AWRCE congratulates WateReuse award winners

The Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence (AWRCE) is proud to be associated with two awards presented by the WateReuse Association at its 2014 symposium in Dallas, Texas.

The National Demonstration, Education and Engagement Program (NDEEP), sponsored by the AWRCE and other project partners, won the WateReuse International Award for advancing the water re-use industry worldwide. The objective of the project is to develop a suite of high-quality, evidence-based technical information, guidance tools and communication products and engagement strategies that can be used by the water industry when considering water recycling for drinking purposes. The products are designed to be used from early consideration by water utilities or local water authorities through project design, construction, commissioning and operation.

Managed by researchers at the University of New South Wales, NDEEP involves a consortium of over 20 organisations from Australia and overseas, including water utilities, universities and private companies. Water-treatment engineers, water-quality scientists, social scientists, media experts and communication specialists have collaborated to develop new insights and innovative materials.

AWRCE Fellow Professor Karl Linden, from the University of Colorado Boulder, meanwhile won the 2014 WateReuse Person of the Year award. Professor Linden was nominated by the AWRCE and Melbourne Water due to his expertise in advanced disinfection and oxidation processes, which he has applied to the Western Corridor Advanced Treatment Scheme in Queensland and used to help gain approval from the Victorian Department of Health for Melbourne Water’s re-use applications.

Melbourne Water’s Dr Judy Blackbeard said Professor Linden worked with the utility on “two of Victoria’s largest recycling projects… publishing results on a surrogate for virus inactivation by ozonation of secondary effluent” and also assisting with “re-validation of UV for treatment of unfiltered secondary effluent from an extensive activated sludge-lagoon treatment plant”. AWRCE CEO Dr Mark O’Donohue said Professor Linden has “contributed to the national framework for validating water-recycling technologies being developed in Australia”.

Another Australian effort, the Flemington Racecourse Desalination Project, received the WateReuse Project of the Year award at the symposium.