PROJECT DETAILS


  • Project No 2043
  • Project Name A risk-based assessment framework to guide cost effective environmental protection from wastewater discharges
  • Lead Organisation SA Water
  • Research Lead AWQC
  • Main Researcher Tim Kildea

Project Description

Wastewater must be treated to remove four classes of pollutants to levels that regulators consider safe for discharge to the environment: these are nutrients, micropollutants, total suspended solids and pathogens. Utilities are granted licenses to discharge based on the performance of their wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and legislation-derived guidelines which consider the social, economic, and environmental impacts of wastewater discharge. The problem is that there are substantial interpretative differences between States and jurisdictions. This research established a standard risk assessment framework that provides a transparent method for assessing the relative benefits of different disposal and treatment options, and which can be applied uniformly across Australia.