New technology to target pollution problems in our waterways
21 August 2019
In an Australian first, real-time
monitoring of an industrial
stormwater catchment is being trialled by
Melbourne Water to address industrial pollution flowing in to Dandenong
Creek, the site of a high profile foam pollution event in November 2017.
“Following the foam spill the community, Melbourne Water and the Council
were keen to find a solution that discourages spills, and if one were to
occur enables a swifter response and helps to identify offenders,” said
Mr Heath Baker, Senior Planning Engineer from Melbourne Water.
Melbourne Water has partnered with
Monash University,
South East Water,
Knox Council,
EPA Victoria and First Friends of Dandenong Creek for the
trial that both adapts existing and uses new technologies.
“The long term prospect is to have an automated system that alarms as
soon as an ‘abnormal’ event occurs. This would allow crews to respond
more quickly and to help identify the source of the contaminant,” said
Mr Baker.
The system will help monitor infrastructure and raise awareness of best
practice for industrial businesses to reduce pollution.
“Ultimately, a system such as this also should assist with prosecution
of those who pollute our waterways.”
Seven Advanced BlokAid® loggers (developed by South East Water for use
in sewers) and 25 Arduino loggers (developed by Monash University) have
been installed in drains and in the creek under the industrial estate in
Bayswater, in Melbourne’s east. These provide data in real time that can
detect, track and source pollution events.
The Advanced BlokAid® units are an ultrasonic device attached within
Melbourne Water’s trunk drainage network. The units also have H2S and
VOC gas detection capabilities.
These units can detect flow within the network that does not correlate
to rainfall events helping to trace where suspect flows originated from.
The Arduino loggers identify the pollutants in the water, helping to
identify the pollutant discharged.
“We’re very excited about the prospects for this
technology and hope it
can be installed in other industrial areas,” said Mr Baker.
“Melbourne Water has worked with the local community to significantly
upgrade Dandenong Creek and it is now a popular local amenity, recently
winning two Australian Water Association awards for the Enhancing Our
Dandenong Creek program, of which the pollution detection and prevention
project is part of.
Reducing pollution in to it and other waterways is always a high
priority and we hope this technological solution can help us to do
this.”
--ENDS--
Source: Melbourne Water - www.melbournewater.com.au
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