Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services April 2015
1 Area of operations Sydney Water s area of operations for water and wastewater systems extends throughout Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains. These systems supply water, wastewater, recycled water and some stormwater services. More detailed information including service maps, is available on the Sydney Water website at sydneywater.com.au 1.1 Contact details Contact Details Sydney Water 24 hour emergency For incidents and faults 13 20 90 service line Sydney Water Contact Centre For general enquiries 13 20 92 Sydney Water can be contacted directly through a 24 hour emergency service line. This is available for customers to report any incidents or faults they observe or encounter. The Sydney Water Contact Centre also has a general enquiries line, manned during business hours. All of Sydney Water s contact information can be found at sydneywater.com.au. Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services Page 1
2 Pollution incident response management Sydney Water s incident management arrangements, are based on ISO 31000:2009, Risk Management, Principles and Guidelines and Australian Emergency Management Sector All Hazard Planning Principles, that integrate with NSW Emergency Management Arrangements. Sydney Water s arrangements are detailed in a hierarchy of documents, which make up the Sydney Water Incident Management Plan (Figure 1). Figure 1: Incident response plan hierarchy of documents Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services Page 2
Pollution incident responses follow standardised procedures under the direction of an Incident Manager. The Incident Manager uses a unified command structure (Figure 2) based on the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Managements System (AIIMS), which ensures a coordinated response corresponding to the scale of the incident. Figure 2: Sydney Water incident command structure Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services Page 3
In the event of a pollution incident, Sydney Water will: Step Identify and assess incident severity Actions to determine initial incident level Notify Actions to notify affected stakeholders following predefined business rules Establish command and control Actions to determine the lead agency, and continuously reassess risk level and command and control through more detailed risk assessment Manage the incident Actions to eliminate the immediate risk to Sydney Water s operations Manage the recovery Actions to return business operations to normal Improvement actions Actions to improve future operations Key tasks Assess the incident based on its potential to escalate. Initial assessment needs to look at impact on: customers community environment other Sydney Water business s Notify: affected persons in immediate area EPA on 131 555 Ministry of Health (contacts as agreed with NSW Health) WorkCover Authority on 13 10 50 Local Council Fire & Rescue NSW on 1300 729 529 other key stakeholders as required, eg Beachwatch, NPWS, NSW Food Authority Sydney Water duty managers Additional notifications as directed by EPA or emergency services (see note 1) Appoint Incident Controller (IC) and nominate Incident Control Point (ICP) or assume supporting role to combat agency Establish the Incident Management Team (IMT) Review initial situation analysis and confirm incident category Initial Situation Report (Sitrep) to be issued Appoint additional resources to assist Site Manager at incident site, if required Manage the incident at asset/site level Coordinate the incident at whole-of-sydney Water level Implement communications protocols IMT to develop: objectives strategies tasks Review and monitor effectiveness of response Issue regular Sitreps to stakeholders Review situational analysis and confirm incident category Agree recovery objectives Appoint a Recovery Coordinator Commence debrief procedures Implement close-out communications Debrief following incident in accordance with business rules Draft Incident Report Update Risk Registers Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services Page 4
For those incidents that threaten the health and safety of the community, Sydney Water must follow the legislative combat agency s communication strategy to provide the public with key information about urgent actions they must take. Sydney Water will work closely with emergency services, who will coordinate notifications to the public. Sydney Water will also provide non-urgent information following its Corporate Communication Plan and use various media channels to disseminate information. Due to the complexity of Sydney Waters operations, we have developed subordinate incident management plans and procedures for specific areas of our business. Wastewater network operations have developed a detailed Continuity of Operations Plan and wastewater treatment plants have site-specific PIRMPs. Similar continuity plans and event management plans exist for drinking water operations. Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services Page 5
3 Hazard identification and risk control 3.1 Overview Sydney Water requires all sites to follow extensive hazard identification and risk control procedures. All sites that are part of the water and wastewater systems operate under certified management systems. Activities on these sites are accredited to ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems and/or ISO9001 Quality Management Systems and/or AS/NZS4801 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. 3.2 How incidents happen The certified management systems ensure water and wastewater operations are completed to high business standards. There are many environmental and operational factors that influence and affect the water and wastewater systems. Sometimes these factors can disrupt the normal operational processes, leading to pollution incidents. The most common incidents are overflows from the wastewater pipework network. Wastewater overflows occur when pipes become blocked and cause wastewater to back up and overflow from an engineered relief point. These blockages are most commonly caused by tree roots, material such as wipes, silt, oil and grease or a combination of these. During wet weather, stormwater enters the wastewater system. This can flood the wastewater pipes and cause diluted wastewater to overflow into the environment. At wastewater treatment plants, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) requires us to provide different levels of treatment during dry or wet weather conditions. Occasionally asset failure or adverse weather conditions can cause some wastewater to bypass some process units. Most wastewater receives compliant treatment in these circumstances. Sydney Water reports these incidents according to the conditions in the environment protection licences. Pollution Incident Response Management Plan Water and wastewater services Page 6 SW256 04/15 Sydney Water. All rights reserved.