Blanket pre-treatment: An innovative solution to some age-old problems

This paper reports on the successful trials of an innovative method of dealing with significant odour and other environmental issues encountered by a Local Government Authority. Trials first began in 1998 when the City Council was faced with widespread community concern over sewerage odours. Combined with escalating costs for upgrades and on-going maintenance to its sewerage collection and treatment facilities, these presented a real challenge to the Council. System-wide incubation and inoculation techniques developed in Queensland and use of EM (Effective Micro-organisms) with assistance from Professor T. Higa and EM Research Organization (EMO) in Japan were major inputs. Some important aspects of this unique approach include (a) methods of inoculation resulting in a much lower than expected rate of microbiological augmentation, (b) a system-wide approach rather than focus on trouble spots and (c) an accumulative inoculation pattern.