While it's easy to spot the myriad of assets that Council owns and operates above ground, the significant infrastructure that is built, maintained and renewed below ground, including 100kms of sewerage pipeline, can easily be overlooked.
Council's sewerage system is a vital public health service that carts away household and trade waste to be treated at the sewerage treatment plant. Each year, dependant on external factors such as rainfall, approximately 600 ML of effluent is discharged from the Leeton Sewage Treatment Plant.
From time to time, Council staff on the Water and Wastewater teams are required to enter confined spaces to remove chokes, service pumps and undertake general maintenance and repairs. When it comes to sewerage systems, it is generally not a pleasant job and comes with real safety risks that need to be recognised and actively managed.
Ensuring a safe and incident-free workplace is a key objective in Leeton Shire Council's WHS Commitment Statement. To this end, Leeton Shire Council has recently undertaken important safety upgrades and improvements to the Sewage Pumping Station at Leeton Market Plaza, one of Council's largest underground pumping stations.
Investment in upgrades and repairs to the pumping station was voted into the 2022/23 budget to address evidence of corrosion on access ladders, gantry and pump rails as a result of years of intense liquid trade waste discharge into the wet well.
Council's Director Operations Tom Steele commended the staff involved in the delivery of these important upgrade works which have achieved full compliance with confined spaces legislation.
"Thanks to the efforts of the Water & Wastewater crew, staff can more safely access the bottom of the pump well and the pump can be safely lifted in and out of the well."
"At Council, our people are our most important asset which is why WHS is always a very high priority," he said.
