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8 week Symposium – an opportunity to learn from the best how to make wise, affordable and sustainable wastewater decisions for your community.

These sessions are offered at no charge but we would welcome your donation to help us host more events like this.

Risk Management Approach used for On-site Wastewater System Accreditation in Australia

The Australian Regulators have developed a Country-wide standard (AS 1546.3:2017) used by all States & Territories for the approval of domestic on-site wastewater treatment systems. This is similar to the NSF process used in the USA. Once a treatment system is approved it can be used anywhere in Australia.
Arris has constructed and is operating a state-of-the-art compliance testing facility at the Hahndorf wastewater treatment plant in South Australia for undertaking AS 1546.3:2017 compliance testing according of on-site domestic wastewater treatment Secondary Treatment Systems (STSs) with design hydraulic treatment capacities of between 300 and 1320 gallon/day.
Compliance testing according to AS 1546.3:2017 comprises a 42 week long combined commissioning and testing period (minimum testing period 34 weeks) conducted under specified conditions in order to demonstrate the performance and reliability of under normal ‘steady-state’ design operations and also challenge ‘stress testing’ conditions.
Units are supplied with macerated raw sewage from a 1320 gallon balance tank which receives unscreened sewage from the Hahndorf sewer main at the head of the wastewater treatment plant. A suite of parameter data are monitored and logged by control shed instrumentation, including STS sewage dosing volumes and flow rates; feed pipeline pressure; water and ambient air temperature; electricity consumption; system alarms etc. The standard AS 1546.3:2017 has been developed using risk management techniques.
As it is a new Standard the Regulators have undertaken a feedback process about the new approval process involving all industry stakeholders. This presentation will outline the feedback received from the 1st rounds of testing and how it has impacted on the new Standard. The aim of this presentation is to see how a risk management approach can be used to develop approvals and regulations for the domestic on-site industry.

Ben Kele has 20 years experience in the water industry and has researched, built and operated a wide range of water treatment facilities.

Ben has extensive experience in decentralised installations and addressing the concerns of salinity and sodicity in recycled water. Ben is a board member of the WasteWater Education organization. He is recognized as a leader in the management, treatment, and beneficial use of wastewater streams that have ‘difficult’ chemistry, organic loads and/or environmental license conditions.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this presentation the attendee will be able to identify the risks used to formulate on-site wastewater regulations (both national & international)
The attendee will be able to explain the differences between the Australian accreditation system and the North American NSF process.
The attendee will be able to discuss how the accreditation systems address risks and how the testing processes ensure performance of on-site wastewater treatment systems.
The attendee will be aware of the feedback from the practical application of the accreditation process and how changes to the regulations are negotiated

By making a nominal donation above you will receive a notice when the next seminar in this Symposium is published – and thank you!