhe state of knowledge regarding sources, fare and transport of pathogens such as Cryptosporidium, enteric viruses and bacteria in d rinking water catchments. Its principal goal was to facilitate the development of predictive models to describe expected concentrations of waterborne pathogens at critical downstream locations. Major findi ngs were the water quality benefits of improved riparian buffer management, particularly the vegetative cover, which could be used to provide design criteria for setback distances to waterways. One encouraging find ing was that the setback des ign criteria described elsewhere fo r phosphorus and sediment entrap ment app ear to be reasonable fo r Cryptosporidium entrapment.

Introduction This project was a joi ntly fun ded collaboration with rhe American Water Wo rks Association Research Foundation, the Cooperat ive Research Centre for Water Quality and T reatment, rhe Water Services Association of Australia, Melbourne Water, Sydney Catchment Authority, University of New South Wales an d Kiwa Warer Research (The Netherlands) . The project was designed to advance the stare of knowledge regardi ng sources, fare and transport of pathogens in drinki ng water catc hments.

Outline A systematic approach was implemented fo r identifying rhe water industry's research priorities relating ro pathogen fare and rransporr in catchments. A conceprual model of rhe relevant processes was developed, and rhe lirerarure describing chose processes was criricaJly peer reviewed an d published (Ferguson et al., (2003a, 200 36)). Knowledge gaps were identi fied and considered wirhin rhe context of the conceprual model. A comb ination of rhe magnitude of the knowledge gaps, the benefits of having rhem narrowed and the resource requirements fo r doing so provided rhe basis for setting our research priorities.

Field-scale artificial rainfall experiment set-up.

As a resul t of this review, the research focused on achieving the following objecti ves fo r three model faecal microorganisms (Cryptosporidium, E. coli and adenoviruses) and their respective potential surrogates (Clostridium perji-ingens spores, £. coli and PRD 1 bacreriophages): • Quantification in watershed sources ro serve as measurable inpu t functions to models for predicti ng downstream concentrations;

Table l. Total Cryptosporidium concentrations in animal faeces w ith regard to animal type and age group.

Faecal source

Number of samples

Cattle (odult)

20 27 20 15 20 20 25

Cattle (juvenile) Sheep (adult) Sheep (juven ile) Pig (adult) Pig (juven ile) Kangaroo (adult) 0

Th is paper was presented at Enviro 04.

• Description of their attenuation as a fu nction of organism characteristics and watershed-specific fea ru res (so il type, aggregation and dispersal); • Idenrifica rion and quantification of rhe principal facto rs affecting their viability in faeces and soil, as they rransir ro local surface water; and • Description of the principal facrors affecti ng transport of mobile pathogens passing across rhe terrestrial environ ment ro local surface water.

Cryptosporidium oocysts g·1 dry weight of faeces 0 Mean 33 1 4.0 X 10 4 3.5 X 10 3 888 54 1.4 X 103 754

SD 1.4 X 103 1.3 X 105 1.3 X 10 4 1.9 X ] 03 119 5.2 X 10 3 2.8 X ]0 3

Median 0.5 172 51 47 0.5 35 0.5

adjusted far recovery

SD Standard deviation

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MAY 2004 57

· cat c·h men t management T he project examined pathogen concentrations and intrinsic 'viabilities' of Cryptosporidium oocysrs excreted by various domestic and native animals within a catchment as well as their inactivation in faeces and so ils. Culru rable E. coli and th e prevalence and types of infectious adenoviruses in animal faeces were also described. Laborarory scale experiments were designed ro examine rhe surface properties and aggregation/disaggregation of Cryptosporidium and rhe model virions (PRD l andAdenovirus 2). Soil column srudies with Cryptosporidium oocysrs, E. coli, Clostridium perfringens and PRD 1 bacreriophages were used ro described infiltration and exfilrrarion wirh selected so ils. Small intact soil blocks were used in co njunction with an artificial rainfall maker ro study rhe release and transport of Cryptosporidium oocysrs from artificially inoculated faecal pars; and finall y, calibration and ground-rrurhing was perfo rmed with a field-scale rainfall simulation system.

Pathogen Sources and Viability Oocysts from a range of animal pairs (adult/juveniles) were examined for several species (cattle, sheep, pigs, kangaroos), as representatives of domestic/feral and native mammals expected in catchments. A major limitation of many previous studi es has been in rhe methods used ro quantify oocysrs from faecal sources. We developed an improved proroco l for extracting oocysrs from faeces (Davies et al., 2003) and for assessing their potential viabi lity by fluo rescent in situ hybridization (FISH), staining rhe ribosomal RNA within cells.

AJl livesrock such as cattle, sheep and pigs are susceptible ro infection by C. parvum.

Though cryprosporidiosis is mainly confi ned to young individuals, low-level asympromaric infections in pose-weaned and adult carrle have been reported with up ro 104 oocysrs per gram of faeces being excreted (Fayer et al., 2000). In addition, posrparturient ewes may shed lower concentrations (100-5,700 oocysrs g· 1) of C. parvum oocysrs (Xiao et al., 1994) and 66% of infected Eastern Grey kangaroos have been reported ro shed less than 500 oocysrs g· 1 (Power et al., 2003), numbers similar ro those determined in domestic and native animals in Sydney's catchment (Table 1).

Although juvenile carrle remain rhe major source of Cryptosporidium, it is apparent char asymptomatic (adult) animals may also shed low co ncentrations of oocysrs (up ro 104 g· 1). Overall, juvenile carrle contributed rhe highest number of Cryptosporidiumposirive sam ples (8 1%) and rhe highest oocysr concen rrarions in faeces.

58 MAY 2004 water

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Figure 1. Log 10 inactivation rates (K) for Cryptosporidium in faeces w ith various com binations o f moisture, biotic status and temperature. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals for the mean K values. NI non-irradiated, GI gamma-irradiated.

Few studies ro dare have reported rhe 'viabilities' of Cryptosporidium oocysrs detected in animal faecal samples, and viabilities measured using FISH have shown modest agreement with the results of cell culrure infecriviry assays Qenkins et al., 2003) . FISH is generally co nsidered ro be a conservative estimate of potential infec riviry, since the target, ribosomal RNA, may persist withi n cells beyo nd their ability ro show activity (Vesey eta!. , 1998). T he viabilities of oocysts isolated from animal faecal samples in the present srudy were generally low, with only 5 samples our of 18 (28%) greater than or equal ro 50% viable, and only a single sample having 100% viabili ty.

One of rhe major limitations for the development of catchment pathogen fare models is the lack of accurate inacti vation kinetic data char is relevant ro field conditions. T he inactivation of Cryptosporidium oocysrs (in so il and faeces) were considered in rhe absence of sunligh t, assuming that rhe majority of oocysrs will be UV-protected in rhe bulk of soil or faeces until transported by overland hydrological processes. Of the fo ur major facro rs studied (remperarure, soil rype, moisture content and biotic status), remperarure was shown ro be rhe most influential facror fo r Cryptosporidium inactivation (Figure 1). Ir is therefo re important, when modelling rhe fare of pathogens in the environment, that inactivation rares used are appropriate for rhe temperature of rhe climate in questio n.

Previous srudies have examined inactivation of Cryptosporidium at temperarures of up ro 30°C Qenkins et al., 2002, Walker et al. , 2001), bur temperatures in some regions, including many Australian catchments, may

well exceed chis during summer (faecal pars regularly reached over 35°C in field measurements) . Soil type (texture) also significanrly affected inactivation, and similarly inactivation rares used in models must be appropriate for rhe soil type present.

In the only other co mparable srudy, at 4°C in a silt clay loam, Jenkins et al. (2002) reported an inactivation rare (K) fo r Cryptosporidium of O.0030 day· 1, and we report inactivation rates (K) of -0.0050 to 0.0051 ar 4°C in a clay loam soil. Simi larly, at 20°C in the same soil, Jen kins et al.

(2002) reported an inactivation race of 0.01 11 day·1, and we report values of 0.0135 day· 1 ro 0.0151 day· 1• No previous inactivation rares had been reported for oocysrs in cattle faeces, bur despite differences in moisture due co surface drying of artificial cow pars, differences in K's of drier crust versus moister bul k were non-significant (0.03 vs. 0.06 day· 1 respectively) . T his was further supported by microcosm studies where there were no significant differences between viable oocysr counts in wet or dry faeces (abiocic condi tions via gamma-irradiation) except ar 4°C, where the differences were not of biological significance (K of 0.0002 vs 0.001 5 day 1) .

Viral contam ination of drinking water supplies can in some cases be attributed to effl uenr disposal areas associated wi ch failing on-sire systems char are located within a watershed. Virus inactivation and rhe process of immobilisation with soil particles ultimately determine the load of human enreric viruses (virions) char will be transported by effluent seepage thro ugh and over so il to waterways. It has been reported that adsorption of viruses ro soil particles is

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infl uenced by soil texture, cencrifugarion could, in fact, affect presence of cations such as Mg 2• the surfaces of these an d Ca 2•, pH and virus rype microorganisms. Our 'untreated' (Gerba, 1984). The rare of oocysts were extracted using size inactivation of viruses in soil is separation only. largely determined by While some researchers have temperature, moisture co ntent, claimed differences in pH and the presence of other hydrophobicity or zeta potential bi ota (Alvarez eta!. , 2000). An attributed ro the method of estimation of the inactivation exrracri ng oocysrs from faeces or races of viruses may facilitate rhe to oocyst age, our resul ts have design of barriers for preventing shown that variations within the viral con tamination of surface resting procedure or between waters, including set back different oocysrs were greater than distances for on-sire system the variatio ns between oocysrs d isposal areas which can be from different extraction Landscaped view of the rainfall simulator which shows the verified using artificial rain fall procedures. In conclusion, we nozzle heads. simulations. fo und no evidence that the diethyl Inactivation rares present for ether-sucrose (DES) flotation Surface Properties of vi ruses were shown to be considerably extraction method changed the surface Cryptosporidium different at different remperaru res and in properties of the oocysrs srudied , implyi ng different so il types. Ir is important, I c has been hypothesised cha t faecal rh ar the use of DES processed oocysrs therefore, that the inactivation rares pathogens may be transported associated th roughout this project is unlikely ro have in corporated into models to describe th e with significantly larger particles, thus im pacted on the results obtained. face and transport of viruses through so il influencing how they move in th e Furthermore, DES processed oocysts sp iked from effiuen r disposal areas are appropriate environment. Previous srudies have inro faeces or soil and co nditioned ro likely for rhe so il and climate under suggested that the defarring and extremes in environmental pH or salts, co nsideration. In con trast to rhe purification steps for preparing oocysts used largely appeared to stay unassociated with in spiking experiments, may also infl uence microcosm-derived inactivation rares we larger parti culates , nor did rhey aggregate. their surface interactions and reported for Cryptosporidium, for th e same These fi ndings suggest that oocysts transportation. Diethyl ether defaccing soils, the model enreric virus, bacteriophage depos ited in watersheds would largely be fo llowed by sucrose flotation was chosen PRD I was significantly affected by the soil mobi lised as single oocysrs, an important because it provided the cleanest oocysc moisture characteristics, i. e. inactivation consideration when modell ing their suspension of a sufficient co ncentration race decreased with in creasing soil moisture, transport. (l 06 to l O10) for the fare and transport and furth er inactivation resulted from Soil Column Studies studies. Ir was difficult co obtain a high biotic acti vity withi n the so il. O ur results concentration of clea n oocysrs without are consisten t with similar srudies (Nasser Interactions that may impact on defaccing or using treatments with high transport and attenuation of so il-associated et al., 2002) . ionic strength sol utions. Several techniques pathogens were examined using both Blanc and Nasser (Blanc et al., 1996) were initially applied ro investigate possible Australian and Durch so il samples. presented inactivation races for PRD I at changes in surface hydrophob icity and Filtration experiments with so il columns 23°C in soil satu rated with groundwater charge by pre-treatment. However, ro first (diameter 18 mm, 400 mm long) at low and sewage effiuenc. Compared to the test any possible changes due ro pretemperature indicated that the column rests 1 present srudy where K was 0.023 day · fo r crearmenc, oocysrs were also purified by could clearly distinguish soil types based on PRD I in wet soil at 20°C, the inactivation removi ng contaminants with Sephadex Gelimination of bacreriophages, bacterial cells races presented by Blanc and Nasser (1996) 50 beads.

The resulting suspension was as of E. coli, spores of C. perfringens and were more rapid, 0.081 co 0. 15 day· 1 as clean as possible without subjecti ng the oocysrs of C1yptosporidium parvum. calculated by Schijven (2001 ). Enriquez et oocysts to high ionic strength solutions in Geochemical characteristics of the soil, pH, al. (2003) reported similar inactivation rares rhe fo rm of density grad ient centrifugarions conductivity and organic matter in the feed for PRO I and Adenovirus 40 in two soils at or other agents that would possibly affect water, as well as hydraulic condi tions like; fie ld capacity, and that PRO J may be a the surfaces of the oocysrs. head loss, porosi ry and reversed flow good surrogate of gastrointestinal pathogen, affected the removal of all these Researchers have reported differences in Ad enovirus 40. In contrast, our results the surface properties of oocysrs which have microorganisms. Consequently physical su ggest chat Adenovirus 2 is inactivated in undergone different processes during straining as well as sorption processes so il more rapidly than PRDI. However, purification or have come from different influenced the overall elimi nation. In chis does not preclude PRO I from bei ng an general the observed sequence of removal sources (B rush et al., 1998, Considine et al., appropriate (co nservative) surrogate of 2002), but chose who have reported rate was oocysrs > bacteria bacterial spores adenoviruses in fare and transpo rt srudies, differences berween uncreated and treated > phages indicati ng char straining in so ils is and indeed may be more appropriate than oocysts have defined their ' uncreated' a process of importance for the removal of the respiratory pathogen Adenovirus 2. oocysts as having been through sucrose protozoan (oo)cysrs. Most transport (low Different so il conditions may also yield flotation using continuous flow elimination) was observed in a coarse low di fferent resul ts, as indicated by che calcareous sand ( I. 15 mm) and a negative centrifugation (Brush et al., 1998, Dai et al., 2003). Ir is possible chat the correlation was observed between porosity sig ni fica nt interactions between soil, concentration of sucrose and the prolonged and the elimination of C. perftingens spores. moisrure and temperature in our analyses.

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MAv 2004 59

catch..m .ent management In co ntrast to Cryptosporidium oocysts, virus removal by sorption was the ruling mechanism when decay was low (experiments performed at low temperature). Low pH, h igh ionic strength and high concentrations of free metals or metal hyd roxides on soil grains were preferable for h igh removal of viruses and also bacteria due to less rep ulsive forces and more adsorp tion sires. Low eli mination of C. perfringens spores was observed in clayey loam soils with a low p H (p<0.0 0 1). Further analysis of the soil chemistry indicated The mini-rainfall simulator that was used to do chat chis correlation was possibly due to laboratory scale experiments with intact soil high concentrations of humic acids. blocks.

These soils were highly reactive (ionexchange and competitive so rption of and transport, rainfall, and surface water organic matter). A study by Kreller et al. pathogen loads. Fu rthermore, there are (2003) showed chat humic-coaced soils are limited studies examining the factors chat highly negative charged at neutral pH, control the release of Cryptosporidium which is unfavourable fo r microbial oocyscs from the faecal matrix (Brad ford et attachment. This demonstrates the al., 2002). importance of electrostatic forces for Given the complexities and our current microbial sorpcion on so il surfaces. lack of understandi ng o f oocyst interaction Though ionic strength is of significance with environ mental surfaces (Consid ine et to bacteria sorption to sand, large changes al., 20 02), empirical studies, under well in ionic strength are needed to influence controlled rainfall events, were considered bacterial transport, whereas no influence an effective way to increase our may to be expected from pH within a range understand ing of initial oocysc release from of 5.5 - 7 (Jewett et al., 1995). Of particular faecal pats and their immed iate retardation importance, however was chat changing on soil/vegetation. Cryptosporidium oocysts from tap water to rain water (pH decline of transport was examined using artificially 1 and electrical conductivity decline of 280 inoculated cow pats placed on intact soil ¾S/cm 2) clearly affected the detachment of blocks subjected to a range of rainfall all organisms (phages, bacteria and bacterial simulation condit ions. Our results showed spores and oocyscs). T his shows ch at that the runoff oocysc load was significantly detachment and remobilisation is possible affected by vegetation status, slope and the in response to changing water quality event characteristics in terms of rainfall cond itions, which can be expected in the intensity and duration. The sa me factors environment during rain events. significantly affected the co ncen trations of The observed sequence of remobilisatio n oocysts retard ed on the surface soil a shore d istance (10 or 30 cm) downslope of the of phages >> spores > bacteria>> p at. Based on ou r observations therefore, Cryptospm¡idium showed the importance of sorpcion fo r virus transport. It also indicates sloping land (10° or greater), with little or the more hydrophobic character of spores no vegetation cover, and a shore but incense compared to bacterial cells (Wiencek et al. , burst of rain fa ll woul.d represent significant 1990). H ydrophobic attachment is weaker risk factors for the d ispersion of oocysts from recent animal faecal deposits and their than attachment of hydrophilic colloid s. transport in to nearby surface waters .

Finally chis sequence suggests low races of Although we found evidence of retardation remobilisation of oocysts in the environment and provides evidence for the of oocysts o n the soil surface, the concentrations represent an insignifi cant more hydrophilic character of the spiked proportion compared to chose transported oocysts . in the runoff across 1 m of bare soil. In Plot Studies and Rainfall Simulation addition, the oocysts that were retain ed on Though Cryptosporidium oocysts present the soil surface may be fu rther transpo rted in animal faecal deposits on land have been with the next flush of runoff. It has been qualitatively and causally linked to eventhypothesised that because of their lower related increases in pathogen con centrations density compared to soil particles of similar in screams and reservoirs (Atherholt et al., size, microorganisms are not deposited on 1998, Kisteman n et al., 2002), there have the so il surface unless they are attached to been few attempts to quantify the more dense soil particles. Our results relationship between pathogen dispersion support the work of Tyrrel and Quinton

60 MAY 2004 water

(20 03) and indicate that most appear to remain free floating or attached to less dense faecal matter.

Once oocysts are released from the faecal pats, heavily grazed or devegetaced soils clearly represent a h igher risk fo r su rface transport than vegetated ones with up to a 4 log 10 difference between oocysts loads for vegetated versus devegetated conditions (Davies et al., 2004). Though this wou ld seem obvious, previous work appears not to have reported the quantitat ive effect of heavily grazed (zero) vegetation on oocyst transport, with the excep tion of Trask eta!. (200 1). Furthermore, given that statistically significant interactions occurred between experimental factors (runoff volume, rainfall intensity/duration, slope and vegetative cover) it was important to compare adjusted rather than raw means.

Infiltration through the soil blocks varied widely and the Analysis of Covariance results indicated no significant interactions between the effects of the facto rs studied.

This is not surprising given the differences between soil blocks in terms of moisture content, and macropo re size and density, and percent vegetation cover.

The data indicated a trend of less infiltration through bare soil compared to the vegetated soil. This could be explained by the effect of vegetation impeding the horizontal flow of water, thereby promoting vertical flow of the runoff. T his has implications for catchment management practices in that artificial systems for retarding water movement, such as swales of straw, may provide effective tempo rary solutions to water poll ution problems in areas where vegetation recovery will take considerab le rime or is impractical. A number of authors have reported char vertical flow through soil macropores may result in rapid transport of microorganisms and other pollutants through soil b ecause it circumvents the adsorptive or retentive p roperties of the bulk o f th e soil matrix (S mith et al., 1985). Atwill et al. (200 2) repacked soil with different bulk densities to simulate d ifferent densities of soil micro-, macro- , and mesopores and hypothesised that as the soil bulk density decreases, so the ability of a buffer scrip to retain oocyscs from runoff increases.

When considering the role of vegetative ground cover, in contrast to our findings with runoff oocyst loadings, che bare surface soil at 10 and 30 cm contained significantly higher numbers of oocyscs compared to vegetated soil. Since significantly lower volumes of runoff were produced on the vegetated side, these results suggest that the initial dispersion and transport of oocysts from the vicinity of

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the pat was less efficient than on the bare side due co rhe presence of vegetation.

Overall, rhe results suggest rhat fres hly crusted faecal pats containing some l 07 oocysrs rransporred from 10°- 2 on vegetated loam soil (25 mm h-1, 180 min. event on l 0° slope) up to I 04-5 over a distance of 1 m on rhe same unvegerared soil (55 mm h-1, 30 min. event on 10° slope). Results from rhe study of Atwill et al. (2002), suggested char vegetated buffers constructed wirh sandy loam or higher soil bulk densities were less effective at removing oocysts (1- ro 2-l og 10 reduction m-1) than buffers construcred with silty clay or loa m or at low er bulk densities (2- ro 3-log 10 reduction m- 1) . These workers also suggested that on slopes of greater than 20%, a length of greater than 3 m should fun ction ro remove >99.9% of C. parvum oocysts from agricultural runoff generated during events involving mild ro moderate precipitatio n (l 5 mm co 40 mm h-1 fo r 4 h).

Calibration and Ground Truthing Studies The field experiment investigated the release, mobi lisation and re- mobilisation of Cryptosporidium oocysts, E. coli and PRD 1 bacteriophage as well as rhe transport of sus pended solids and particles (1 - 400 µm ).

Moisture probes were installed ro measure the soil moisture content before, duri ng and after the experiments. T o ensure realisti c res u lts the artificial rain events were similar in character ro local rain even ts, based on historical and current hydrological data from a local weather station.

As demonstrated in the pilot study, volumes of surface runoff generated on the vegetated plots were signi fican tly lower than on the bare plots and the runoff increased wi ch distance down rhe plor. T he significantly higher volume of runoff gen erated fro m the "old" runs (re-wetting after one week) co mpared to the "co ntrol" (prior to faecal pat placement) and "fresh" (fi r st rain event) runs was also expected, as the sequential use of the plots co ntributed ro increased soi l moisture retention over time and thus more rapid soil saturation and hence surface runoff. Soil moisture content increased throughout the course of th e field experiments with each artificial rain fall simulation causing a rapid increase of between 5 - 15% moisture content, which then reached a plateau at a level usually 5 - l 0% higher than the pre-event level. Analysis of the surface runoff from the flume (total surface runoff) samples fo r physical and chemical parameters showed relatively lirrle variation in coral suspended solids, conductivity, pH and turbidi ty between the "fresh" and "old" runs.

Characterisation of the artificial cow pats used in the experiments showed chat the cow pars were homogenously inoculated with the test organisms and rhar concentrations of the organisms were subject to change during the one week exposure in the field between conducting the "fresh" and "old" run events. The moisture content of the pars decreased from an initial concentration of 90% ro berween 60 and 85% over rhe one week period.

Fo llowing the rainfall event rhis generally increased back to 80 - 85%.

Effect of vegetation and distance on microbial transport to surface waters

Concentrations of Cryptosporidium oocysrs in the surface runoff of rhe plots were significantly higher on rhe bare plors than on the vegetated plots, where little runoff was generated, even after 30 minu tes of artificial rainfall simulation. This di ffe rence was further emphasised by rhe fact chat on the bare plor "fresh" runs caused high concentratio ns of Cryptosporidium to be mobilised in the ru noff whereas on the vegetated plots there was no significa nt di ffere nce between "fresh" and "old" runs. Mean log 10 concentrations of Cryptosporidium oocysts in runoff from the vegetated plot were 0.7 1 and 0.68 (for fresh and old runs) compared to 3.03 and 1.66, respecti vely, on the bare plots. Similar ro Cryptosporidium the concentrations of E. coli in the surface runoff from the bare plots were significa ntly higher than the concen trations in the runoff from the vegetated plors. Al though the co ncentrations on both rhe vegetated and bare plots decreased with increasing distance from rhe faecal pats, the decreases were nor statistically significant.

Furthermore, analysis of samples at rhe flume indicated char mean concentrations of E. coli were significa ntly higher in the runoff fro m rhe "fresh" runs than after the "control" runs, but di fferences berween the "fresh" and "old" runs were nor statistically significant.

In contrast to the rwo other microorgan isms, the co ncentration of PRD 1 phages on the bare plots were significantly higher in the runoff from "fresh" ru ns than from "old" runs, suggesting rhat there was significant die-off during th e week that the faecal pats were left on rhe surface of th e soil. Analysis of rhe faecal material before and after rhe "old" rainfall event co nfirmed char there was a rwo logarithm (99%) die-off during the week, even fo r this hardy bacteriophage.

Resul ts fro m the bare plots indicate rhar within the firs t six minures of rhe artificial rainfall events, concentrations of PRD I phage in rhe surface runoff increased

significantly and rhen remained high with no significant difference in phage concentrations at the different distances down rhe plor, co nfirming that the viruses were easi ly mobilised and rransporred wirh the surface water across rhe bare plor. T hese resul rs are consisren t with field experiments

by Bales et al. (1 995), which showed ch ar rhe bacteriophage PRD 1 could travel co nsiderable distances ( 12 m) over prolonged periods of time (25 d) without losing infectivity.

T he concentration of PRD 1 phages in the runoff from the vegetated plots was at least one log (90%) lower than rhe concentrations on the bare plots and although not significant there was a slight decrease in rhe co ncentration with increasing distance from rhe faecal pats.

T hese results have major implications for rhe effective use of vegetated riparian buffer zones as a means of reducing pathogen transport in overland flow to surface waterways. Since many studies only examine bacterial and protozoan transport ir is likely that these studies will underesrimare the potential fo r the transport of viruses to surface waters. We have shown rhat on bare so il viruses are rapidly and easily mobilised and transported in surface runoff and the presence of vegetation reduces the concentrations of viruses transported by at least an order of magnitude (> 90%). T his is probably due to the reduction in actual runoff, rarher than a decrease in rhe mobilisation rate, as it is clear that the viruses move easil y with the water fraction.

Conclusion This study used several reference microorgan isms ( Cryptosporidium, E. coli, C. perfringens spores, PRDJ phage and adenovi ruses) ro investigate fo ur areas identified as important data gaps for modelling rhe fare and transport of pathogens in surface waters. The first area was prevalence of Cryptosporidium and adenoviruses in watershed animal faeces and initial viabili ties. Nexr, data on Cryptosporidium and adenoviruses inactivation and dispersion was collected under co ntrolled conditions for temperature, moisture content and biotic activity in faeces and so ils. Lastly, the co mbined effects were investigated in pilot and field-scale rain fall simulation experiments. T he data presented here are sufficient ro facilitate the pred iction of oocyst and enteric virus export to surface water and to compare that to data on E. coli. Major findi ngs were the water quality benefits of improved riparian buffer management, which could be used for providing design criteria for setback

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MAY 2004 61

catchment management d istances to wate1ways. Above all , we provided further evidence in relation to the importance of maintaining riparian buffers, and particularly the vegetative cover on those b uffers in managing Cryptosporidium and bacterial transport withi n watersheds.

Viruses, however, ap pear to be very mobile and largely move with the overland mass fl ow. T he bacteriophage PRDl should be considered as a good model for enteric viruses, given its environmental persistence and mo bility, being superior to the comm only used groundwater stud y coliphage MS2.

Acknowledgements Th is project was a jointly fu nded collaboration between the American Water Works Association Research Foundatio n (Project #26 94), the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Q uality and T reatment, the Water Services Association of Australia, Melbourne Water and Sydney Catchment Authority . The research team was based at the University ofNSW and Kiwa Water Research (the Netherlands).

The Authors The paper was presented by Christobel Ferguso n of the Sydney Catchment Authority, on behalf o f a wide team of coworkers, as listed below:

Christobel Ferguson, Martin Krogh (Syd ney Catchment Authority) , Chrisrobel.Ferguson@sca.nsw.gov.au, Marrin Krogh@sca.nsw.com.au; Cheryl

Davies, Christine Kaucner, Nanda Altavilla, Nicholas Ashbolt (U n iversity NSW), c.davies@unsw.edu .au, chrisk@civeng.unsw.edu.au (Ch ristine Kaucner), naltavil@civeng.u nsw.ed u.au (Nanda Altavilla), N.Ashb olt@unsw. edu.au; Wim Hijnen and Gertjan Medema (Kiwa Water Research), W im.H ij nen@kiwa. nl , Gercj an.Medema@kiwaoa.nl; Daniel Deere (CRC for Water Q uality and T reatment), dandeere@bigpond.nec.au

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Enriquez, C., Alum, A., Suarez-Rey, E., C hoi, C. Y., Oron , G . and Gerba, C. P. (2003) Su rvival of bacreriophages MS-2 and PRD-1 in turfgrass irrigated by subsurface drip irrigation. ASCE journal of Environmental Engineering, 129(9); 852-857.

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J enkins, M. B., Bowman , 0 . 0., Fogarty, E. A. and Ghiorse, W. C. (200 2) Ciyptosporidium

parvum oocyst inactivation in three soil types at various temperatures a nd water potentials.

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Kisrema nn, T., C laAen, T. , Koch, C., Dangendorf, F., Fischede r, R., Gebel, J., Vacara, V. and Ex ner, M. (2002) Microbial load of drinking water reservoir rribura ries d u ring extreme rainfall and runoff Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 68(5); 2 1882 197.

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Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects, 2 12; 249-264.

Nasser, A. M ., Glozman, R. and Nitzan, Y. (2002) Contributio n of microbial acriviry ro virus reduction in saturated soil. Water Research, 36 ( l O); 2589-2595.

Power, M . L., Shanker, S. R., Sangster, N. C. a nd Veal, D. A. (2003) Evaluation of a combined immunomagneric separation /flow cytomerry technique for epidem iological investigations of C1yptosporidium in d omesric and Australian native animals . Veterinmy Pamsitology, 112; 21-3 l.

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Trask, J . R., Kalira, P. K. , Kuhlensch midt , M. S., Smith, R . D . and Funk, T. L. (200 1) In 2001 ASAE Annual International Meeting, Sacramento, California, USA, pp. Paper No. 01 -2 104.

T yrrel, S. F. and Qu inton, J . N. (2003) Overland flow t ransport of pathogens fro m agricultural land receiving faecal wastes.

Journal ofApplied Microbiology, 9487S-93S .

Vesey, G., Ashbolr, N., Fricker, E., Deere, 0., Williams, K., Veal, D . a nd Dorsch, M. ( 1998) The use of ribosom al rRNA targeted oligon ucleoride probes for fluorescent labelling viable Cryptosporidium o ocysts. journal ofApplied Microbiology, 85(3); 429440.

Walker, M., Leddy, K. and H agar, E. (2001 ) Effects of combined water potential and tempe rature st resses on C1yptosporidium parvum oocysrs. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 67(12); 55 26-5529.

W iencek, K. M., K lapes, N . A. and Foegeding, P. M. ( 199 0) Hydrophobicity of Bacillus and Clostridium spores. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 56 (9); 26002605.

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IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THE ANSWER FOR ICM? C Phillips, W Allen, M Kilvington Abstract This paper shares ou r experiences in d ealing with community and governanceleve l stakeholders and relates exa mples that support our th esis: that withou t a common level of understanding of the issues and the information (o r lack of it) related to those iss u es, integrated catch ment m anagemen t will struggle to occur.

Introduction Th e foun d ation fo r th e Morueka River I C M research p rogram was created thro ugh ex te nsive consultation with end u sers an d stak eholders and inp ut fro m two in tern ationally- recognised experts.

T h e seeds were sown during a workshop atte nded by a wide array of stakehol ders who identi fi ed that ho listi c and sus tainable managemen t of land , ri ver, and coastal resources - a " rid ge tops to che sea" persp ective - was a top priority .

Th e program 's goal is to improve th e management of land, fre shwater, and n ea r -coas tal environments in catchm ents w ith multip le, interacting, an d po tentially conflicting la nd uses. This ambitious goal is b e ing accomplished th roug h an innovative comb in ati o n of historical rese arch , bi o phys ical experimentat ion, s im.u lation modelling, an d socia l learni ng.

T his combined approach h as bee n des igned specifically to improve interactions b etween science providers and comm u n ity stakeholders and to m aximise th e up take and use of new knowled ge and tools developed from scie ntifi c research.

The program is now entering its 3rd year. One of the key outp uts to date has been the production of an integrated kn owledge base comprising a web site, a searchable reference library, and a technical report that su mmarised available kn owledge and documented research issu es.

C ommunities of interest have many myth s, per ceptions and anecdotes co ncerning the nature of resource management issues.

The se are a rich resource bu t need to be considered against info rmation that has been critically reviewed and evaluated to

Footnote: T his paper was presented at the AW A Catchment M anagement Confere nce, 2003.

1: Entry & contracting Getting people to buy in to a collaborative process

-0-

2: Developing information for decision making Collecting and sharing information, developing a shared understanding of ecological systems/processes, agreeing on best ma nagement practices (BMPs) and monitoring systems

-03: Implementation and review Implementation .... ensuring feedback through monitoring and evaluation processes, maintaining motivation for an ongoing collaborative approach.

Figure 1. Steps in a collaborative process (from Allen & Kilvington 1999).

provide a co mmon knowledge base so that al l parties can m ove fo rward.

Integrated Catchment Management O ver the past t\vo d ecades, th e challenges facing landowners, resource managers and scientists have multiplied.

Where once o ur rural environments were viewed as single-sector-oriented product ive landscapes, they now fa ce demands by new players - such as those voicing their views on issues such as landscape, recreatio n, co nservation and tourism . T h is is particularly t rue for Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) initiati ves where there are many players involved and many perspectives for resource management.

Science and other information is subject to d iverse and contested interp retations. T o work in these areas IC M pract itioners are seeki ng collabo rative ap proaches that accommodate multiple perspectives and utilise multip le sources of information.

Collaborative app roaches, such as IC M, can be viewed as a three-phase social process of: (i) entry and contracti n g - recogn ition by chose affected chat there is a problem chat need s solving; (ii) d eveloping kn owledge for d ecision making - a common , shared understan ding of the knowledge that is relevant to th e problem; and

(iii ) implem entation (taking action) and review (Fig. I ).

This paper aims to share some of our experiences in dealing with stakeholders in ste p two of this process . In particular, recent thinking about the management of knowled ge provides insights into the process outlined in Fig. 1.

Our p rincipal thesis is that without a comm on level of u nderstanding of th e issues, information (o r lack o f it), and k nowled ge related to those issues, real integrated catchment management will struggle to occur. W e note chat the second stage, whi ch we argue is critical to the success of ICM, is often no t performed well. In many cases information is assembled but the degree to whi ch that in fo rmation and subsequent knowled ge is shared or understood is often left wanting.

For ICM to b e successful we believe the old paradigm of knowledge is power need s to be discarded in favour of a new paradigm chat knowledge is empowering, in wh ich the power to act comes from th e sharing of knowledge and the creation of new knowledge driven from in form ed , and m otivated stakeholders.

Knowledge and knowledge management W here does knowledge management (KM) fit into IC M? The KM movement -

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catchment management a phenomenon chat is increasingly becoming a pare of many organisations and businesses today - has, we believe, application co ICM . Many of rhe KM fu ndamentals can readi ly be adapted co ICM-type problems. "Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody - either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable ofdifferent or more effective action. "(D rucker, P. 1989: The new realities. Harper & Row, New York) The terms "information" and "knowledge" are often used as though rhey are interchangeable, when in practice their management requi res very different processes. Knowledge management, in an ICM context, focuses on che processes and people involved in creating, sharing and leveraging knowledge among science providers, co mmunities, resource managers and policy makers. Information management, in contrast, is more concerned with establ ishing processes and systems co gather, organise, summarise and package information - incl uding ics tim ely delivery co the right decisio n makers fo r the situation involved. Early users of KM based much of their practice on rhe assumption chat valuable knowledge exists out there, and all we need co do is capture ir, codify, and share ir. This view of KM is often associated wi rh phrases such as: • getting the right information co the right people at che right time, • if we only knew what we know now, and • we need co capture and codify our tacit and explicit knowledge before it walks out the door.

In chis view the practice of KM begins after knowledge is produced and its pu rpose is co enhance che deployment of knowledge in ro practice. This is firstgeneration KM where the emphasis is nor on knowledge production but on knowledge integration. H owever, a new view has emerged in recent years - secondgeneration KM (McElroy 2002). Its practitioners don't assume chat valuable knowledge already exists but cake the view char knowledge is somethi ng rhac is produced in hu man social systems thro ugh individual or shared processes char have regularity co them. This 'knowledge life cycle' (McElroy 2002) emphasises both knowledge production and integration (Fig. 2). Some of che claims embodied in chis view include: • People engage in learning as a result of experiencing gaps in their understand ing about an emerging problem, wh ich involves a lack of knowledge of what actions co cake in order co achieve rhe desired outcomes.

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Oemann-s inP KM

Knowledge production: •Information acquisition •Individual & group learning •Knowledge claim formulation •Knowledge claim evaluation

~ ::--------------KLC Knowledge production

Knowledge integration

~ Knowledge integration: •Broadcasting •Teaching •Searching •Sharing

I Supply-side KM Figure 2. Elements of the Knowledge Life Cycle (KLC) (modified from Fig 3.7, McElroy 20 0 2) Knowledge Managemen t in the ICM M otu eka research prog ram.

• Detection of problems by individuals triggers learning activity that eventually leads co che fo rmula tion of ideas, theories, and assertions abour which potential actions might lead co the desired outcomes.

• As they engage in learning and development of new knowledge, individuals may attract ochers and form groups, share ideas, peer review ideas - knowledge production .

• Noc all knowledge claims (statements, theories, hypothesis, etc.) fo rmulated by individuals and groups succeed. T hose chat do may rhen start ro be integrated inro a wider population of people - knowledge integration.

Practi tioners of second-generation KM believe chat people tend co self-orga nise around che production, diffusion, and use of knowledge. Managing knowledge chus is far more than building computer-based repositories of faces and figures - rather knowledge is the produce of natural knowledge process ing behaviours (innovation) found in all living systems.

Create rhe conditio n in which innovation thrives and the evolution of knowledge will natu rally fo llow. However, given rhe diverse sec of decision environments inherent in the resource management arena, such a system will, co some extent, use information technology for part of its funct ion.

Second-generation KM chinki ng begins with rhe assumption chat knowledge is somethi ng we produce and chat innovation is a social process nor an administrative one. Understanding how knowledge is created, how it is shared and diffused throughout an orga nisation, group or community and not just how co codify it in

artificial form, lies at che very heart of second-generation KM chinking. Secondgeneration theory acknowledges the existence of knowledge processes and knowledge life cycles in human social systems. Thus its practitioners have come co recognise the co ncept of organisational learni ng and the collectively held knowledge it produces (McElroy 1999; Allen et al. 200 1).

In our introduction, we posited that successful ICM requi res three key elements (Fig. 1). Often these elements form a cycle with feedback loops and refi nement along the away. We believe the collaborative approach outlined in Fig. 1 is analogous co the move in knowledge management circles fro m fi rst-generation or "supply-side KM" (McElroy 1999) - practices designed co enhance the supply of existing knowledge co chose who need/use it, ro secondgeneration KM, which introduces "demand-side KM" which instead of focus ing on che supply of existing knowledge seeks co enhance the capacity of the users ro produce it (McElroy 2002) (Fig. 2). T he mission of demand-side KM is co enha nce the capacity ro satisfy demand for new knowledge. However, secondgeneration KM is really abo ut both of these - knowledge sharing and knowledge maki ng sec withi n a cyclical or holistic fra mework - referred co as the Knowledge Life Cycle (McElroy 2002) (Fig. 2) .

The Mocueka ICM research program is a collaborative, hol istic approach co largescale, regional environmental issues. T he Mocueka River ICM research program was fo unded through extensive consultation with end-users and stakeholders and in put fro m cwo internationally recognised experts. T he seeds were sown du ring a

. ~ .a tc _h ~ -~rt man _a gement contact recreation. Direct access workshop attended by a wide A . Cows in the stream 70 of livestock ro scream channels is channel array of stakeholders who 60 thought to be a major cause of identified char holistic and diffuse faecal pollution (Ministry 50 sustainable management of land, of Agriculture and Fisheries 40 river, and coastal resources - a ti> 1993). A catchment monitoring 3:: 30 1st re-crossing "ridge tops ro the sea" 0 crossing u program initiated in October perspective - was a top priority.

20 ~ : video-tape 2000 highlighted chat one T he program's goal is ro 10 : ends Motueka catchment, the Sherry undertake research ro help 0 River, had a potential problem improve rhe management of B. Water cloudiness with bacterial co ntamination 15 land, freshwa ter, and near-coastal (beam attenuation@ 660 nm) Farm (both faecal coliforms and environments in catchments with bike campylobaccer). T his information multiple, interacting, and 10 was presented ro the research potentially co nflicting land and program's touchstone stakeho lder ll water uses.

5 group (Co mmunity Reference T h is ambitious goal is being Group). Results indicated that accomplished through an 0 the river was unsafe for innovative co mbination of swimming in its lower reaches.

C. Faecal indicator bacteria hiscorical research, biophysical ~ 60,000 This new knowledge flowed back N: experimentation, simulation o , E 50,000 r--.: : into the relevant community and mo delling, and social learn ing. g 40 ,000 was further presented to a This addition of social learning 30 ,000 g \ :27,600@ 17:17 meeting of the eight major to rhe research mix has been 20,000 landowners in the catchment in designed specifically ro improve 00 : 'a 10,000 July 200 1. T he fa rmers expressed inte ractions berween science (.)

0 concern at the high bacteria providers and community 18:00 16:00 17:00 LU 15:00 results, especially as they and stakeholders, and so ro maximise Time (NZDT) on 11 October, 2001 their families enj oy swi mming in rhe uptake and use of new the river. Stream crossings by knowledge and too ls developed Figure 3. Relationship of water quality to number of cows in dairy herds were suspected as the from scientific research. The the stream chan nel. A. Count of cows on the ford token major culprit. An ad hoc program rakes a parcnership from the videotape. B. Water cloudi ness measured as light Landcare group was fo rmed to approach that aims ro help beam attenuation, c(660). C. Concentration of the faecal research the problem, what might poli cy- and decision-makers, i nd icator bacterium, E. coli (two hig h va lues, possibly due be causing it, and how to deal resident stakeholders, and to aggregates of faecal matter, ore treated as outliers). with it. researchers achieve rhe f low time was 2.2 minutes from th e ford to the monitoring environmental outcomes they A multi-disciplinary ICM site 60 m d ownstream. (Reproduced from Nagels el al seek for the issues they have research team conducted an 2003). raised. Some of those key experiment in Octobe r 2001 resource management issues are: (Davies-Colley et al. in press; • Water demand and water Nagels et al. 2003) in which a some tacit knowledge and summarising the cow crossi ng was recorded by two video management research issues (Basher 2003). This "push" cameras, and water qual ity effects • Sediment impacts incl uding gravel approach has recently starred to give way by continuous monitoring of documented ext ractio n on aquatic habitat to a number of "pulls" from stakeholders turbidity and beam transmittance, and by • Water quality, particularly impacts of who, either in response to increasing close-interval sampling for analysis of pathogens and nutrients on fres h and exposu re to information and knowledge, or faecal indicator bacteria and other coastal waters because they have started co self-organise va riables. The crossing of the whole herd • Riparian management into groups, are keen ro learn more about cows) as a bunch on the way to the (246 the nature of the problems they are facing • Aquatic ecology - trout and native fish afternoon milking produced a major and are demanding and seeki ng the response to land and water uses "spike" of turbidity, with visual clarity production of new knowledge.

Thus, we • Catchment - Tasman Bay interactions dropping temporarily from 2 m to as low are starting to see the emergence of seco ndwith a rapidly expanding mussel far ming, as JOOmm. Very high faecal bacterial generation KM practices in our stakeholder scallop harvesting and aquaculture concentrations were measured in the turbid communities. industry. plume (exceeding 50 000 cfu/100 mL of E. In the first three years of our research, Case study: Knowledge coli) - compared with a contact recreation we have focused largely on firs t-generation management pull guideline (median) of 126 cfu/ 100 mL. KM practices, i.e. "build it and they wi ll After milking, the cows crossed back over Pastoral agriculture has been implicated come" philosophies in relation to the river as individuals or small groups, as the single largest cause of water information and knowledge. T here has and turbidity and E. coli were variable and poll ution in New Zealand.

Characteristic been a focus on the production of an much less elevated, albeit fo r a longer favo ured faecal concentratio ns of the integrated knowledge base co mprising a period of time. Total mobilisation of both indicator organism (Escherichia coli) in website li ght-attenuation and faecal bacteria was agricultural screams are typically arou nd 20 (h ttp:/ /icm.landcareresearch.co.nz), similar on both crossings. Comparison of times higher than in fores ted catch ments, sea rchable reference library, and a technical cow voiding "events" in che 17-m-wide and frequently exceed guidelines for report documenting available written and

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scream wirh fres h cow pars counted along rhe raceway suggests that the cows were more than 50 rimes as likely to void in rhe stream than in equivalent distances elsewhere on their path to and from the milking shed. This work rhus directly documented appreciable water pollution associated with cattle access to st reams.

Our finding rhar the faecal bacterial level from this source quadrupled background (diffuse) pollurion from pasture under relatively low flow conditions in the Sherry River implied rhar a major improvement in water quality could be derived from bridging streams intersected by fa rm raceways. The n et result of the experiment was rhar local farmers began to think seriously about brid ging their crossings and getting the cows our of rhe river. The first bridge, a new $50,000 farm bridge, marked rhe start of a surge of action, which ar November 2003 had three of the four river crossings bridged and extensive riparian plantings occu rring adjacent to th e fourth.

A by-product has been rhe formation of rhe community or Landcare group . The farme rs are now monitoring rhe health of rhe river themselves to derecr what changes occur after their actions. Already they gain benefits from using rhe bridges as far as saving rime and stress in getting cows to and from milking, and being able to ger cows across rhe river when in fl ood.

Although motivated by a desire to look after the river, rhe farmers can also see the benefits rhar rhe bridges provide to their b usiness. In KM terms, the landowners have self-organised in to a grou p, are learning both as individuals and as a group, and are beginning to d emand and produce new knowledge to meet a range of new challenges faced . T h rough producing and using new knowledge they are in a position to rake the actions n eeded to achieve their desired outcome - reduced pathogens, or a river safe to swim in, and an improved public percep tion of dairy farming in rhe environment.

Summary - Where To From Here?

In knowledge management terms, rhe relationship between our research program and irs stakeholders is moving from one with an initial focus on first-generat ion information push approaches co secondgeneration ap proaches where stakeholder groups are becoming organised, are seeking to learn more, and want co be a pan of the p rocess of creating new knowledge. This shift in attitude on the part of several grou ps has nor yet been mirrored by all stakeholders in the catch ment or by all researchers in the program. Some groups still are nor engaged in active dialogue,

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choose co ignore either rhe information or knowledge rhar is "pushed" at them, or do nor consider that a problem exists rhar warrants their attention now. This raises questions for rhe internal learning progress of rhe program and how these groups and individuals can be engaged in future d ialogues. This is part of the social and institutional learning research that is currently under way in rhe research program (h ttp://icm. landcareresearch.co.nz/ science_ rhemes/humandimensions/ people_social.hrm).

In summary, ou r traditional approaches in ICM research of working wirh communities and stakeholders in various forms of mulri-srakeholder participatory processes to identify needs or issues together with a "push" of informatio n and integration of knowledge is beginning co lead us, researchers and end-users alike, into knowledge production via individ ual and group learning to meet new problems as they arise.

Recognition of the role that KM plays in innovative busin esses has, we believe, importanr implications and parallels co I CM efforts and provides a transferable blueprint for successful ICM. In terms of the research p rogram, we will con tinue to expand the physical knowledge base and the network of individuals an d groups with whom we interact. We will endeavour to faci litate access co information and knowledge rhar is produced by rhe program and its stakeho lders. We see rhar an increasing effort co faci litate and engage groups will be pivotal to rhe creation of new knowledge and the resolution of many of rhe problems facing stakeh olders of the Motueka catch ment.

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Acknowledgments We thank Ian Whitehouse for reviewing a draft of chis paper and Christine Bezar for editing.

The Authors

Dr Chris Phillips is a bio-physical scientist wirh interests in Integrated Carchmenr Management and how information technology is used to promote the use an d uptake of science information (Email: PhillipsC@LandcareResearch. co.n z); Dr Will Allen is an action researcher specialising in collaborative learn ing, adap tive managemenr, ICTsupporred learning, and participatory monitoring and evaluation; and Margaret Kilvington is a social researcher who specialises in community participation, research plan ni ng and participatory monitoring and evaluation. All three are at Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand.

References Website http://icm.landcareresearch. co.nz/ Default.hem Allen, W., Bosch, 0 ., Kilvingcon, M., Oliver, J. & Gilbert, M. (2001) . Benefits of collaborative learning for environmental management: Applying the Integrated Systems for Knowledge Management approach co support animal pest concrol.

Environmental Mrmagement 27:2 pp. 215-

223 Allen, W. J.; Kilvingron, M . J. 1999: W hy involving people is important: The forgotten pare of environmental information system management. MODSS ' 99 Brisbane, Australia, 1-6 August 1999 (Available at: h ttp://www.landcareresearch.co. nz/ research/s ocial/envi11 fsys.asp) Basher, L. R. (Compiler) 2003 : The Mocueka and Riwaka Catchments. A technical report summarising rhe present scare of knowledge of the catchments, management issues and research needs for integrated cacchmenr management. Landcare Research, Lincoln, NZ. Davies-Colley, R.; Nagels, J.; Smirh, R.; Young, R.; Phillips, C. Water quali ty impact of cows crossing an agricultural scream, rhe Sherry River, New Zealand . N ew Zealand journal of Marine & Freshwater Research. In press.

Minisrry of Agriculture and Fisheries l 993: Towards Sustainable Agriculture: Freshwater Quality in New Zealand and rhe InAuence of Agriculture. Technical Paper 93/ I 0.

McElroy, M. W. 1999: The second generation of knowledge management. Knowledge Management (Occober): 86-88 .

McElroy, M. W. 2002 : The new knowledge management. Complexity, learning, and sustainable innovation. Butterworth Heinemann 246 p.

Nagels, J. W.; Davies-Colley, R. J.; Donn iso n, A. M.; Muirhead, R. W. 2003: Faecal contamination over Aood evenrs in a pastoral agricultural scream in New Zealand. Water Science and Technology (in press).