The occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) in various environmental media is of great concern due to their potential adverse effects on living organisms. This project aims to investigate the feasibility of natural-occurring foams in aeration tanks for removal of PFAs and other contaminants of emerging concern from sewage.

PhD Thesis underway by Angel Chyi En We.

Unexpected taste and odour (T&O) in drinking water is an emerging issue for the Australian water industry as it undermines customers’ trust in drinking water suppliers. Most water utilities monitor only cyanobacterial and microalgal populations, and measure only geosmin and MIB concentrations in raw water, which is likely to overlook the full extent of biogenic T&O challenges in the supply of drinking water. Conventional coagulation/flocculation/filtration are often adopted for T&O removal. The project intends to identify key producers in source water and determine the treatability of unknown T&O for the proactive management of drinking water.

PhD Thesis underway by Jin Zhu.

The Australian water industry is currently focused on two VOCs, namely geosmin and MIB, which release an earthy-musty smell. Microorganisms that live in source water or within water distribution pipes are known to produce other unpleasant VOCs. This project intends to detect and quantify taste and odour (T&O) chemicals beyond geosmin and MIB in source water through chemical and sensory analysis. Project aims to identify and/or semi-quantify these unknown VOCs in source water and develop T&O wheel specific to NSW source water. The project also anticipates developing a risk indicator database for different T&O chemicals.

Thesis underway.

Asset management plays a significant role in modern industries, particularly in water utilities, in providing available and reliable service at an optimised asset Life Cycle Cost (LCC). Asset owners require an optimal life cycle decision support model for the longer-term asset strategy, planning and budgeting. There are numerous asset life models to predict physical, economic, and technological aspect of asset life, individually; however, there is currently no such model that combines all aspects. The aim of this project is to develop asset life cycle decision support model explicitly joint three aspects of asset lives and their determinants (i.e. physical age and degradation, operating, maintenance costs and technology changes). To this purpose, multi-objective optimisation method and stochastic dynamic programming would be applied to model an optimised asset renewal decision support. This model is expected to determine an optimal asset renewal and replacement decision support model at the lowest LCC in water industry, providing a stable and reliable service and having an optimised investment plan.

Thesis underway.

This project established unifying framework for the calculation of robustness metrics, which assists with understanding how robustness metrics work, when they should be used, and why they sometimes disagree. The framework categorizes the suitability of metrics to a decision-maker based on the decision-context, the decision-makers’s preferred level of risk aversion, and the decision-maker’s preference towards maximising performance or minimising variance. This conceptual framework describes when different robustness metrics are likely to agree and disagree.

PhD Thesis completed by Cameron McPhail in August 2020.

Faecal source tracking (FST) involves the identifying the contamination pathways and potential health risk of faecal contamination in source waters and is an important strategy for contaminant management within catchments. The Smart Monitoring for Microbial Risk Assessment project (WaterRA #1103) aimed to develop and validate a protocol for FST including sampling requirements, quality standards and guidelines for data interpretation, with the objective to be able to integrate newer qPCR and vertebrate diversity profiling technologies into existing monitoring programmes.  The techniques and approach for source water characterisation using the methodologies demonstrated in Project 1103 show substantial promise in being able to provide the additional risk discrimination when assessing source waters in line with Health Based Targets guidelines.

Nevertheless, the work presented in WaterRA#1103 project identified several limitations to the wholesale utilisation of some aspects of this technology which need careful consideration before its widespread adoption across all catchment types. One of the most significant factors limiting the application of the vertebrate diversity profiling component of the technology was the amount (or lack) of starting target template available before the PCR amplification steps.

The proposed research aims to explore the application of passive samplers to source waters and examine if they can increase the target template captured available for PCR amplification and subsequent vertebrate diversity profiling, in addition to targeted qPCR analysis.  Furthermore, the proposal looks to build upon the learnings from Project 1103 ​so the molecular techniques developed can be more widely adopted to catchment risk assessment within the framework of Health Based Targets approach.

Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 has proven effective in supporting COVID control efforts globally, allowing detection of novel infection clusters, supporting assessment of community transmission risk, and providing an important reminder to the public to remain vigilant in adhering to social distancing and other public health policies. Surveillance is achieved through the application of highly sensitive molecular diagnostic tools. In such applications, the diagnostic markers employed for wastewater surveillance can be improved, but more genetic information is needed. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) provides the most conclusive and robust approach to providing more genomic material for analysis.

This project addresses a recent priority research call from WaterRA for programs to extend capacity for wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2. This includes the evaluation and implementation WGS methods for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and seek to overcome current limitations in detection sensitivity that have prevented their use in Australia to date.

This project aims to better understand chemical and biological hazards in Australia through long-term collection and analysis of wastewater and biosolids. Samples collected during the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Census 2021 will form the basis of a rich and unique databank that describes how communities are exposed to chemical and biological hazards, and how these chemicals/biological agents are released into the environment following wastewater treatment. The previous ARC-funded SewAus Census 2016 project (LP150100364), successfully established the first, globally unique nationwide program for wastewater-based monitoring of chemicals. SewAus Census 2016, demonstrated the utility of integrating wastewater-based monitoring with detailed, accurate data on the population that contributed to the sample from the Census. Demographic and socioeconomic data, such as age or occupation, were used to explain patterns of drug use and other chemical exposure in the population. A wide recognition of the value of this work forms the basis of this new proposal.

Together with existing and new stakeholders and end-users, a follow-up project has been developed to build on the outcomes of SewAus Census 2016 and address a new set of aims. This research has three overarching goals founded on:

• Advancing sampling and analytical methodologies to expand the scope and reach of wastewater-based monitoring in Australia;
• Measuring and understanding spatial and (long-term) temporal trends for chemical and biological hazards, and;
• Improving quantitative understanding of the sources and fate of chemical and biological hazards released to the environment from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

Water supply and wastewater services are two connected components in an urban water system. They are in most cases operated separately towards sub-system optima. By recognising and enhancing their connections, an integrated management strategy would deliver system-wide optimisation with tremendous economic and environmental benefits. This project developed and demonstrated an integrated and innovative strategy, and the associated science and technologies, to achieve multiple beneficial uses of iron salts in an urban water system.