Greg Fahey

Tim Hammond

Vaughan Payne

Ralph Sims

Pamela Storey

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Pamela and her Kiwi husband Ian have owned and operated a dairy farm in Te Hoe, North Waikato, since 2001.  Pamela is passionate about supporting the growth and development of communities, both rural and urban, with a strong focus on sustainability to ensure that not only do people and our economy thrive, but that we protect, preserve and enhance our natural resources and environment.

With a Master of Business Administration focused on governance and leadership, Pamela has extensive governance experience across corporate, education, the primary sector and non-profit settings. This has included establishing renewable generation projects and creating employment opportunities in energy efficiency and environmental initiatives.

Simon Upton

Mr Upton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Rhodes Scholar, with degrees in English literature, music and law from the University of Auckland, and an MLitt in political philosophy from Oxford University. He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in 1999. 

A Member of Parliament between 1981 and 2000, Mr Upton held a variety of ministerial portfolios including environment, research, biosecurity, health and state services between 1990 and 1999. 

After leaving Parliament, Mr Upton moved to Paris to chair the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  In 2005, he returned to New Zealand to pursue a number of private sector roles while continuing to chair the Round Table.

In April 2010 he returned to the OECD full time as Environment Director, a post he held for seven years until returning to take up the role of Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

Vaughan Payne

Chief Executive, Water Services Reform

I am from the eastern Bay of Plenty tribes of Whakatohea (Mataatua) and Ngai Tai (Tainui). I am an experienced senior executive with 12 years experience at Chief Executive level over complex organisations comprising diverse functions and stakeholders. My guiding principle is that no-one can be successful on their own and, therefore, my overriding leadership style is collaborative. I seek to instil or reinforce a culture of working well with others (internal and external) wherever I work.  Here's some of my thoughts on the importance of culture and leadership to drive performance (https://youtu.be/jRM-AeERuy8).

 I also strongly believe in wellbeing interdependency. Economic wellbeing relies on community wellbeing, which in turn relies on environmental wellbeing.  Such inter-dependencies align with a Maori world view "Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au.  I am the river and the river is me".  I have been passionate about improving environmental outcomes since I first experienced water pollution in my early twenties.  That was the Tarawera River and led me to making a career change.  It is a privilege to now be in a position to make a real difference and to recognise various interdependencies.  My formal education is land-surveying and planning (Otago), and business management (Waikato), and I have worked in both the public and private sectors.

Jennifer Nickel

Councillor, Waikato Regional Council 

Jennifer Nickel is a Hamilton constituency Councillor on Waikato Regional Council and leads the Climate Action Committee.  Prior, she worked in environmental management at Fonterra and cancer research at the Cancer Society Research Center.  Her qualifications include a Master of Science (tech) in molecular biology from Waikato University and a Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Practice from Otago Polytechnic.  

She has a significant interest in building collaboration inside and outside local government to help build an effective response to climate change, whether that be reducing emissions or living with its impacts.  Particular areas of focus are food and energy security as well as asking the deeper questions of purpose and how to achieve wellbeing for our communities by rethinking economic goals and processes in practice. 

Anna Coman and Ellise Ostern, CoLab

Trade Waste across boundaries – An update 12 months on…  

The Co-Lab Water Services Trade Waste team presented at the TWIF conference in 2022 on the Trade Waste services we provide to our seven participating Councils. So, 12 months on, what have we achieved…

 Key achievements:

• Over 850 consents issued.
  
• Over 1,300 audits completed.
  
• Over 400 non-compliances investigated.
  

 Network improvements:

• Quality of wastewater has improved in Rotorua with a large reduction in oil and grease.
  
• Using Kando in Rotorua has helped us reduce harmful wastewater entering the network and investigations completed to identify premises.
  
•  Increased the cleaning frequency of many grease traps. We have found grease traps that had never been emptied, which will now be cleaned out on a regular basis.
  
• Many consents issued that require pre-treatment devices to be installed.
  

 Education:

• Our customers across the Waikato region have a greater awareness of the impact of commercial wastewater. Many premises had never heard of trade waste.
• We have educated our key Council operational staff as well as staff in other departments, such as Environmental Health.
  
• We have ensured larger premises hold a consent and have monitoring conditions to provide better monitoring.
  
• We have worked with our customers to achieve better outcomes rather than taking a strict compliance approach. For example, giving customers 12-18 months to install pre-treatment devices.
  

Anna joined Co-Lab Water Services in 2019 as a Technical Support Officer after graduating with a science degree. Her hard work and technical knowledge has seen her work her way up to Senior Technical Support Officer and now Senior Trade Waste Officer.

Ellise joined Co-Lab Water Services in 2022 as Business Coordinator after spending 9 years in administration roles at Hamilton City Council. In April 2023, Ellise was promoted to Senior Technical Support Officer, recognising her expertise in administration and her keenness to develop in a technical and leadership role.

Lobo Coutinho, Babbage

Sustainable Wastewater Management in New Zealand: Challenges and options for Multiple Discharge 

This paper explores sustainable wastewater management, focusing on the challenges to dairy factory wastewater discharge in New Zealand. The dairy industry is vital to the country's economy but generates substantial amounts of wastewater that requires treatment before being discharged into the environment. Various discharge options, including land irrigation, surface water discharge, trade waste systems, and reuse, are used for treated dairy factory wastewater.

Each option has its benefits and risks, and the choice depends on local regulations, treatment processes, and wastewater characteristics. Reusing treated dairy wastewater for irrigation can conserve freshwater, enhance yields, and reduce fertilizer requirements. However, it also presents risks of pathogen and nutrient contamination, soil degradation, and challenges with land use. Discharging highly treated wastewater to surface water can be an alternative, but it must meet regulatory standards to avoid harming aquatic ecosystems and public health.

Improved treatment technologies can address some issues, while others require innovative solutions, such as managing soil saturation and runoff and considering cultural aspects. Coordinating multiple discharge options, such as combined land, surface, and groundwater discharge, allows flexibility in selecting the most suitable option based on circumstances, sites, and seasons. Although multi-discharge options may be more complex and costly to implement and maintain, they offer better environmental management and reduced impacts to the environment, aligning with current regulations.

Proper management of multi-discharge options for treated wastewater promotes environmental sustainability, ecological balance, and flexibility in selecting discharge methods. This approach can result in cost savings and enhance social acceptability by minimizing the impact on natural environments.

Komal Devi, South Taranaki District Council

Compliance Issues: How do I Comply? How do I get them to comply?  

Trade Waste Program is governed by different trade waste bylaws with various councils and entities pursuant to the Local Government Act 2002. This program aims to protect the wastewater infrastructure, environment, public health, and cost recovery, thus making this program critical in today's revolutionary society. South Taranaki District Council measures trade waste compliance in 3 categories; customers with valid trade waste consent, sufficient pretreatment and accessibility, and proper pretreatment maintenance. We carried out a trade waste customer survey in 2023, whereby we visited each of our trade waste customers to interview and conduct an inspection. We identified the key challenges and gaps as follows; lack of trade waste expertise - the trade waste program was new in the South Taranaki region, and we needed trained staff with experience in this field for complete program implementation; education and awareness - we found that we were not having sufficient awareness and education on trade waste program, collaboration - we needed more cooperation with our internal and external stakeholders. We found that we still need to enforce the program entirely. Upon the completion of our survey, we constructed our trade waste compliance management plan whereby we adopted the following strategies: having customer information accessible, available and keeping it simple, having an effluent improvement program for non-compliant customers, having our customer communication continuous and consistent, collaborating with our internal and external stakeholders and providing training to our staff. This has helped the Council to build on strengthening the trade waste program in South Taranaki District.

Nick Hewer-Hewitt, Wellington Water

 Sentinel Monitoring of Water Quality in the Wellington Metropolitan Drinking Water Network

Simon Lytollis, CLENZ

Quality & structure of pre-treatment devices   

Quality is a key part of our industry, from the samples we test, the water quality we aim for and the quality protection of our environment.  Yet there are parts of our industry where low quality is hidden below the surface, hidden out of focus but it forms a key structure in treating trade waste.

 Local Market Analysis shows Pre-Treatment Devices that don't have structural ratings, they aren’t made to a quality assured standard and lack detailed design. Every day we rely on quality and structure of the building’s we work in. Our wider construction Industry is asked to certify plumbing, drain laying, steel work, timber quality… We use QUU for many sizing application’s, we reference Australia Design but as an industry we haven’t been able to influence a standard or provide one agreed guideline nationally. 

In 2017 NZTIWF produced guidelines identifying concrete grease traps fail and breakdown due to acidic conditions.  Over Time these conditions undermine structural Integrity. Yet we still see the installation of non-epoxy lined concrete traps that we know fail.  Industry experts have consulted our industry, spoken to councils, identified weaknesses and provided framework to build upon and we need to continue to build a better industry.

 Our waterways and Environment can’t speak up, they rely on us to protect them & preserve them.. Let’s deliver Quality treatment for our future generations.

Steve Shaw, Mactrap

The increasing need to pump greasy water due to re-purposed tenancies and combi-ovens.   

A basic principle for the successful pre-treatment of FOG is to separate as close to the source as possible. Because many tenancies are being re-purposed for the purpose of preparing and serving food the drainage is not always available to carry greasy wastewater from the fixtures to the network and a pumping solution is required. 

This session will describe these learnings: 

• Pumps falls into two main categories: positive displacement and centrifugal. But within those families there are many varieties including macerating, vortex, impellor, peristaltic, screw and more. Not all pumps are created equal when the task is to pump water laden with fats, oils and grease. 
• Water laden with fats oil and grease is a shear sensitive liquid, and the pump selection is important to limit the `break down or forced emulsification of the FOG which retards separation. 
• Stokes Law – we will skip over some heavy maths and discuss the principle of the impact of shear forces applied by centrifugal pumps to fat laden water 
• Examples of projects where pumping is required: 
• Recommendations for approach. 

Steve trained in Industrial Instrumentation and Process Control which resulted in a broad engineering background including electronic, pneumatic, and software-controlled processes. He worked in Pulp and Paper and Petrochemical industries before becoming involved in the associated technologies of Information Technology and Telecommunications for 25 years.

Claudia Smith, Queenstown Lakes District Council

Managing Trade Waste, in the world-famous tourist hot spot, Queenstown.    

The Queenstown District is famous with tourists both locally and international for its many offerings, from adventure sports, wine vineyards, historic mining towns or incredible scenery, the area has much to offer. It is a busy place, with a base population of 49,500 people and receives over a million visitors a year. Queenstown has one of New Zealand’s fastest growing populations, and the type of wastewater that is generated can certainly overload the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Shotover WWTP was most recently upgraded in 2015, at a time when the population was 38% less than current levels.

Hospitality is a core business type in the district and poses a significant risk to the wastewater system. Managing the wastewater from these businesses and regulating the pre-treatment from each hospitality provider, has been one of the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC’s) Trade Waste teams’ biggest goals.

From grease traps to laundries filters, the intention is to understand the quality and quantity of wastewater generated so the quality of the treated wastewater can be improved. QLDC’s Integrated Three Waters Bylaw was adopted in 2021, and since then Trade Waste premises have been required to apply for a trade waste discharge consent. The Trade Waste team has been working towards managing the wastewater discharges from the local businesses. Throughout the last 2 years, QLDC’s Trade Waste team has sent many emails, conducted site visits, and has attempted phone calls to spread the word of how important it is to install the correct pre-treatment. One of the biggest problems the district faces is the wastewater pipes blocking and causing wastewater overflows. Overflows caused by high levels of fats, oils, and grease (FOG) and high concentration of BOD received at the WWTP, suggests that the pre-treatment from these hospitality businesses hasn’t been maintained with appropriate schedules or servicing.

It is very important for QLDC to work with the trade businesses within the district to install the correct pre-treatment system and to ensure these are maintained correctly to prevent damage to wastewater pipes, and ultimately improving the quality of treated wastewater from the WWTP.

Julia Watson and Kevin Jonathan, Stormwater 360

Filterra Roof: Presenting an Innovative Retrofittable High Flow Biofiltration Device for Treating Dissolved Zinc from Galvanised Roof Runoff 

Zinc contamination originates from non-point sources such as roads (tyres), industrial activities and galvanised roofs. Many industrial buildings in New Zealand have rusting galvanized roofs and dissolved zinc enters the receiving environment from the roof runoff. High concentrations of heavy metals are toxic to the aquatic environment and can accumulate in freshwater species causing harm to aquatic life and humans via bioaccumulation. Biofiltration (BF) and High flow biofiltration systems (HFBF) can significantly reduce dissolved zinc concentrations in surface runoff. Traditional BF treatment devices typically require a footprint between 2% and 8% of the catchment area. HFBF systems can treat ten times the flow, meaning the HFBF treatment footprint can be between 0.2-0.8% of the catchment. The HFBF solution allows for effective treatment in densely built-up industrial sites with rusting galvanised roofs. The HFBF Filterra Roof device has been retrofitted to downpipes and monitored for dissolved zinc removal from galvanised roof runoff in a university trail and is currently undergoing a field trial at a galvanising plant. Dissolved zinc removal efficiencies during the university trial were 99-100% and results from the galvanising plant are yet to be determined. We will likely see some variation in the results due to changes in storm sizes, the different sites, and slight changes to the Filterra Roof configuration. The current field trial continues, and testing will be conducted at further sites to develop a robust dataset and gain reliable results for dissolved zinc removal efficiencies at industrial sites.

Julia Watson is a Research and Development Engineer with Stormwater360. She has eight years of industry experience throughout consulting and local government sectors. Her MSc in Engineering Geology was applied to her Geotechnical work at Beca prior to transitioning into the Waters industry with Waipa District Council in 2020.

Kevin Jonathan is a stormwater engineer with Stormwater360 and is an integral member of the design team. He has over ten years of professional experience in designing, constructing and maintaining stormwater treatment devices.

Jackson Zheng, Guaranteed Flow System

Membrane technologies to recycle laundry wastewater  

Laundromats and commercial laundry operations are significant water consumers, with substantial amounts of potable water utilised in daily operations.  Trade waste agreements have been established to regulate the discharge of solids into wastewater networks, resulting in wastewater of low contamination, providing a unique opportunity for reutilisation.

Recent advancements in laundry technology have focused on enhancing water efficiency and reusing water for initial rinse. However, achieving further reuse has proven challenging due to residual dissolved substances in the wastewater impacting carefully-calibrated chemical blends.

This presentation explores the application of a combination of membrane technologies to facilitate complete reuse of laundry wastewater while maintaining finished quality. The study showcases a pilot plant operated in Auckland, highlighting the difficulties encountered and discussing the current barriers to widespread commercial deployment.