Date: 28 September 2017
Attendees: 15
Tara Callingham, Senior Engineer – Water Quality Systems at GVW presented the Euroa water quality investigation and findings that she has recently been involved with.
Her presentation provided a basic outline of the existing water treatment system being utilised at Euroa and the issues and customer feed back that has been an ongoing issued for several years involving deleterious water and strong “earthy” taste.
Several options were trialled in the case study to determine the impacts of using ferric sulphate, aluminium sulphate and aluminium chlorohydrate (ACH) on taste and odour in the drinking water at Euroa. The potential process change was evaluated by undertaking a triple bottom line assessment of the financial, social and environmental impacts associated with each coagulant.
The presentation highlighted the trials that were undertaken using each chemical and the significant issues that each one had from being very corrosive to not performing to meet the current plant design with the flocculation floating instead of sinking. Environmental impacts such as cartage for the different sludge amounts produced by each chemical along with employee satisfaction from good feedback from customers who appreciate odour free and mutual tasting drinking water.
Tara presented a very concise overview of the research that she had undertaken along with the outcomes which highlighted the use of aluminium chlorohydrate (ACH) had the most beneficial impact on the perceived taste and odour of the drinking water at the Euroa plant. It is expected that Goulburn Valley Water will trial the use of aluminium chlorohydrate (ACH) in the future as a way of treating the water supply at Euroa to achieve better outcomes.
Tara also presented her findings at the recent Water Industry Operators Association of Australia (WIOA) Conference.
