Perth Laboratory – Public Seminar Series 2008

Purified recycled water health and safety: Queensland research update

Dr Simon Toze
Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO Land and Water
Water for a Healthy Country Flagship

Wednesday 1 October 2008 at 3.30pm, CSIRO Auditorium

Abstract

Despite recent rains, South East Queensland is still suffering from water shortages and is moving forward to increase supplies of non-traditional water sources to supplement the existing sources. This has been implemented through the Western Corridor Scheme which is establishing a range of water harvesting and management practices to improve the water sustainability in the south eastern area of Queensland. A major part of this new scheme is the use of highly purified recycled water (PRW) collected form the sewage network to replace the use of potable water in a range of purposes. One of the uses of the PRW will be to supplement the water in the reservoirs, in particular Wivenhoe Dam.

As part of the on-going development of the Western Corridor Scheme, a Collaborative Research Alliance (Urban Water Security Research Alliance) between the Queensland State Government, CSIRO, the University of Queensland and Griffith University has been formed to improve the science and knowledge underpinning the Western Corridor Scheme and to increase the scientific knowledge in water sustainability in the Queensland. The largest of the projects in this Alliance is the Purified Recycled Water project. The current research aims of this project are:

• assessing the ability to control the quality of the water reaching the advanced water treatment plant (Source Control)
• determining water quality impacts of PRW on receiving water bodies (Reservoirs)
• developing and refining a toolkit of bioanalytical monitoring tools, microbiological detection methods and sampling methodology as part of an integrated monitoring program (Advanced Monitoring Techniques)

This presentation will give an outline of the current status of the Western Corridor Scheme and the Purified Recycled Water Project and give an indication of the future direction of water sustainability research in Queensland.

About the speaker

Dr Simon Toze is a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Land and Water based in Brisbane. He leads the Water Reuse Technologies project for the CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.

His current principal research focus is on the reuse of water in urban environments, in particular involving managed aquifer recharge. A microbiologist by training, he has a range of research interests which include:

• studying the fate and behaviour of microbial pathogens during water reuse
• the influence of groundwater micro-organisms on the biogeochemistry of aquifers
• the development of rapid and accurate molecular based methods for the detection and enumeration of viable microbial pathogens in environmental water samples

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