Washdown station users, locations and current infrastructure

[Sara AzadeganParticipant]

Hello
We are working on project opportunity 4.3 (Appropriate energy supply for vehicle washdown facilities). To better understand the opportunity, I’d like help with the following questions (that I haven’t been able to answer from the resources available from EWB website or broader web based searches):

1. Where are wash stations currently located in terms of ownership, management and maintenance responsibility – e.g. at point of entry to/from lands returned to traditional owners or on private roads on those lands, and/or CYPAL land, AND/OR along public roads and highways – or a mixture?

2. when thinking about ease of use and increasing use of wash stations, it would be good to understand the legal consequences (if any) if wash stations do not operate or are not used as intended, including due to lack of adequate, reliable power (in addition, of course, to the risks to biodiversity loss regardless of legal requirements). Its quite complex trying to work out what the legal requirements are – there seem to be a number of Acts of law that apply, including the Biosecurity Act and regulations. Also, with CYPAL’s I understand that park management responsibility varies from park to park, including with respect to pet plant control, the Management Statements and Plans for each park.

3. who currently maintains the existing wash stations that this project opportunity relates to? These are relevant stakeholders we want to understand.

4. are there any indicative details/layout maps of existing wash stations showing current infrastructure?

Thank you in advance!
Sara

[Luke BarbagalloKeymaster]

Hey Sara, thanks for your questions – they’re great, and have picked up on some of the challenges that are present on the Peninsula. I’m going to respond to your queries as you put them to us, and provide some additional suggestions below.

1. For the purpose of the challenge, it would best to assume that maintenance will conducted by rangers, and that the wash stations will be on state roads. We’ll confirm this, as it relates to your 4th questions

2. Can you provide further insight into how the legal consequences would affect your solution design? If you’re approaching this from the context of the reliability of the system, and there being penalties for the operators of the washdown stations if they not operational, it would be ok to assume not. It might be interesting to have a look at washdown stations used in the agricultural sector for biosecurity, particularly with regards to livestock. There may be stronger regulatory codes that relate to system design and redundancies for remote sites that could have crossover with your project.

3. a. Assume for the purpose of your project that it will be rangers, or contractors that have received training and support from the system designer/builder. Further, given a washdown station would have several cored trades to oversee the plumbing, electrical, mechanical and disposal elements of the design, any efforts to simplify the system an its maintenance requirements would be well received.

4. We’ll return to you with information regarding the locations of the existing wash down stations. To gain insight on the existing infrastructure, we’d suggest the gallery of photos in the Design Area Transport & Access webpage of the Challenge Website, where there a number of images of vehicle washdown stations.

We’ll endeavour to get back to you next week with further info.

Luke

[Sara AzadeganParticipant]

Thank you Luke

In question 2, we are indeed approaching this from the context of the reliability of the system, and consequences to the users and community if the system is unreliable.

Sara

[Luke BarbagalloKeymaster]

Hey Sara,

I’ve made some enquiries with our colleagues, and have got some additional information for you.

The wash station that appears in the images in the design area is on a state road, and is at the time of staff visiting, it was not operational, and had not been operational for some time. As a state asset, it was their responsibility to maintain.
This prompted this project brief; the community and rangers would like a solution that is cost effective to install, operate and maintain themselves, due to unreliability of existing solutions. Further, these wash stations would be likely placed at the entrance to lands in the control of local land orgs and councils, at the junction between state roads and local lands/roads.

Our colleagues have also informed me that the wash stations, when they are functional, are not compulsory; in that, a motorist can drive past it without using it, as the stations are not staffed 24/7 if at all. This means that washing your vehicle is a voluntary form of compliance. Where voluntary compliance exists, it would be an appropriate assumption to make that the operators of a wash station would not be legally liable for the damage done by non-compliant vehicles.

Hope this further information is helpful!

Luke

[Sara AzadeganParticipant]

Brilliant, that answers our questions perfectly. Thank you Luke

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