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At Whitehorse City Council, we have 28 properties on septic tanks. Some of these properties were connected back in 1950's. We do not have any permit records in our systems. We have recently done the audit of all these properties. Non of the properties have a failed system, however we are concerned that they have not been checked annually to assess the sludge level and pumped out by a septic tank cleaning contractor every three years. What is the best way to deal in this situation. Has anyone requested a service report under the GED or Environmental Protection Regulation 2017. Please share templates or notices for Ordering a maintenance. Arif Khan 0422217979 arif.khan@whitehorse.vic.gov.au

I don't believe that this company in the case study below is using LoRaWAN as the comms for this solution, however it can certainly be replicated using LoRaWAN networks (which most of you already have) sensors and Meshed Dashboards and alerting systems (or system of your choice) that are readily available. What we probably need is some from input from the various Council environmental science and management people. Here's the case study from their website: https://waterwatch.io/blogs/news/saving-thousands-from-mosquito-transmitted-diseases Meshed can supply some good LoRaWAN options for water level monitoring such as: https://www.elsys.se/en/elt-ultrasonic/ https://www.ellenex.com/ellenex-level-sensors https://au.ictinternational.com/products/lvlnode/lvl-node-water-level-node/ And also some great water quality stations from our friends at ICT International: https://ictinternational.com/products/iot-sensors/integrated-packages-snips-hydrology/ Let me know if you'd like to explore it a bit more. Best regards Paul McManus General Manager IoT Solutions Meshed Pty Ltd +61 438 737 742 pmcmanus@meshed.com.au www.meshed.com.au

Might be a good cartoon or cover for spokespersons.

Down load the words, then down load the recording and then check out a photo of the band doing septic tank first aid and harm minimisation concert in the primary school of an unsewered town ! Cheers Callum

New Wicket Fence Stormwater

Hi All, Just in case you missed this invitation to look at the EPA feedback comments on the MAV Website that you have to register to access. Rather than commenting publically here it is probably EHPA members share compiling their responses on and EHPA ENVIRONMENT SIG discussion group in a members area only but feel free to put some general comments here if you wish to make them public. Regards Callum Morrison Dear council colleagues (sent to all council officers that registered for the MAV/ EPA forum in September) In September the MAV partnered with the EPA to run a forum for council officers on the environment protection reforms. We now have copies of the presentation slides and Q&A from that forum, as well as an EPA summary of proposed regulatory requirements for onsite wastewater management systems on our MAV Members Only site. Please note that you’ll need to register/login to the page using your council email address. Apologies for the delay in sending this information out. IMPORTANT NOTE re the onsite wastewater regulatory framework - there have been significant changes to the proposed Environment Protection Regulations for onsite wastewater management since the September 2019 exposure draft. These changes will help councils to regulate on-site wastewater management systems (OWMS) with a capacity of up to 5000 litres on any day after the new laws commence. The proposed Regulations have not been formally approved, so they can’t be shared in full. However, EPA and DELWP understand the importance of this information for councils and have provided a summary to help councils to prepare for the new laws that are intended to commence on 1 July 2021. Note that this information is not for public dissemination, pending approval of the final regulations. For further information, please contact EPA via email - sublegreform@epa.vic.gov.au. Many thanks for your patience and for your engagement and support. Stay well! Kind regards, Claire Claire Dunn | Manager – Built and Natural Environment Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) Level 12, 60 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000 | GPO Box 4326, Melbourne 3001 Ph: (03) 9667 5533 | Fax: (03) 9667 5550 | Email: cdunn@mav.asn.au Website: www.mav.asn.au | Extranet: www.mav.asn.au/extranet

Re-purposing plastics is far more efficient than recycling and value adds to products and packaging. The products first purpose is safe food grade packaging for preservation and protection of food. If the food grade plastic specification has to be adjusted for a second agricultural purpose then we also need to make sure this adjustment for a second purpose is not going to jeopardise the first purpose. The product manufacturers are wrapped their product might have added value but the packaging manufacturers are silent on the matter. If you know of any person or institution that might be able to assist with answering these questions about plastic toxicity then please let me know. (The power point presentation I was going to attach caused an error - email me if you would like to know how to turn yogurt containers into micro seed raising greenhouses.)

Guess who locked himself in the study during lockdown with a trombone and computer then got his sisters kids 200km away in Melbourne to record backing vocals? (mp3 file not attaching so only available via email. )