South East Water - Workplace Exposure Standards Change Impact Assessment

Safe Work Australia’s proposed stricter workplace exposure limits for hydrogen sulphide and chlorine pose significant compliance challenges to water utilities across the country. The Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) estimates up to $6 billion of compliance costs—and consequently increased bills for customers.

South East Water (SEW) initiated a comprehensive project to better understand the impact of proposed regulatory changes and navigate potential implications. They enlisted us, as part of a strategic joint venture, to deliver a timely, detailed assessment and formulate actionable insights. We developed a robust monitoring program, facilitated sampling plans, analysed results, and created potential future exposure mitigation strategies for SEW. Coordinating various sub-contractors for the sampling work, we ran weekly progress update meetings with SEW and provided on-site support.

SEW will use this report to support discussions with WSAA and help guide future decisions regarding exposure limits.

We also worked with SEW to convert the process and findings into a paper for presentation at the 27th International Clean Air and Environment Conference, organised by the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand.