Page 4213 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 December 2022
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4. Icon Water collects routine fortnightly and monthly data from the receiving river systems. Tests are those parameters prescribed in Environmental Authorisation EA0009 for LMWQCC, including chemical, physical, and biological characteristics.
The samples are collected from sites located both up and downstream on the Molonglo River and for the Murrumbidgee River downstream of the Plant. It is unsafe to collect samples when river flows are high, which typically coincides with discharges from the bypass dam.
5. As above, the water monitoring tests are prescribed in Environmental Authorisation EA0009 for LMWQCC. Further, under EA0009 (see https://www.accesscanberra.act.
gov.au/s/epa-public-registers) an Environment Management Plan (EMP) is required under conditions 17.1-3. The EMP is required to identify all activities that may have an adverse impact on the environment or the potential to cause environmental harm, and detail the mechanisms employed to prevent or minimise the impact of these activities.
6. Icon Water advises that the Bypass Storage dam is emptied as far as infrastructure allows at all times. Volume in the dam leading into the wet weather events of each of the above-mentioned releases was 2 per cent or less. It is worth noting that to protect the Storage Dam Return Pumps, which are used to pump from the storage dam back to the inlet of the treatment plant, from potential damage they automatically shut down at 3 metre water depth, which is approximately 1 per cent of the dam storage.
7. The ACT EPA advises that it is notified of bypass events at LMWQCC through Icon Water contacting the ACT EPA on call officer by phone. This notification is covered by condition 7.1 of EA0009:
In the event that an incident has caused, is causing or is likely to cause material or serious environmental harm, whether the harm occurs on or off the site, the Authorisation holder, their employee or agent must report the incident to the Authority immediately after it becomes known to the Authorisation holder or to their employee or agent in accordance with the below clause.
The incident must be reported to the Authority by telephoning Access Canberra on 132281 during and outside business hours.
Icon Water advises that it notifies the ACT EPA, NSW EPA and other relevant regulators and downstream stakeholders of the commencement of partially treated effluent being released to the environment, and on the cessation of the release, as part of Icon Water’s incident management and restoration approach. Icon Water also notifies the public at commencement of releases through media releases and other notification channels including social media. A detailed incident report is provided to the ACT EPA post event including calculations of release volumes once validated data is available.
8. Icon Water’s Sewerage network continuously conveys raw wastewater into LMWQCC. Following wet weather, the wastewater inflows to LMWQCC are elevated above normal, even when bypass to the storage dam is not being used. The volume of partially treated effluent stored in the Bypass Storage Dam is gradually returned to the inlet of the treatment plant for re-treatment. Icon Water operators must balance the ongoing flow entering the plant from the network and the return flows from the bypass to not exceed maximum treatment capacity and therefore this can take more than two days to empty.
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