6 August 2007

MEMBERSHIP FEES DUE

Membership fees are now due for 2007/08 and invoices were sent out in July. The Executive Committee resolved that fees be increased by CPI in order to keep pace with inflation. Thanks to the member councils that have promptly renewed their membership. In addition to technical support and networking opportunities with all the 95 member councils, the following technical publications are planned to be delivered throughout 2007/08: O&M Manual for WTPs – due out by November; Part 2 s64 Guidelines - Collation of Water Usage Data – due out in 2008; Land Acquisition Guidelines – due out in 2008; Odour Management Guidelines – due out in 2008; and Risk Management Guidelines – due out in 2008.

LAST CALL FOR THE LGSA WATER MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, INVERELL, 16-17 AUGUST

The 2007 Water Management Conference is fast approaching and will be held in Inverell on Thursday, 16 August to Friday, 17 August. Online registration facility and registration forms are available at www.lgsa-plus.net.au/WaterConference The Water Directorate is looking forward to being involved by conducting the popular Water Managers’ Forum for the fifth year where delegates can freely voice their concerns on emerging topics and get feedback from their peers in the audience and on the panel.

FEEDBACK ON THE WIOA NSW OPERATORS CONFERENCE & NSW OPERATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

Congratulations to George Wall and the Water Industry Operators Association for organising the Inaugural WIOA NSW Water Industry Engineers and Operators Conference in July at Dubbo. From my visit and from all reports, the event successfully hit the grassroots operator target and attracted approx 120 delegates including representatives from 30 councils. Congratulations also to the following six nominations for the Water Directorate’s NSW Operator of the Year Award: Geoff Finucane from Cootamundra Shire Council; Roger Whale from Gilgandra Shire Council; Pat Welsh from MidCoast Water; Peter Lewis from Orange City Council; Wayne Watson from Tweed Shire Council; and David Cochrane from Wingecarribee Shire Council. I’m pleased to advise that in a close decision, the award went to Pat Welsh who received a perpetual trophy to hold for a year plus a personal trophy to keep. The award recognises excellent performance, initiative and all round attention to detail by operators of water or wastewater treatment facilities employed in NSW.  This award is highly regarded in Victoria and Queensland and we trust it will be highly regarded in NSW as well.

FEEDBACK ON THE ENERGY SAFETY & FIELD EXPO

Despite the major setback of the expo being postponed by a month due to flood emergency priorities, e-safe2007 was successfully re-staged in July. Congratulations to Integral Energy for getting it all together and re-assembling the expo competitions, seminars and exhibits and the 50 organisations involved in exhibiting, presenting, adjudicating and managing various aspects of the event. The Water Directorate seminars and competitions proceeded with a few minor hitches but many thanks to the six teams that were able to return to support this important and informative OH&S event. The competing teams were from Wellington Shire Council, Dubbo City Council, Orange City Council, Tweed Shire Council, Sydney Water and Hunter Water and congratulations goes to the winning team from Dubbo City Council and to the runners up from Sydney Water and Hunter Water. Trophies were awarded to the first placed team and individual prizes were awarded to all members of the first three teams. The Executive Committee believes that the exercise raises the awareness of electrical safety and highlights the danger of the link between the electrical industry and the water industry

UPDATE ON NSW DROUGHT CONDITIONS

Rain over most of the state improved drought conditions noticeably with the DPI declaring that as at July, 69.6% of the area of NSW is officially drought affected. The area classified as marginal is 10.8% and the area classified as satisfactory has almost tripled but is still only 19.6%. On a positive note DWE advise that water c art ing to 6 villages at the st art of July reduced to 1 of those villages at July 31.

WATER LOSS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE

In July some excellent water savings were made through the program’s work at the township of Wallabadah, one of the communities recently needing water cartage 60km south of Tamworth,. The WLMP enabled leakage to be investigated, detected and cut by 70% thereby saving 20% of the small town’s usage! Three new council applications were received in July and the Water Directorate and LGSA are very keen to repeat the Wallabadah savings exercise on a larger scale in all of the fourteen councils now in the WLMP. Three more workshops are being planned for Kempsey, Gunnedah and Nyngan/Cobar and further workshops are likely in the Moruya/Batemans Bay area and Goulburn. A technical presentation is currently being developed for the website and a general WLM brochure is also currently being developed. For further information about workshops, application forms etc visit www.WaterLoss.lgsa.org.au or contact Mirko Sramek on 02 9242 4127.

DWE WATER TREATMENT OPERATOR TRAINING COURSE, JUGIONG, 13-17 AUGUST,

For more information on Part 2: Water Treatment Operation Course No. WT21 please contact Pradeep Kumar on 02 8281 7777.

REMOVAL OF BONDED ASBESTOS

In July new licensing requirements for removal of bonded asbestos products came into effect which changes the way local water utilities handle and dispose of AC pipes. I am advised that the changes pertain to the OH&S Regulation 2001, Cl 317 and from 1 July the area of bonded asbestos material that requires a removal licence was reduced from 200 square metres and above down to 50 square metres and above. Note that this requirement further reduces to 10 square metres and above from 1 January 2008 . LWUs must carefully consider the area of material in an AC pipe repair or replacement and have the appropriate licensed staff or contractor arrangements in place. Removal or repair of AC pipes is considered a ‘worksite’ and required to be overseen by Workcover. Employees involved in asbestos removal work have to be trained in asbestos handling which TAFE can provide in a 4hr session but supervisors/licence holders need to do a higher level of training which TAFE can provide in a 3 days course. The Water Directorate has resolved to update the 2003 publication Cutting, Handling and Disposal of Asbestos Cement Pipes Guidelines to address the above changes.

NEW STATE GOVERNMENT REBATES FOR RAINWATER TANKS

In July DECC introduced a revised state-wide rainwater tank rebate scheme of up to $1500 for 7,000 litre and above rainwater tanks when connected to a toilet and washing machine. For full details on the NSW Climate Change Fund Rainwater Tank Rebate visit www.environment.nsw.gov.au/rebates or call 1300 361 967.

STEVE POSSELT & KAYAK4EARTH, DIRRANBANDI TO TILPA

At the end of July, Steve’s ‘paddling’ odyssey from Brisbane to Adelaide clocked up 66 days and from the map it looks like he’s just over 50% of the distance as the crow flies. At a similar rate Steve will probably take at least another couple of months to get to Adelaide . Steve is a civil engineer who has worked in the water industry since 1971 so he’s well qualified to fulfil one of the aims of his trip which is collecting information from water monitoring and from people who live on the Darling system. This information will be collated after the trip to increase awareness in our cities on what lies along our major river system. Council staff along the route should give lots of encouragement to Steve as he brings his global warming message to your shire. Steve is very keen to meet and talk to local community groups and schools and this can be arranged by going to www.kayak4earth.com and then clicking on "Contact Us", provided that you give the support crew enough notice. From Steve’s website reports, he has been doing more paddling than walking in July but the river meanders a lot and Steve reports that a local rule of thumb estimates the distance between towns by river is three times the distance by road! In July Steve has crossed over the Queensland-NSW border into Brewarrina Shire Council, then into Bourke Shire Council and paddled along the border between Central Darling Shire Council and Cobar Shire Council. If you follow Steve’s progress on the website in August you should see him paddle through Central Darling Shire Council and Wentworth Shire Council before reaching the Murray .

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING DATES

Meeting dates remaining in 2007 are 13 September and 7,8 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

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