AWA Queensland Water Awards winners announced

The Australian Water Association’s (AWA) Queensland branch last week held its annual water awards, recognising outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations in the Queensland water sector.

One such organisation was water utility Unitywater, which won the Infrastructure Project Innovation Award for the second year in a row. The company was awarded for its reconfiguration of the Coolum, Suncoast and Maroochydore sewage treatment plants, which resulted in the closure of the Suncoast plant.

“Traditional thinking would have seen us simply create bigger versions of the existing treatment plants,” said Simon Taylor, executive manager infrastructure planning & capital delivery at Unitywater.

“However, our engineers thought outside the square and delivered a solution that actually closed down a plant, drilled a pipeline under the Maroochy River and built a wetland at the Coolum plant to help treat sewage.”

In all, the $24 million project delivered a whole-of-life saving of $57 million compared to the original business case. It also meant the Maroochy River no longer receives six tonnes of nitrogen and 1.5 tonnes of phosphorous each year.

Unitywater is just one of several award recipients who will go on to represent Queensland in the National Water Awards at Ozwater, the international water conference and exhibition, which will be held in Melbourne in May 2016. The other award winners are as follows:

• Water Professional of the Year: David Brooker — Mackay Regional Council
• Young Water Professional of the Year: Tim Wong — SMEC Australia
• Undergraduate Water Prize: Scott Roy — SMEC Australia
• Research Innovation Award: Water Literacy in Australia — The University of Queensland and the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities
• Program Innovation Award: Queensland Urban Utilities Innovation Program — Queensland Urban Utilities
• Queensland Regional Service Award: Rob Saunders — GHD
• Queensland Distinguished Service Award: Associate Professor Helen Stratton — Griffith University

Image caption: Unitywater’s Ashley Massie, Simon Taylor and Peter Knott share the honours in the Infrastructure Project Innovation Award from the AWA.