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Meet Stormwater Victoria Committee Member -
Tom Stephanou
We’re delighted to introduce Tom Stephanou, one of our committee members this year. He’s brought a wave of fresh ideas and vibrant energy to the Stormwater Vic committee. We’re keen to share his career journey and the unique path he’s taken. His experiences and insights have been invaluable to our team, and we’re excited about the fantastic work he’ll continue to do!
What was your career path that led you to your current role?
Funny enough my career started as wanting to be a motor mechanic after I left high school, but fate would have it that my career path took a different turn, first completing a couple of Certificate of Technology in Design Drafting and Mech. Eng before enrolling in a Mechanical Engineering Degree, at Swinburne University which is where I am now. After 4-years working as a design draftsperson, I started working for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) in 1982 in Power Department where I worked on designing and delivering first of a kind power station assets before transferring the SECV’s Herman Research Labs. Whilst the original design of the brown coal (lignite) power stations were adopted from the post WWI Rheinbraun RWE German Designs, the SECV under the stewardship of Sir John Monash develop the vast lignite reserves in the Latrobe Valley (LV), Gippsland to build a power generation industry, delivering in excess of 6500MW of base load Power station that would support the growth of Victorian energy demands. One of the largest post war infrastructure projects for Victoria, next to the Snowy Mountain Hydro project, employing thousands of migrants leaving Europe to settle in Australia.
When I joined the SECV in 1982, the then General Manager Gorege Bates announced two major transformation shifts for the SECV, firstly the creation of the National Electricity Grid that would decentralise the power industry, allowing power generator along the eastern states including SA and Tasmania via an underground cable link to bid on an open market platform, bidding for power supply across states, creating the now Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and secondly the corporatisation and the privatisation of the SECV under the Cain and Kennett Governments in the 1990’s. I would later transfer from the SECV under a management buyout of the SECV’s Herman Research Laboratories to a newly formed private company, HRL Technology Pty Ltd (HRLT).
My career advancements in Engineered implementation, Business Development and Project Management accelerated with new opportunities taking executive roles, reaching my highlight as the companies Major Projects Manager, responsible for delivering in excess of $100m revenue from the development of new projects across to the Power, Mining and Mineral processing industries across Australia and overseas. I would spend the next 20-years working as a consultant, extensively traveling across Australia, building relationships and networking with multi-national asset owners to grow HRLT’s business portfolio, and riding the Global Financial Crisis that hit Australian business in the 2007, to emerge more resilient with a healthier portfolio of revenue streams. My time at HRLT saw me manage many engineering challenged projects including IDGCC Gasification and Pyrolysis of waste stream technologies developed by HRLT, that our even now being supported by the Federal and State Governments low emission programs.
After spending more than 25-years in the Power, Mining and Mineral Processing Sectors, I left HRLT and started by own consulting business, EIPlus before taking up a position Greater Western Water in 2015 as its Completion Manager for the West Werribee Salt Reduction Plant before taking on a permanent role in 2018 in Major Project Delivery and later with Strategic Planning where I immersed myself in the development and management of GWW’s first of a kind Stormwater Harvesting Partnering Fund. Later I would get involved in the D&C of pumps stations, treatment plants and most recently the expansion of the Macedon Ranges water supply to support the population growth forecast for the Victorian Western Regions.
Reflecting on my career, I was privileged to have worked at the SECV and later with HRLT, like many of my fellow Greater Western Water colleagues who started their careers in the Board of Works (now Melbourne Water) and the Gas & Fuel departments of the State Government. These organisations had the best training schemes, catering for young engineers, scientists, technical staff, trades staff, combining theory from universities and trade schools with hands on training, rotating staff across the operational areas to gain exposure to the wider business. These days I still try and catch up with as many of my colleagues to share stories and reflect on bygone times and the challenges facing the next generation come to terms with modern technology and the challenges of an environmentally constrained world.
What do you enjoy most about your job, and what challenges do you face?
As a designer and project manager of many first of a kind project, my passion turned into helping improve how GWW could improve its delivery of SWH projects, building on lessons learnt from earlier schemes. Focusing on the end-user requirements, I wanted to make sure that the methodology and approach to selecting the best equipment for treatment, storage and delivery with a greater emphasis on performance testing over the range of seasonal operating conditions, introducing robust procedure that verified designs that have the operability and maintainability of the assets as the key focus. These lessons learnt have helped draft amendments to GWW’s SWH Design Guidelines Working incorporating feedback from councils.
What key learnings do you believe are important for the stormwater industry?
The stormwater industry needs to step up its representation across Local and State Government departments that will influence policies outcomes, not only around Climate Change adaptation, but to drive best practice design and operation of SWH schemes across Australia. One thought that the water industry needs to invest in is the creation of a neural network of trunk pipeline that pushes and pulls treated stormwater across council and water authority boundaries to where it is needed. The cost of this sunk asset is minimum if it is planned at the time for major infrastructure projects funded by the state and federal government. These assets may remain dormant for some years but can be brought into service when enough pipelines have been constructed.
In Melbourne’s west, this network of SW pipes could be used to convey excess treated water between the Werribee and Altona treatment plants following the Melbourne Outfall Sewer (MOS) where surplus capacity is available at Werribee and can be transferred to Altona for re-use and distribution to the industry as a substitute for demineralised water for boiulers and or other operational uses including water for cooling towers and heat exchangers, thereby lowering the overall O&M cost. This may be difficult to realise but given time Victoria could become waterproof being able to use a range of water quality resources. This neural network of treated water could be connected to the aquafer at the Werribee treatment plant and the existing third water pipeline (purple pipe) which would have a marginal cost increase when costed as part of State and Federal government major infrastructure projects, like major roads, rail lines, road tunnels where long stretches of land can be used to irrigate more parkland improving the health and liveability of our communities.
Having a neural network will also provide opportunities to direct flood from areas to storage basins dotted around council, connected to the neural network, embedding residence in our drainage, saving millions of dollars in flood damage. The other area that I believe would help our industry is the creation of an Australian National Committee on the Design, Operation and Maintenance of Stormwater Harvesting Schemes. This committee would have representation from various stakeholders that would develop a National Guidelines that would be adopted by all councils and water utilities to ensure a consistent approach and minimum expectations for the control, diversion, treatment and storage and conveyancing of treated water.
How do you see your role evolving?
Not sure what the future holds, other than maybe retiring and doing my own stuff, running my own consultancy business, EIPlus to deliver well thought out reliable engineered solutions to council SWH schemes. I would like to partner with councils as their Owners Engineer to help them navigate through the various stages of development and selection of equipment that ius purpose built to suit their unique requirements. I also see myself ad not so many hands-on delivering D&C projects, but feel that I have much more to give, but mentoring others to deliver projects, passing on my knowledge and experience to the younger generation of water engineers and technologist.
Do you have a favourite stormwater feature or recreational spot you enjoy visiting?
I don’t have a favourite park that I visit, but when I do, I like to combine my like of recreational facilities, BBQ areas and walking tracks, where there are bodies of water and observation decking platforms with cross over bridges where you can stop and gaze across wetlands taking in nature reserve, and variety of plant and aquatic life. A couple of SWH sites that stand out to me are Woodlands Park, Laverton Park and Edinburgh park SWH sites which we spent father’s day picnic at last year, but I also like some of our coastal parks like Truganina Park out in Hobson Bay that take in the 100-steps and looks over some of the bays coast line and a spot if you are a bird watching enthusiast. I’ve worked with many councils, including time working with Brim bank Council to help deliver many of their SWH sites including Balmoral and Dempster Park SWH schemes and more recently helping to develop the upgrades at Cairnlea recreational parkland, to improve the sites SWH operation and to restore the transfer of lake water to the 3 connection parks storage basins.
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