Joint Australia New Zealand performance standard for on-site wastewater management

Australia and New Zealand are committed to joint activity on review of any national standards, with all new standards to be performance based. The Joint Committee set up in 1995 to review national on-site domestic wastewater standards noted that in spite of a wide variety of state, regional and local technical guidelines in use, environmental performance of unsewered servicing was still patchy The Committee recognised that there was no way it could come up with a set of technical standards that it could claim would be superior to all others, and hence adopted a new approach to standards setting. This approach has focused upon the processes of implementing on-site wastewater systems, and upon the responsibilities of all persons involved in those processes. The Standard identifies performance requirements for achieving public health and environmental objectives, and then details standard requirements for site evaluation, design, installation, operation and maintenance, education and training. Responsibilities are then set out for planners, surveyors, site evaluators, designers, installers, pumpout contractors, regulatory agencies, estate agents and homeowners in achieving sound implementation practices. Bottom line technical guidelines provide the basis For performance achievement. The joint Standard is intended to provide the foundation for a new era in sustainable on-site domestic wastewater management in both countries.