Page 2421 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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• Water quality in the reservoirs Corin, Bendora, Cotter and Googong is regularly monitored for a range of environmental and human health related characteristics. Water in the Murrumbidgee River is also monitored for the same water quality characteristics and has additional on-line monitoring. If flow and water quality values fall outside a specified range, then Murrumbidgee water is not used in town water supply.
d. Increased levels of water treatment for the Murrumbidgee River.
• Cotter and Murrumbidgee River water receives additional treatment at the Stromlo water treatment plant with Ultra Violet providing an added disinfection barrier for micro-contaminants such as pathogens.
e. On-going monitoring at water treatment plants.
• The on-going monitoring at water treatment plants involves on-line real time monitoring of treatment plant performance, and subsequent laboratory analyses to verify on-line monitoring results, as well as compliance with drinking water standards.
f. Ongoing application of a hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system.
• ACTEWS’s implements ongoing application of a HACCP system for drinking water supply in order to reduce, prevent or eliminate identified hazards as required. This also requires significant monitoring of raw, treated and drinking water quality. HACCP is also used in the food industry.
(2) At this stage, the Government has approved the designing of a demonstration Water Purification Plant only. A decision about whether the plant will be built or not is yet to be made.
Should the Government decide to proceed with construction of a demonstration Water Purification Plant, the proven technology that would be used in such a plant would remove micro-contaminants to levels that meet or exceed the requirements of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. This is consistent with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines multi-barrier approach currently employed with the existing water supply. The plant processes that would be used to remove micro-contaminants include membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and advanced Ultra Violet oxidation.
The abovementioned technology is highly sophisticated; however, it is not new. Treatment systems of this type have been proven to produce safe and reliable drinking water in major towns and cities around the world including Orange County, California and in Singapore.
I note that although the demonstration Water Purification Plant, if constructed, would purify Canberra’s wastewater to a high standard that meets Australian drinking water guidelines, the water would not be added to the ACT’s drinking water supply.
In addition to the multi-barrier treatment process of the proposed demonstration Water Purification Plant, ACTEW will manage the quality of wastewater entering the demonstration Water Purification Plant, if constructed, through its wastewater source control program. This program will manage the quality of wastewater entering the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre.
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