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Helmut Kroiss, incoming President of IWA. improvements were delivered, they were not as high as predicted and the application of new concepts came at a higher cost. Turning to the stream about private sector engagement, Rymer and Davis concluded that the current political and regulatory governance environment in 2013/14 suggests that cost reduction pressures will continue on Australian water utilities and that, as a result, more will consider large-scale services outsourcing as a strategy to drive cost-of-service reforms. Certainly, the private sector supplier market is well equipped to respond competitively to almost any form of contract, and the return to decade-old (lower) levels of infrastructure spend has made the market much keener and more competitive than it was during the Millennium Drought period – as evidenced in a number of recent tender outcomes. A range of contract models can be effectively utilised. The Sydney Water commercial model is an example of a highly collaborative framework that introduces a field-based decision framework and focuses on improving business outcomes and sharing the benefits. Cultural change is an important element for the success of the contract. All major sourcing strategies for operations or maintenance in water utilities are complex transactions with many facets that require deep understanding of the business; as frequently the business processes and interfaces that are affected by the contract are not well defined by the business and not clearly understood in the context of an external sourcing rather than a ‘business as usual’ rolling internal management environment. A hot topic at present is recycling and regulation, captured in a paper by Anderson et al. The concurrent development of two innovative sewer mining schemes with many similarities, delivered in different locations (Melbourne and London), has provided a unique insight into the impact regulations can have on the treatment process for recycled water schemes. Regulations are, of course, set to ensure public and environmental health. However, the boundaries, form and scope of regulations should be tested to ensure that they do not stifle innovation, or prevent positive sustainability outcomes from occurring due to needless red tape. A STEEP (social, technological, environmental, economical and political) analysis has identified economic and environmental factors as having been significantly impacted by the existing regulations in Victoria and Australia. This has resulted in significant additional costs to the Yarra Park WRF and increased power consumption resulting in higher estimated carbon emissions. Conversely, the development of the regulations and guidelines has established clear frameworks for the delivery, construction, operation and reporting of recycled water schemes.
For non-metro towns in New South Wales and Queensland, dealing with dozens of small but independent water utilities is an ongoing challenge. Fearon’s paper looked at 20 Queensland local governments with responsibility for water and sewerage that agreed to investigate alternative institutional models for collaborative urban water services across their region. The Queensland Water Regional Alliances Program was established by the Local Government Association of Queensland, with funding support from the Queensland Government to develop and facilitate these investigations. The program has been running for two years, with all councils jointly investing in a range of internal and independent studies on the costs and benefits of alternative regional models for collaboration. All participating councils have invested in greater regional collaboration and one region has agreed to trial a Regional Alliance. The program has been successful in generating regional collaboration and institutional change and has been extended to allow participants in the remaining three regions to consider the appropriate institutional model for their communities. In a session on Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR, synonymous with MAR) Vanderzalm noted that it is being increasingly used in water recycling, since it offers many benefits, including increased resilience of water supplies, replenishment of over-exploited aquifers, natural or passive treatment, recovery of throughflow wetlands, and increased public acceptance of recycled water. Two field sites employing novel techniques for MAR with treated wastewater, at Floreat in Western Australia and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, are evaluating major impediments to the uptake of MAR: clogging and water quality impacts. Clogging leads to reduced infiltration rates, while optimisation of passive treatment can minimise water quality impacts on the receiving groundwater. Evans et al. explained that Northern Australia is climatically characterised by a large seasonal difference in rainfall, rainfall runoff and groundwater recharge, which places significant limitations on development opportunities. MAR, as part of a strategic approach involving conjunctive use, has the potential to deliver new sources of water during the dry season for urban, industrial, mining and agricultural water supply systems and has the potential to play an important role in meeting northern Australia’s future water needs. They discussed the potential for MAR across the region, focusing on three case studies: the Fitzroy River catchment (Western Australia); the Daly River catchment (Northern Territory); and the Gilbert River catchment (Queensland). Dillon et al. outlined the major Managed Aquifer Recharge and Stormwater Use Options (MARSUO) study and concluded, inter alia, that capitalising on the water supply opportunities for stormwater use options may require a more unified form of water governance than exists in most states, which recognises the integration of existing stormwater drainage and mains distribution infrastructure with different ownership and different established financial arrangements. The MARSUO project shows that the technical difficulties and water safety aspects are manageable using established processes under the National Water Quality Management Strategy, and the next step is to build processes that enable timely financial integration so that the highest valued projects are supported.
CONCLUSION This report is more of a random sampler than a full overview of Ozwater’14, given the scope, breadth and sheer numbers of papers, posters, workshops and satellite events. It should, however, be an interesting tour of disparate papers and issues. Ozwater Conference proceedings are available to all delegates who registered and attended the Conference. For access to the proceedings, please email ozwater@awa.asn.au
JUNE 2014 WATER