Board Meeting: March 2015
Agenda Number: 13 (viii)
File Ref: EV0016
LORD HOWE ISLAND BOARD
Business Paper
ITEM
Wastewater Management Program
BACKGROUND
The Lord Howe Island On-Site Wastewater Management Strategy (the Strategy) was
adopted by the Board in late 2012 and then implemented from late 2013. The Strategy
consists of two volumes, a Strategy document and Design Guidelines.
Since the implementation commenced, there have been a number of matters which have
required the Board to vary timeframes for the Strategy implementation and regularly clarify
technical and planning elements of the Strategy to provide guidance to leaseholders,
supplier and installers. This has resulted in some inconsistencies in on the ground results,
frustration from suppliers and leaseholders, and escalating costs for the Board in assessing
development assessments for wastewater systems.
Whitehead and Associates have been providing advice to Board staff on wastewater
development proposals and assisting in provision of technical advice to suppliers and
installers.
In September 2014, the Board considered a Planning Proposal to amend the LHI Local
Environmental Plan, 2010 (LEP) to provide leaseholders with a simple and more efficient
process when they upgrade their wastewater systems. The planning proposal sought to
define wastewater systems on land zoned 2 Settlement as ‘exempt development’ and permit
the ‘development with consent’ of wastewater systems on land zoned 1 Rural, 5 Special
Uses, 6 Recreation and 7 Environmental Protection. This item is the subject of a separate
Board paper.
CURRENT POSITION
Since adoption of the Strategy in 2012, and implementation from late 2013, the Board has:
 Approved Owner Consents only for new systems for 9 leases, 3 of which are
commercial.
 Approved one DA for a system, which is yet to be installed.
 Approved the installation of 8 systems for 10 leases.
This equates to 20 leases or 18 systems out of approximately 230 existing systems (< 10%)
on the Island where some action has commenced to meet the Strategy.
Early in 2015, Whitehead and Associates were engaged to conduct a review of the 2013
Wastewater Management Strategy and Design Guidelines to consider:
1. Disinfection of wastewater prior to disposal, regardless of surface or sub-surface.
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2. Buffer distances from groundwater wells \ bores, drainage lines and standing water
bodies, particularly looking at viral die-off modelling and nutrient attenuation
modelling.
3. Clearer definition of residential and non-residential.
4. Treatment standards and testing requirements for non-residential systems.
5. Reuse of treated effluent.
6. Appropriateness of alternative land disposal techniques not considered in the original
Strategy.
The aim of the review was to simplify the process for leaseholders, suppliers, installers and
the Board, so that the new wastewater systems could be more efficiently installed and the
objectives of the Strategy could be achieved.
The result of the review is included as Attachment 1 – Strategy and Attachment 2 – Design
Guidelines. There are too many changes to be able to provide a copy in Track Changes in
Word, so the attachments represent a clean copy of the new documents.
In summary, the major outcomes of the review of the documents include:
1. Enforcement of the requirements to disinfect wastewater prior to disposal for all
systems on the Island, regardless of surface or sub-surface effluent disposal. The
consequence of this change is that five reed bed systems approved by the Board for
installation do not have disinfection and are therefore non-compliant. The proposed
approach with these installed systems only is to discuss an affordable disinfection
method with the supplier and leaseholders to achieve compliance.
2. Reduction in the buffer distance between disposal areas and the ocean from 100m
down to 35m.
3. Retention of the buffer distance between disposal areas and active groundwater
wells \ bores at 50m.
4. Removal of the Decision Trees from the Design Guidelines.
5. Clearer guidance on system design and sizing, including provision of a model for
calculating irrigation areas, with acceptable Lord Howe Island specific values for
variables.
6. Allowance of systems not accredited with NSW Health to be installed, but only in
circumstances currently permitted by NSW Health.
7. Inclusion of sand mounds as an acceptable method of disposal of secondary treated
effluent.
8. Defining wastewater system types as:
a. Domestic and Small Commercial Residential – up to 10 persons or
2,000L\day with no commercial kitchen.
b. Commercial Residential Properties – more than 10 persons or 2,000L\day
with no commercial kitchen.
c. Larger Commercial Residential Properties – more than 10 persons or
2,000L\day with a commercial kitchen.
d. Non-residential Properties
e. Recycled Water Reuse
Except for Recycled Water Reuse, all of the examples have the same standard of
treatment required, but have varied frequency of testing.
Following implementation of this revision of the documents, it is planned to update the
documents again in late May 2015, following the proposed changes to the LEP and to
simplify the risk assessment levels.
It is not proposed to undertake a formal community consultation review of the documents.
However, the documents will be provided to Island installers and mainland suppliers for
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comment, and a householder will be issued advising leaseholders of the documents
placement at the Board offices until 31 March 2015.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Board:
1. Approve the revision to the Wastewater Management Strategy and Design
Guidelines.
2. Approve their release to the community, Island installers and mainland suppliers for
comment by the end of March 2015, and then implementation by the end of April
2015.
Prepared __________________ Andrew Logan
Manager, Infrastructure & Engineering
Services
Endorsed __________________ Penny Holloway
Chief Executive Officer
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