With Australia experiencing its wettest spring on record last year, it can be easy to forget about his torical water problems. This complacency has put water management issues on the backburner.
At the residential level, local councils have raised awareness of water scarcity through water restrictions and campaigns to save water.
Jenny Allen, marketing manag er at Biolytix, says councils are also putting more pressure on residents who install on-site wastewater systems, such as water tanks, to ensure waste water is used appropriately.
“More and more councils now want the wastewater treated to a higher secondary level — as opposed to primary — so the valu able water can be recycled and reused effectively,” she says.
The SA government appears to be a leader when it comes to water recycling. It says around 30 per cent of wastewater in the state is reused — more than double that of other metropolitan states.
The state will also be home to a large-scale water recycling pro gram at its biggest regional coastal development, the Point Boston Peninsula development.
A closed loop-type system will allow householders to harvest rainwater for washing machines, toilet flushing, landscaping and fire fighting. Mains water will only be used when necessary to supplement around 10 per cent of household requirements.
“Sewage will be treated on each property by small Biolytix Wastewater Systems. This ‘ecosystem in a tank’ copies how the rainforest floor breaks down waste. The water is then pumped from each household to a central polishing plant within the development where it is further treated and stored,” Allen says.
Systems such as Biolytix are well suited to sub divisions like Point Boston Peninsula as each sys tem is networked via piping. This enables resi dents to recycle water for their own purposes and to feed back treated water to other residents when they have surplus supplies.
“A key strength of decentralised systems is that they collect, treat and reuse wastewater at or near the point of waste generation, thus avoiding expensive distribution pipe networks and energy- consuming pumping,” Allen says.
Unfortunately, initiatives such as Point Boston Peninsula are still the exception. Dick Clarke, director at Envirotecture, says greywater recycling is not yet a ‘norm’, despite a strong focus on the topic several years ago.
“Then the drought broke, and like goldfish with a three second memory, many people in the com munity forgot about water efficiency,” he says.
Like Clarke, Steve Cordell, director — sales and business development at Azuratec, believes greywater recycling is still on the “fringes” and a niche product.
“The government is all talk about water conser vation but there is still no rules that apply specifi cally to [greywater] recycling. Instead, the septic tank code is used by councils, which is for black water,” Cordell says.
The issue is not helped by the varying regula tions across the country. The Alternative Technology Association (ATA) says greywater treatment systems are not approved in the ACT. Instead, only diversion systems are permitted. In SA, diversion devices or treatment systems are only allowed if they are approved by council or the Department of Health. Meanwhile in Tasmania, the ATA says greywater must be treat ed before it can be re-used on garden beds or for toilet flushing.
Cordell believes clarification needs to be made surrounding standards, with backing coming from water authorities.
“They may be actively out there encouraging people to be green and save water, but they are also trying to protect their income streams, so if we install water tanks and greywater recycling systems, their cash flows will reduce consider ably,” he says.
Clarke says the regulations are onerous for a good reason, however, he agrees with Cordell and says they are “too restrictive in that there is limit ed or no opportunity to prove your case. There needs to be a BCA type approach where you can demonstrate an alternative solution that meets prescribed performance requisites”.
Cordell would like to see government continue to push with 5 Star requirements and make it compulsory to install tanks or greywater systems. The road to installing water recycling systems also needs to be clear and easy for people to follow.
“If there are any regulatory hurdles, it won't hap pen. The PV story is a close parallel where subsidies and rebates — however poorly managed — have lowered the hurdles and people have rushed to it,” Clarke says.
The commercial side seems to be on similar ground. According to Cordell, the global financial crisis (GFC) and wet weather put a halt on the technology development of water recycling products.
“Water tank sales have [also] fall en dramatically, with a couple of the bigger companies going bank rupt or out of business. The price has hit rock bottom, with people happy just to cover costs,” he says.
“On a government scale they are continuing with the big projects, but at a domestic level the inquiry has fallen away.”
However, Jason Mclauchlan, general manager at Tasman Tanks, says the commercial industry is expe riencing continuing pressure to con serve water.
“Businesses are focusing on tech nologies that not only saves water and eliminates the need to dispose of polluted water, but also increases workplace safety and product quality,” he says.
“At the technically demanding end of our market, major changes are being driven by the demands of technologies involv ing zero discharge applications, which are vital to major industries.
“One of the major advances in zero discharge applications is fusion bonded coating systems … These factory-applied coatings are particularly suited to totally sealed applications where all the liquids involved in a process are retained on-site.”
Like the residential side, regulations at the commercial level are also important, with com mercial water tanks required to conform to AS/NZS3500 — Plumbing and Drainage.
Mclauchlan says the industry needs these rules to ensure the safety, function and long-term viabil ity of tanks in industrial and commercial projects.
“We urge customers to get an independent engineering assessment of any tanks proposed. Bring in someone who knows your industry — a quality tank supplier won’t object to having their designs verified,” he advises.
In 2011, Clarke sees national standards being introduced, with water management eventually coming back into the spotlight.
He says: “When El Niño returns and the cur rent flood seems like a happy memory … and the dams again drop to four per cent, we will see the general populace remember where they left off in 2009.”
