Backflow prevention is crucial to maintain hygiene in drinking water supplies. The first efforts to address backflow risks date back to 1930, with pressure vacuum breakers developed and installed for some connections in Los Angeles. The first (recorded) widespread incident was in Chicago in 1933, where defective plumbing and cross connections resulted in 98 deaths. While perhaps not high on his list of priorities, Marty McFly may have noticed a significant improvement in back

The QLD Water Directorate hosted the Technical Forum in March, which focussed on training in the water industry. Operators are the most important resource for our industry, and are responsible for the health and well-being of the whole community and ensuring we have a trained workforce is imperative to ensuring safe drinking water. The presentations were from a balanced mix of water utilities, trainers and researchers, providing a rounded perspective on the successes and chal

The streets of Brisbane ran pink on Sunday 3 March 2019. An awe inspiring sight of 13,500 men, women and children gathered in pink t-shirts and various other attire to run in the name of the mothers, sisters, aunties, friends, who will fall and have fallen victim to breast cancer. Out of those 13,500 runners, I was number 3065. It is estimated that this year alone, 19,535 Australians will be handed a cancer diagnosis. That is 53 people per day. Breast cancer is the most commo

What is International Women's Day? International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. International Women's Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action - whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women's Day has been occurring for well over a century, wi

I had the pleasure of attending Next Water in Melbourne early in February. The event is run by WaterRA, which is a members organisation established to build capacity and undertake national collaborative research relevant to urban, regional and rural water utilities. The event was at the MCG, which was great venue. Unfortunately, there wasn't a game to watch in the session breaks, but we did have the pleasure of watching the groundsmen prepare the cricket pitch. The conference

With recent soaring temperatures and seasonal rainfall, conditions are just right for Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) levels to rise within reticulation networks. What are they? As the name suggests, DBPs are by-products from the chemical reaction of disinfecting agents (most commonly chlorine) and naturally occurring organic compounds (such as humic and fulvic acids). Organic compounds are present in both surface and ground water sources, and heavy rainfall tends to increase

Filtration is an important step in drinking water treatment, especially where the source water is not from a fully protected catchment and has a pathogen risk. It is the process of passing water through material (e.g. sand or other granular substance) to remove particulate and other impurities from the water being treated. These impurities consist of suspended particles (fine silts and clays), biological matter (bacteria, plankton, spores, cysts or other matter) and floc. Fil