Impacts and Management of Hard Water in Elliott, NT
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Impacts and management of hard water in Elliott, NT. November 2007 prepared by Nerida Beard, Centre for Appropriate Technology, Alice Springs for the Elliott District Community Government Council. This work was funded by an ongoing initiative of the national Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment. Abstract Elliott District Community Government Council requested that CAT investigate their concerns over the impacts of calcium build up or ”scale‘ in the water supplies in their two community jurisdictions, Elliott township and Marlimja outstation (Newcastle Waters). Staff reported major pipe failures from calcium blockages. Community members and maintenance staff reported frequent failures of bathroom and household appliances such as toilet pans, toilet cisterns, hot water systems and tap fittings. Elliott Council executive reported that the impacts of frequent and recurring infrastructure failures bore a large cost burden on the Council, and diverted overstretched housing maintenance skills to the repair of community and household plumbing. It was also reported by the Council that there were ancillary concerns in the broader community population about human health impacts of the mineral concentration in the water supply. CAT inspected a number of houses in both the township and the outstation, the major water sources, storages and excavated pipe sections. Groundwater bore information was collated from Northern Territory Government archives (DNRETA 2007). Council staff, the School Principal and Health Workers were interviewed for their views, concerns and experiences of the water supply impacts. A range of hard water management options were suggested and discussed by field workers, including failure management, preventive maintenance and water treatment options. A focus group between key Council workers was held to discuss the alternatives, gain an understanding of community capacity for each solution and develop a locally appropriate strategy for hard water management. Hard water failures are causing a diversion of already scarce labour and funds for the backlog of housing maintenance, to deal with necessary infrastructure replacements due to failures caused by hard water. Given the inherited Indigenous housing stock has a legacy of a lack of general housing maintenance, the damage caused by scale is exacerbating this backlog of maintenance need. Marlinja outstation appears to endure greater impacts from hard water than Elliott township, despite lower water hardness concentrations. From the investigation, this is believed to be due to the lack of an adequate cleaning and flushing regime for the storage tank, and a general lack of pipe management. Given the regional hydrogeology, it appears that there is little that can be done to find an alternate low-hardness water supply, and treatment options are currently outside the skills and resources of the Elliott Council. Rainwater augmentation may provide another option but these must be carefully managed. A cyclical, preventive maintenance regime was identified by the community as within their available skills and resources and will be essential in mitigating the impacts of scale, increasing the life of health hardware (toilets, taps, showers, hot water systems) and reduce the overall cost burden for infrastructure replacement on the Council. It is recommended that four new Council jobs be identified for the hard water preventive maintenance team, and reported to DEWR as part of their CDEP reforms. Approximately 25 hot water systems are currently broken due to scale build-up and require replacement. An audit by a qualified plumber of the water mains within the ALT Land boundaries at North Camp, South Camp and Marlinja is recommended, and significant replacements are expected to be identified. It is recommended that in future, Elliott Council or the new Barkly Shire administration pursue collaborative arrangements with PWC and Territory Housing, for training and employment of additional local staff for scale prevention maintenance in Elliott. This may be a model which could be trialled in other hard water settlements in the Territory. Impacts and management of hard water, Elliott, NT 19 November 2007 Contents Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Terms of Reference................................................................................... 1 Regional Context ...................................................................................... 1 Location ............................................................................................... 1 Water................................................................................................... 1 Governance .......................................................................................... 2 Policy climate........................................................................................ 3 Investigation .............................................................................................. 4 Findings ..................................................................................................... 4 Water supplies ......................................................................................... 4 Elliott Township..................................................................................... 5 Newcastle Waters/Marlinja...................................................................... 6 Hard water impacts ................................................................................ 11 Housing and health hardware................................................................ 11 Reticulation system.............................................................................. 12 Costs of hard water.............................................................................. 13 Hard Water management options ............................................................. 13 Community capacity for solution............................................................... 15 Preferred community management solution ............................................... 16 Capital Replacement œ ”catching up‘.......................................................... 18 Conclusions .............................................................................................. 19 Recommendations..................................................................................... 20 References ............................................................................................... 21 Appendices............................................................................................... 22 Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) i Impacts and management of hard water, Elliott, NT 19 November 2007 List of Figures Figure 1: Four key Elliott Council staff (L to R), Brendan Frances (Aboriginal Environmental Health Worker), Doug Mummery (Housing Manager), Kevin Neade (CDEP Coordinator) and Linda Keane (CEO).................................................... 3 Figure 2: One of the bores that supply Newcastle Waters and Marlinja outstation (L), and the Marlinja ground and elevated water storages (R)........................... 6 Figure 3: Key water quality parameters in operational Elliott Council bores......... 7 Figure 4: Scale precipitated on the floor of the Marlinja water storage tank. ....... 8 Figure 5: Calcite conglomerate from inside the Marlinja water storage tank........ 9 Figure 6: Storage tank outlet pipe, Marlinja outstation..................................... 9 Figure 7: Excavated pipe section from Marlinja reticulation main..................... 10 Figure 8: Aerial photograph of reticulation main section replaced, taken from atop Marlinja storage tank stand. ....................................................................... 11 Figure 9: Scale impacts in Elliott Council area (clockwise from top right): The author holding a lump of calcite from Marlinja storage tank; scale from inside a failed hot water system in North Camp; a section of excavated reticulation pipe from Marlinja outstation; and the outflow pipe from a toilet pan, clogged with scale........................................................................................................ 12 List of Tables Table 1: Water quality parameters relevant to hard water scaling in Elliott Council ................................................................................................................. 5 Table 2: Estimate of repair costs from scale-related damage in prior 12 months to October 2007 ........................................................................................... 13 Table 3: Resources required for a Cyclical Preventive Maintenance Regime....... 17 Table 4: Cost estimates of different strategies at Elliott for management of hot water systems in hard water....................................................................... 18 Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) ii Impacts and management of hard water, Elliott, NT 19 November 2007 Introduction This report has been prepared for Elliott District Community Government Council, to summarise an investigation of the impacts and challenges of their hard water supply. This report examines hard water impacts relevant to their housing and infrastructure assets and provides recommendations for Council to consider for implementation of improved hard water management in their jurisdiction. Terms of Reference Elliott District Community Government Council (Elliott