In December 2019 Queensland Health released the Water Quality Guidelines for Public Aquatic Facilities. These guidelines recommended that public aquatic facilities develop and implement a Risk Management Plan for maintaining water quality, thereby improving bather safety. Mount Isa City Council decided to get on the front foot and engaged Viridis Consultants to develop a Water Quality Risk Management Plan for their aquatic facilities Splashez and Family Fun Park.
Development of the Risk Management Plan for the two aquatic
facilities entailed a site inspection and Risk Workshop. The workshop gathered a team of multidisciplinary representatives from management and staff, and a water quality professional from Viridis to brainstorm potential risks at the facilities and appropriate controls. The site inspection required a trip to the aquatic facilities in Mount Isa for the lucky Viridis Process Engineer, Megan.
The visit to the aquatic facilities could not have been more beneficial (or enjoyable), as inspection of the water treatment processes and monitoring occurring uncovered information not known by the council. The Risk Workshop was an invaluable brainstorming session where information was shared between operations and management. As a result of the workshop a Risk Register was produced for Mount Isa City Council to use as a working document in the management of water quality at each aquatic facility.
Using the information gathered from the site visit and risk workshop, Viridis produced Water Quality Risk Management Plans (WQRMPs) for Splashez and Family Fun Park. The WQRMPs included water quality monitoring schedules, incident response flow sheets, an internal audit checklist and a troubleshooting guide for operators to use when investigating water quality problems. A Water Quality Monitoring Database was also produced for operators and laboratory staff to input data which could then be viewed and accessed by management, allowing them to monitoring operations remotely.
Development of the WQRMPs also revealed a number of improvements that could be implemented for the facilities which would increase risk mitigation. Mount Isa City Council were extremely on board with the whole process, so much so that they began implementing the WQRMPs immediately and were able to provide feedback from operators very quickly, so we could make any necessary changes to the working documents making them more user friendly.
Mount Isa City Council also began implementing the suggested improvements before project closing. The Council was very happy with the deliverables they received, saying Viridis “went above and beyond” in delivery of the project.
Viridis has made a big splash in water quality management of public aquatic facilities and we cannot wait to do more!
