Nominations are now open for the qldwater sponsored water industry operators’ awards. Established in 2010 by the Queensland Water Directorate (qldwater) in conjunction with the Water Industry Operators Association of Australia (WIOA), the Young Operator of the Year and Operator of the Year (Civil) awards will again recognise the achievements of operational staff employed in the Queensland water industry. 

The awards, which aim to encourage outstanding operational performance of Queensland water industry employees, will be presented to operators who showed excellent performance, initiative and all round attention to detail. 

The two categories available for nomination this year are for:                     

1. Queensland Young Operator of the Year
2. Operator of the Year Civil Works

The awards will be presented at the WIOA Annual Queensland Water Industry Operations Workshop Conference Dinner at the Gold Coast on 7 June 2012.   The winners will receive an all expenses paid trip (value $2,000 each) to join the WIOA delegation on a tour of water and wastewater facilities in New Zealand as well as attending the Water Industry Operations Group NZ conference in May 2013.    They will also receive a perpetual plaque which their employer keeps for 12 months plus an individual trophy which is kept by the winner. 

Please visit http://www.qldwater.com.au/qldwaterAwards for more information, nomination details and application form.   Don’t miss this opportunity to recognise the efforts of your operational staff!

Nominations close on Friday 11 May.  

We are trialling a new process where information on matters discussed by our technical group (TRG) is disseminated more broadly.  Within a couple of weeks of each TRG meeting (held every 2 months), we will distribute a simple list of topics via e-flash, and a brief summary of the discussions along with contacts for more information will be available to members on our web site.  Feedback on this process would be most welcome.

Please note, when dealing with new policy, legislation and other matters, information can become out of date very quickly.  qldwater is happy to provide current information on any topics.

The topics discussed in Brisbane on 10 February included:

Fireflow Pressures

ERA 63

Total Water Quality Management Plans

Queensland Water Regional Alliance Program

Pre-Election Policy Briefings

Property Service Issue – Water Meters

Trade Waste

Load Based Licensing

Communications, Marketing, Water Connections Tour and Taste Test

Skills

Letter from New Chair and Deputy Chair to all qldwater Members

Format of TRG Meetings and other Communication with Members including following disasters

Recycled Water Management Plans Simplification

Joint Procurement Opportunities

Fluoride Training Program – Industry-wide tender process

Feedback from WIOA training trial and Supervisors workshop in Biloela 8/9 Feb

National Potable Treatment Operators Certification Scheme

The summary information is available by clicking following the link at the TRG page http://www.qldwater.com.au/TRG  and entering your qldwater username and password.

The South West Queensland Water Conference which was cancelled due to flooding earlier this month has been rescheduled. 

The Water Conference and the Orica Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test will now be held in Charleville on Tuesday 27 March 2012.

With a great venue and an excellent line-up of speakers talking about topics of interest in your region, the event promises to be a great learning experience and networking opportunity.

The South West Queensland Regional Conference is being sponsored by Toowoomba Regional Council and Smartwater Research Centre, with Orica Australia sponsoring the Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test.

Eligible water service providers for the South West Regional final are Balonne Shire Council, Bulloo Shire Council, Goondiwindi Regional Council, Maranoa Regional Council, Murweh Shire Council, Paroo Shire Council, Quilpie Shire Council, Southern Downs Regional Council, Toowoomba Regional Council and Western Downs Regional Council.

We urge you to come along and enjoy the day – and don’t forget to bring a water sample and have a go at the Best of the Best Water Taste Test!  

Please visit the conference webpage on our website for more details, program and registration form. 

Registrations are now open!

Six regional competition events will be held during the period of March to May 2012 and each of the finalists (the winners from the regional competitions) will compete for the “Best of the Best” State Title at qldwater’s State Final event to be held on the Gold Coast on 7 June 2012. The winner will be announced from one of the regional state finalists. It would be beneficial if a representative from water providers attended the regional judging where the winner will be announced.  qldwater will pay flights and accommodation for one representative from each regional winner to attend the State Final event on the Gold Coast.  The final judging event will be held in conjunction with the WIOA 2012 State Conference.

There are 78 drinking water service providers around the state, mostly owned and run by local government organisations.  There are over 300 schemes (or community water supplies).  We’ve created the test to build awareness of what they do but also to create a chance for them to get together and share and learn in their regions. Communities are proud of their water supplies and are fiercely protective of their right to own and manage the resource through their local Council. This is an essential service provided 24/7 by your local water utility.

While the taste test is about how good water tastes, it is also meant to help inform the community about how much effort goes into providing clean drinking water; with far greater controls and lower cost than other retail sources like bottled water. We ask all contestants to have observed the conditions of entry.  The taste test isn’t a technical test to determine what’s left in water after treatment (so long as it is safe) – it’s what makes local communities proud, typically measured by what makes a good cup of tea!

More information and entry forms for the 2012 Orica Australia Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test can be found on our website - http://www.qldwater.com.au/Water_Taste_Test

Registrations for the qldwater SEQ Conference and Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test to be held at the Maroochy Surf Club on Thursday, 15 March 2012 are now open and available on our website at http://www.qldwater.com.au/Water_Taste_Test_and_Conference_SEQ.

Earlybird registrations close on Friday 1 March.

With a great venue and an excellent line-up of speakers talking about topics of interest in your region, the event promises to be a great learning experience and networking opportunity.

The SEQ regional event is sponsored by Dial Before You Dig and kindly hosted by Unitywater and open to members from Allconnex Water (Logan, Redland City, Gold Coast City Council areas), Bundaberg Regional Council, Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, Gympie Regional Council, North Burnett Regional Council, Queensland Urban Utilities (Brisbane, Somerset, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Ipswich Council areas), South Burnett Regional Council, Unitywater (Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast Regional Council areas) and Wide Bay Water Corporation (Fraser Coast Regional Council).

We urge you to come along and enjoy the day – and don’t forget to bring a water sample and have a go at the Best of the Best Water Taste Test!

After talking to Russell Hood, our host in Murweh Shire over the weekend we have agreed to put a halt to the events planned for 16 February in Charleville.  The clean up is going to take some time and our colleagues in surrounding districts are still bracing for more water.

At this stage it is a postponement and we will advise as soon as a another date is decided, or alternate venue for the South West conference.

We extend our best wishes to those affected and hope that you remain safe.

The qldwater team.

As reported in e Flashes 132 and 150, the industry has been discussing with the DERM practical approaches for regulating Environmentally Relevant Activity 63 (ERA 63) which covers large sewage pumping stations (i.e. > 40kL per hour (11L/s).  Under the Environmental Protection Regulation 2008, all WSPs were required to have Development Approvals and a Registration Certificate for all large pumping stations from January 2009 - an unachievable task for most communities.

Following discussions with a qldwater industry expert-panel and comments on various drafts DERM have released a final draft of new guidelines and a draft Code of Environmental Compliance for dealing with large pumping stations. Comments from the industry expert panel addressing this issue, which includes representatives from Allconnex, Banana, Cairns, Gladstone, Longreach, Mackay, Queensland Urban Utilities, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Townsville, Unitywater and Wide Bay Water, a joint industry response has been drafted and is available for comment (before Friday 10^th) at http://www.qldwater.com.au/ReviewDocuments. (Members must log in first to access this document).  

If you require further information, please contact Rob Fearon on 0428 300 208.

For those people uploading BoM data via SWIM please remember that for it to be a valid entry BoM require all 3 of these parameters to be completed: a date, a value and a BoM quality code. Importantly, the value must be a number. Recently we have detected non-numbers in the value ‘cell’. If you are missing data it would be preferable for you to enter “ND” in the value cell and “F” in the BoM quality code cell. Alternatively, the value cell can be left blank.

Note that from the 2^nd February on if non-numbers (except “ND”) are entered into the value cell (such as n/a, n.r, or unknown) this will result in the file being rejected and an informative email will be sent to you explaining what needs to be fixed.

This year the annual Water Connections Tour is being held in conjunction with a series of Water Mini Conferences and “The Best of the Best Water Taste Test” a water taste testing competition to find the Best of the Best of Queensland’s water. We are pleased to announce Orica Australia as the Statewide event sponsor.  Other event sponsors include Dial Before You Dig, Smart Water Research Centre, Unitywater and Local Buy. 

The Best of the Best competition aims to raise awareness of the State’s quality drinking water and to recognise the efforts of local water service providers in delivering valuable water services to their communities. The competition consists of six regional taste test competitions (State Finalists) and an overall State Winner. The six regions and regional titles are:

 Each of the state finalists will compete for the “Best of the Best” State Title at qldwater’s State Final event being held at the WIOA conference at the Gold Coast in June.

The competition is held across Queensland and open to all Queensland water service providers.  All entries must have incurred no state or federal drinking water violations during the past year. Please see our website for more information under Programs/Taste Test.