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22
January 2007
URGENT
REMINDER - CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE AWARD, 4 - 8 MARCH
For
the fourth year, the Executive Committee is offering an award
plus funding, to assist a worthy engineer with up to 5 years
experience from a member council water business, to attend
AWA’s 2007 national water conference. Details have now been
finalised and are publicised in the nomination form which
has been sent with this newsletter to member councils only.
Young water industry professionals are encouraged to write
what they and their council expect to gain by attending a
national water industry conference of this distinction. The
Water Directorate will provide up to $1,600 towards the cost
of travel and accommodation and AWA has kindly donated a gratis
conference registration for Ozwater 2007 in Sydney from 4
to 8 March also valued at approximately $1,600. AWA’s
conference is two months earlier than last year so please
fax your nomination form to Eloise Stanley by 9 February 2007
.
AWA
is keen to encourage local government delegations to attend
Ozwater 2007 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The package is tailored for groups of 3 people plus partners.
Contact Quitz Event Management on 9410 1302 or quitz@bigpond.net.au
BUREAU
OF METEOROLOGY AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT STATEMENT 2006
BOM’s
Drought Statement for the 5 & 12 month periods ending
31 December 2006 paints a bleak picture for the southern half
of Australia . The Drought Statement shows 2006 was the driest
year on record going back to 1900 across parts of southern
Australia , most notably in northern and parts of eastern
Tasmania , northeast Victoria and adjacent parts of southern
NSW and the ACT.
August
to December was especially warm and dry across the southern
half of the country. Temperature and rainfall averaged over
the Murray-Darling Basin resulted in the driest August to
December period on record as well as being the second warmest
, with much of the central-west and southwest slopes of NSW
having mean maximum temperatures more than 3°C above the long-term
average. SA & Vic had their second driest Aug to Dec period,
while in area-average terms it was the warmest last 5 months
of the year for the country as a whole, as well as for WA,
SA & Vic.
A
poor start to the northern wet season has also caused short-term
rainfall deficiencies to develop across some parts of tropical
Aust. For the 5-month period from August
to December , generally severe rainfall deficiencies (defined
as rainfalls in the lowest 5% of historical totals) covered
most of SA apart from the northeast quarter, all of Victoria,
northern and eastern Tasmania, most of NSW west of a line
from Bega to Tamworth to Bourke, southern inland Queensland,
parts of northwest and northern Queensland, areas in the northern
NT and the coastal zone between Albany and Esperance in southern
WA. Record low rainfalls (defined as the lowest since at least
1900 when data analysis began) were widely scattered about
all these areas.
For
the 2006
calendar year , serious (defined as rainfalls in the lowest
5 to 10% of historical totals) to severe rainfall deficiencies
affected a large part of southeast Queensland centred on about
Charleville, much of the southern half of NSW west of the
ranges, Victoria (apart from far East Gippsland), northern
and eastern Tasmania, south-eastern SA and a coastal strip
in WA from Carnarvon to Albany. In addition, areas near Bourke
and from Alice Springs to south of Tarcoola also have deficiencies
for this period.
Record
low rainfalls were analysed along Tasmania ’s north coast
as well as in parts of the southeast of that State. Records
were also broken in the mountainous regions of northeast Victoria
and southeast NSW extending into parts of the southwest slopes,
central tablelands and central-west, on the SA/Victoria border
near Bordertown and in a few patches along the southwest coast
of WA and in a small region just to the south of Oodnadatta.
The deficiencies discussed above have occurred against a backdrop
of multi-year rainfall deficits that have severely stressed
water supplies in the east and southwest of the country. Courtesy
Lawlex Water Newsfeed 4 Jan.
UPDATE
ON NSW DROUGHT CONDITIONS
NSW
drought conditions worsened slightly in January with the Department
of Primary Industries declaring that 93.2% of the area of
NSW was officially drought affected. The area of NSW classified
as marginal was 4.7% and the area classified as satisfactory
was only 2.1%. This is the ninth month in a row that the NSW
drought affected area has officially been in the range of
89 to 93%.
WATER
& WASTEWATER SHORT COURSES, CARLTON CREST HOTEL, SYDNEY
, 12-15 FEBRUARY
Eleven
IWES courses are on offer including two new courses in the
fields of water and wastewater treatment, air quality, environmental
management and biosolids management. Visit the website at
www.iwes.com.au for
information about the program. For more information regarding
current and future IWES events, please email to info@iwes.com.au
or call 1800 000 404. Courses include Principles
of Wastewater Treatment (4 day course); Biological
Nutrient Removal (2 day course); Membrane
Plant Design (1 day course); Introduction
to Membrane Bioreactors (1 day course); Water
Re-Use for Urban and Industrial Applications (2 day course);
Introduction
to Potable Water Treatment (2 day course); Water
Recycling for Agricultural and Horticultural Applications
- NEW (2 day course); Ecological
Risk Assessment (2 day course); Greenhouse
Gas Emissions Assessment and Reduction - NEW (2 day course);
Odour
Assessment and Management (2 day course); Principles
of Biosolids Management (2 day course).
WATER
LOSS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE
In
late January a Water Loss Engineer is expected to commence
duties to assist the Manager and expedite the WLMP. More next
month.
SYDNEY
WATER MONITORING SERVICES
Monitoring
Services delivers Sydney Water’s environmental and water monitoring
programs and hydrometric services to help Sydney Water achieve
its objectives of protecting the environment and public health.
Environmental monitoring includes all influent into wastewater,
stormwater or reuse systems; effluent from those systems;
and the measure of impacts on receiving environments. Water
monitoring includes raw water, treated water and recycled
water that is reticulated for residential, commercial or industrial
purposes. Sydney Water has its own purpose-built laboratory
which is one of the leading analytical laboratories in Australia
managing a diverse spectrum of analyses and research and development
programs. Located in a modern, multistorey building, the facilities,
processes and state-of-the-art, analytical equipment have
been NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accredited
for over 50 years. The laboratory also serves a broad range
of clients in industry and government. Sydney Water’s laboratory
capability includes:
- Clean,
potable and environmental waters - Provides comprehensive,
responsive analytical services for clean waters of types,
from drinking water to environmental samples, using automated
equipment for large numbers of samples.
- Wastewaters,
Sediments and Solids - Wastewater samples whether it is
sewage effluent, industrial wastewater, sludge, biosolids
or soil samples are analysed using both traditional and
semi-automated techniques.
- Chemical
Laboratories - Trace metals, Trace organics, Water Chemistry,
Nutrients, Olfactory
- Biological
Laboratories – Microbiology, Parasitology, Phycology, Cell
Molecular Biology (CMB) – viruses, Aquatic Ecology
- Macro
Invertebrates
For
further information on Monitoring Services for businesses
or for commercial customer inquiries to the laboratory, phone
02 9800 6935, fax 02 9800 6741 or email analysis@sydneywater.com.au
and see flyer included with this newsletter.
With
regard to testing drinking water, member councils are reminded
that regardless of whether they choose to use the free NSW
Health water testing service or choose to pay for testing,
test results are required to be labelled and sent to NSW Health
for inclusion in the Drinking Water Monitoring Program database
to enable NSW Health’s overall monitoring of the state’s drinking
water.
EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE MEETING DATES
The
new Executive Committee listed in last month’s newsletter
will meet for the first time on 1 March and the first duty
will be to elect a Chair, Deputy Chair and finalise Sub-Committee
structures for the next two calendar years. One vacancy exists
and I would be happy to discuss this with appropriate interested
persons from the 12 other member councils in the New England
Group of Councils.
The
other Executive Committee meeting dates in 2007 are 3 May,
5 July, 6 September and 8 November. Member councils are reminded
that they are welcome to forward water issues to me for referral
to the Executive Committee meetings. For further information
about membership or any water related issue, please contact
me on 02 8267 3010 or gmitchell@waterdirectorate.asn.au
For
more information contact:
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