Victoria’s water quality guidelines validate method for public aquatic facilities
Sydney, Australia, March 19, 2020 – International water treatment and swimming pool equipment manufacturer and distributor, Waterco Ltd. (ASX: WAT), is calling on public aquatic facilities to exercise due diligence and employ best-practice processes when formulating their water quality risk management plans.
The statement comes in response to Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services, Water quality guidelines for public aquatic facilities: Managing public health risks report, which highlights the need for multiple barriers, including media filtration, when mitigating water quality associated risks.
“While Waterco supports suitable system design measures to reduce risk to bathers in public facilities, it wants to clarify that the state government’s water quality guidelines do not exclude media filtration but rather validate methods to ensure media filtration effectiveness,” says Waterco Commercial and Water Treatment spokesperson, Andy Gale.
Commercial water treatment uses a combination of treatment processes (barriers) to provide safe water environments for the public. Filtration is regarded as one of the tools that can be used, along with primary and secondary disinfection.
For example, the Victorian water quality guidelines recognise the limitations of any one method: “Each barrier (treatment process) on its own may not be able to completely remove or prevent contamination, but together, the barriers work to provide greater assurance that the water will be safe for use.”
Gale explains: “Media and regenerative diatomaceous earth (DE) filters are both nominal filtration methods, not absolute filtration. Neither method is excluded under the Victorian water quality guidelines, rather they provide a guide to reducing risk.
“And while the guidelines recommend ‘filters capable of removing particles 4 microns provides additional protection’, this does not provide absolute protection,” he continues, “meaning that secondary barriers are still required.”
Waterco also supports further statements made in the Victorian water quality guidelines on media filtration, all of
which assist in reducing risks:
• Multiple filters for one body of water
• Filtration velocity
• Coagulation
• Media type
• Backwashing
“Media filtration is still very much an accepted choice for public facilities, if suitably designed,” says Gale.