University of Queensland (UQ) student Cara Beal has been named ‘Young Water Scientist of the Year’ at the 8th International Riversymposium in Brisbane.
Ms Beal, a PhD student with UQ’s Coastal Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) won the award for her research project about the failure of septic tanks.
The project examined and challenged the current design recommendations for septic trenches – the most common on-site waste treatment system in Australia.
Ms Beal discovered that contrary to current assumptions and Australian standards, the water and pollutants leaving septic trenches can leak sideways.
Her PhD, or “Poo-hD” as Ms Beal calls it, investigated the most common on-site waste treatment world-wide, the septic tank-soil absorption system (SAS).
Using a combination of different soil profiles, modelling a field studies, Ms Beal demonstrated how septic trenches could increase their capacity to remove effluent contaminants, thus reducing waterway pollution in non-sewered areas.
Her findings will be incorporated into future Australian and New Zealand Standard publications on a more effective mandatory design rule for SAS.
Her research is also aimed at assisting local governments with on-site management to determine sustainable allotment densities in non-sewered developments.
Ms Beal was one of three finalists for the CRC Young Water Scientist of the Year award, sponsored by several water-based Cooperative Research Centres.
Other finalists were Michael Rose, of the Cotton CRC, who studied the improvements in water quality from using native plants and woodchips; Amy George, of the Freshwater Ecology CRC, who worked on tree regeneration in the Murray River floodplains; and Brett Anderson, of Catchment Hydrology CRC, who investigated the effectiveness of revegetation on controlling flooding.
For more information:
‘Young Water Scientist of the Year’ Cara Beal; Phone: 0418 789 420
UQ Senior Communications Officer Tiffany Lippett; Phone: (07) 3365 2049
Riversymposium public relations: Don Alcock; Phone: 0418 882 or Jenni Metcalfe, 0408 551 866
