Papers - Atom Consulting

Practical guide for the optimisation of coagulation and flocculation through jar testing

Water Industry Operators Association QLD 2022

Dr Andrea Gonzalez

Jar testing is a method that simulates coagulation and flocculation and can provide useful data to help operators to optimise the water treatment processes. Jar testing can be time-consuming and require technical knowledge to assess the results. However, jar testing can be a powerful tool to save money and enhance water quality as it helps determine which treatment chemical, dosage and dose will work best with their system’s raw water.

A jar testing practical guide was developed, including experiment set-up, operational procedure and data analysis to assist operators in overcoming the main constraints of jar testing.

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Women engineers need plenty of courage

Australian Financial Review

There are many opportunities for women wanting to become engineers, but they need to be fearless about being the only woman in the room.

Dr Annalisa Contos speaks to the Australian Financial review about the challenges and rewards of a career in engineering.

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Fluoride tracer study

AWA Young Water Professional Conference 2020

Lucy Parsons

A project was run to track the reintroduction of fluoride to the Parkes Shire Council water distribution system. The tracer study provided insight into system operation, verified the disinfection critical control point and identified opportunities for improvement in system understanding.

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Water engineer leading the way for women in STEM

AWA Source

Water engineer Dr Annalisa Contos has been a trailblazer for women in STEM and the utilities sector, and she’s finally being recognised for her work.

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Statistical process control

Water Industry Operators Association 2020

David Bartley

Setting control limits statistically ensures that data that requires attention is highlighted to the operator to ensure action can be taken to prevent breach of CCPs or licence limits and allows continuous improvement over time.

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Free chlorine improvements in the Parkes Shire Council B-section

Water Industry Operators Association 2020

Lucy Parsons

Water quality studies on the 148 km B-section pipeline including the development of P&IDs, an EPANET model and chlorine decay studies investigated improvements to the systems. Operational risk associated with the installation of a new rechlorinator were assessed and mitigation measures developed.

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How do I ensure my recycled water system is safe?

Global Water Pathogen Project

Dr Annalisa Contos, Natalie Crawford

This case study examined whether public health risks from a local government operated recycled water scheme were appropriately managed through treatment and non-treatment barriers (end user controls). The pathogen log10 reduction requirements for recycled water for a mix of uses including food crop and municipal irrigation were determined. The four recycled water plants were verified to assess if they were meeting these requirements and whether the non-treatment barriers (end user controls) were adequate

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Building a safe recycled water scheme

Global Water Pathogen Project

Annalisa Contos (Atom Consulting), Andrew Francis and Julian Fyfe (Parkes Shire Council)

This case study shows how to determine the required pathogen reductions for the reuse of effluent for irrigation of sports fields, golf course and community open spaces and select and design the appropriate process units to achieve the necessary pathogen reduction.

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Reducing contamination risks from pipeline repair and renewal works

WaterRA

Natalie Crawford, Dr Annalisa Contos, Claire McInnes

This research undertaken by Natalie Crawford can help utilities to identify and assess the extent of microbiological contamination risk from pipeline renewal and repair works and identify measures to manage these risks.

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We all make mistakes: Human factors and preventive risk management

Kamal Fernando Memorial Lecture Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, NSW chapter

Dr Annalisa Contos

Human error is often cited as root cause of incidents and accidents. In this talk Dr Contos introduces key topics within the field of human factors. The talk addresses the environmental, organisational and job factors as well as human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety. Drawing from examples in the water industry Dr Contos discusses how human factors are important to both process and product safety.

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Threat Consequence (Bow-tie) Diagrams

Information Sheet

This information sheet explains how threat-consequence or bow-tie diagrams can be used for visual risk analysis. Bow tie diagrams describe the pathways of a risk from its cause to its consequence and illustrate the barriers in place to reduce the risk (ISO/IEC 31010, 2009). The strength of bow-tie diagrams is that it goes beyond the usual risk assessment ‘snapshot’ and highlights the links between the threat, its consequences, the barriers preventing the consequence from occurring and the strengths of these barriers. In its full application it can be used to demonstrate the linkages between the barriers and the underlying management system. The highly visual nature of the diagrams are well-suited to communicating risk issues to non-specialists.

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Human Factors and Preventive Risk Management in the Water Industry

Ozwater 2015

Dr Annalisa Contos, Jessica Circosta

Although human factors have been shown to be the origin of many accidents in the water industry, they are rarely formally recognised in their approaches to water quality risk management. This paper, present by Dr Annalisa Contos at Ozwater 2015 provides a discussion for as to why human factors are not considered, which industries do recognise them and how this can be and should be incorporated into the water industry.

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Towards Effective Corporate Governance from Source to Endpoint

AWA Water Journal September 2014

A Davison, B Burford, A Contos

This paper expands on the duties of directors and overarching corporate governance management for statutory owned corporations (SOCs) in the context of risk management. SOCs need to fully understand their operating context if they are to holistically understand and manage risks. The ‘Frameworks’ within contemporary Australian water cycle guidance, such as the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, note that enterprises must understand their water ‘products’ from catchment to consumer to ensure that risks are properly identified and managed.

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