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WQRA MEMBERS MEETINGS are listed on a separate page.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

5th IWA Young Water Professionals Conference - Sydney, Australia 5-7 July 2010
Submissions of Outline Papers are invited for this conference - closing date 5 October 2009. See the brochure (PDF) for information about the conference and submission details.

Cryptosporidium Workshop - Melbourne, 8 December 2009
The program will include presentations covering the perspective from research, water utilities, regulators and service providers, with facilitated group sessions to identify priority research areas for WQRA and development of details on how to progress these key areas.

The workshop Agenda is available to download (PDF).

A workshop survey will be circulated prior to the meeting to enable feedback from across the membership and allows for input from those who are not able to attend the workshop. If you would like to attend the Cryptosporidium workshop please RSVP to Michele Akeroyd
(Michele.akeroyd@wqra.com.au) by Friday 27th November.

PAST EVENTS

NOTE: Presentations are the copyright of the author and should not be reproduced without permission.

REUSE ’09, Brisbane, 20 – 25 September 2009
The 7th IWA World Congress on Water Reclamation and Reuse was held from 20 – 25 September.

WQRA provided sponsorship for the Plenary Presentation by Associate Professor Greg Leslie (UNSW) on Thursday 24th (chaired by WQRA CEO Jodieann Dawe) and the Decentralised Systems Workshop (facilitated by Water Futures) on Friday 25th, where David Halliwell presented the outcomes of the WQRA Decentralised Systems Workshop held on 27th August 2009.

Distributed Systems Workshop - Brisbane, 27 August 2009
This workshop was held in conjunction with the WQRA Members meeting in Brisbane on 28 August. Distributed (or decentralised) systems are growing in their development, implementation and application across Australia. In particular, they are providing solutions for water supply, reducing potable water demand, with the provision of recycled water from blackwater, greywater and industrial or commercial wastewaters. This workshop will explore issues and concerns that relate to distributed systems, focussing on water quality aspects, particularly those associated with public health issues, that research effort could respond to. One of the intended outcomes of the workshop is to explore areas that could be developed into Research Proposals for consideration by Water Quality Research Australia (WQRA). WQRA engaged Water Futures to assist with the survey process and workshop facilitation.

PDF files of the presentations given at the Workshop and Workshop Minutes are available to download.

Setting the scene of research challenges for distributed systems, following the AGWR Elements Therese Flapper (Water Futures)
Validation guidelines and challenges Suzie Sarkis (Vic, DHS)
Public utility perspective of concerns Michelle Carsen (SE Water)
Getting them approved and installed - issues Phil Krasnostein (Nubian)
Reviewing research challenges associated with water quality and distributed systems Therese Flapper (Water Futures)

National Cyanobacteria Workshop - Sydney, 12 & 13 August 2009
The National Cyanobacterial Workshop included around 110 attendees representing water management organisations, government agencies and research groups from all States and Territories. Presentations were delivered by thirty-three speakers who gave updates on recent events and issues, current research, and monitoring, testing and treatment. It was great to see a large contingent of WQRA members, with many giving presentations on their research, including several CRCWQT projects. At the end of day two, an hour was devoted to a general discussion of a range of steps and strategies that can lead to establishing a network of interested people, regular meetings and other ways of managing this very significant national problem.

 

In the longer term, options for supporting national coordination and sharing of information will be developed in consultation with workshop attendees. This would include support for a communication network, electronic means to store and share information, an annual forum and a mechanism to address national priorities. It was recognised that to make this successful a dedicated resource was required. Identification of funding opportunities would be explored during the development of these options. WQRA has taken on the role of coordinating the development of a package of work that will support national coordination of algal management.

Congratulations to the organisers, presenters, attendees and supporters of the workshop, and we will keep you informed about further developments and outcomes.

The abstracts of all presenters were compiled in a booklet Cyanobacterial Bloom Management – Current and Future Options and provided to workshop attendees. For economy of space, the version provided here has had the notes pages removed, leaving the program and all abstracts. In the coming weeks all presenters will be asked to obtain clearance to make their talks available on the WQRA website. As permission is received PDF versions of the presenters' talks will be linked to the list of speakers below.

Recommendations from the Workshop will be disseminated and more information will become available in the near future.


David Harriss

National Cyanobacterial Workshop – Opening address (PDF)

Brett Neilan

Keynote address - Quantitative molecular, morphological and analytical assessment of blue-green algae bloom events in water (PDF)

Bala Vigneswaran

Cyanobacterial bloom in Warragamba Dam in 2007 (PDF)

Mick Bales

The Warragamba Dam blue-green algae action plan (PDF)

Chester Merrick

The Murray River cyanobacterial bloom in autumn 2009 - monitoring results and implications (PDF)

Louisa Davis

State report: blue-green algae management in Victoria (PDF)

Greg Smith

The Victorian response to the 2009 Murray River algal bloom (PDF)

Karen Stacey

All hands on deck -a review of a BGA response procedure for water treatment plants. (PDF)

Stephanie Fulton

Cyanobacterial blooms in Tasmania

Glenn McGregor

Cyanobacteria: their impact on Queensland's water security and aquatic systems (PDF)

Malcolm Robb

Cyanobacteria as blooms in the West

Thorsten Mosisch

SA Water's drought monitoring of the River Murray - early detection of potential issues affecting water quality

Simon Townsend

Cyanobacterial blooms in Northern Territory inland waters (PDF)

Ian Stewart

Closure of recreational lakes because of toxic cyanobacteria: risk communication, risk perception, enforcement and economic impacts (PDF)

Christine Hill

Determining an economic value for reduced incidence of blue green algal events in the Barwon Darling river system(PDF)
Conference paper - Determining an economic value for improved water quality in the Darling River (PDF)

Paul Hackney

A review of some methods to manage cyanobacterial blooms in drinking water reservoirs (PDF)

Lee Bowling

Preliminary results of investigations into in-situ fluorometry and biovolume as management tools (PDF)

David Fotheringham

Techniques for in-site measurements using Fluorometry (PDF)

Tim Malthus

Quantitative remote sensing for detection and monitoring of cyanobacterial blooms (PDF)

Nagur Cherukuru

Monitoring and management of cyanobacterial blooms in estuarine and coastal waters: An earth observation based assimilation approach

David Waite

Impact of iron species transformations on growth and toxicity of cyanobacterial Microcystis species (PDF)

Yoshi Kobayashi

Downstream fate of cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton following discharge from a dam

Andrew Humpage

Assessment of rapid assays for cyanotoxins(PDF)

Jamal Al Tebrineh

Multiplex quantitative-PCR determination of toxic cyanobacteria in environmental samples (PDF)

Barbara Sendall

Identification, detection and characterisation of cyanobacteria using traditional and DNA-based methods (PDF)

Larelle Fabbro

Toxins that may not be readily detected by traditional methods

Rita Henderson

Zeta potential: a tool for the successful control of coagulation and removal of Microcystis aeruginosa in water treatment plants (PDF)

Felicity Roddick

Microcystis aeruginosa blooms in wastewater: managing microfiltration performance

Lionel Ho

Biological degradation of cyanobacterial toxins (PDF)

Daniel Hoefel

Biofiltration of cyanobacterial metabolites MIB and geosmin as a viable water treatment option (PDF)

Steven Giglio

Isolation and characterisation of the gene associated with geosmin production in cyanobacteria (PDF)

Bruce Gray

Revision of the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality 2000 and the Australian Guidelines for Water Quality Monitoring and Reporting 2000

Gayle Newcombe

The development of practical guidance manuals for the management of cyanobacteria (PDF)

Ian Falconer

Risk and regulation in environmental toxicology, application to cyanobacterial toxins (PDF)

Warwick Mawhinney

Posters - Cyanobacterial Bloom Monitoring in NSW

Poster 1: NSW Office of Water Lab (PDF)
Poster 2: NSW Algal Strategy (PDF)
Poster 3: NSW BGA Monitoring Program (PDF)

Mark Vanner

Poster – River Murray 800 km Algal bloom – March/April 2009

 

'Cyanosurvey' project
WQRA is seeking input into a project which is currently in development. The project is 'Cyanosurvey: A National Update on Toxic Cyanobacteria and their Distribution' led by Andrew Humpage from AWQC. In order to facilitate your input, the attached survey (PDF) has been drafted outlining the key aspects of the project and opportunities for participation by other research and industry organisations. It would be appreciated if you could please email your response to the survey to Andrew Humpage at Andrew.Humpage@sawater.com.au

Lagoon/Pond Treatment Systems Workshop - Sydney, 28 May 2009
The purpose of this workshop was to engage relevant stakeholders to discuss a WQRA research proposal on lagoon/ pond treatment systems. The desired outcome (on the day) was to identify research needs/gaps of the managers, regulators and operators of lagoon/pond treatment systems as well as areas for improvement/refinement in the current WQRA proposal. Notes from final workshop session. The outcome (in the medium term) will be the development of an updated project proposal to be presented to relevant stakeholders to assess interest in, and need for, WQRA to progress a lagoon/ pond treatment system project.

All speakers have given permission to make their presentations available as a PDF file.

A pre-workshop survey was circulated to all Member organisations before the workshop to gather information about current practices in lagoon systems, and the collated results are also available here.

Anyone wishing to discuss aspects of the workshop or proposed project can contact:

Dr Helen Stratton ( Griffith University ) h.stratton@griffith.edu.au
Prof Howard Fallowfield ( Flinders University ) howard.fallowfield@flinders.edu.au
Assoc. Prof Charles Lemckert ( Griffith University ) c.lemckert@griffith.edu.au