The Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) acknowledges the considerable importance of the deployment of a high speed National Broadband Network and the need to keep the costs of this deployment as low as possible to ensure the Australian government maximises the project’s net benefits to the Australian community. However, “the Australian urban water industry has serious misgivings regarding use of the urban water industry’s infrastructure for the deployment of the national broadband network,” as contemplated in the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network Measures No. 1) Bill 2009, said Mr Young.

These concerns relate to both the provision of information regarding infrastructure location and access to any of this infrastructure for the deployment of the network. Secondly the costs of providing this information and future costs of co-location, and the ability to perform necessary repair and maintenance are of primary concern.

In the national interest

On the subject of seeking information regarding the location of urban water utilities’ ducts, trenches, pipes and stormwater drains, the WSAA said that the location of the industry’s infrastructure has national security implications. Accordingly, whoever is given the responsibility to make such request for information must be able to protect the security of the information.

In addition, WSAA recommends that the period required to provide information regarding infrastructure location be increased, as smaller utilities may require two weeks and advice on land and easement availability would take even longer.

Asset registers include information regarding infrastructure assets that have been completed and are in service. Details regarding works that are under construction are located elsewhere (often with other entities); making such requests for information more complex and time consuming. There are many water infrastructure projects being constructed around Australia at this time. In addition, the accuracy of the information regarding the location of some underground infrastructure (particularly some of the older infrastructure) may be problematic.

At what cost? WSAA’s final concern is in regards to the provision of infrastructure location information is the cost to its members. WSAA assumes that urban water utilities would be compensated for incurring such costs.

“The provision of information regarding the location of the urban water industries’ network infrastructure is one matter, the provision of access to such infrastructure is another matter,” Mr Young said.

Protecting existing assets

While it is unusual to use wastewater infrastructure to deploy communication cables, it is not unheard of, for example at limited sites in Japan, UK, France and Germany. The WSAA wishes to emphasise that such an approach would have significant implications which must be recognised and factored into any assessment.

Third party access to infrastructure of national significance is provided for under existing legislation, either under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth or state governments. WSAA maintains that such provisions should not be bypassed in the case of the deployment of the broadband network.

“The assessment should not be undertaken in respect of minimising the deployment costs of the broadband network but in respect of the ‘whole of life’ costs and benefits of all the infrastructure utilised in such an endeavour. For example including the impact on other infrastructure utilised, the much higher maintenance costs on all infrastructure and the service level implications for customers,” said Mr Young.

WSAA has been advised that the use of easements may be possible. For example, Hunter Water has an established fee structure for telecommunications easements in its property or within its easements. WSAA would expect that such charging arrangements would continue to apply to the providers of the National Broadband Network.

Repair and maintenance

The deployment of communication cables in the same trench as water and/or wastewater infrastructure is problematic and would increase the cost of maintaining, repairing and rehabilitating the urban water industry’s infrastructure. The co-location of network infrastructure of the two industries in the same trench would require this configuration to be reflected in the asset information systems and any repairs and/or maintenance would have to proceed with greater caution to avoid unintentional damage to the other industry’s network.

In such an environment it would either be impossible to use backhoes, excavators and other heavy equipment for repairs to water infrastructure and vice versa, or the deployment of the broadband network would pose significant risk of damage to these assets.

“Ongoing maintenance for either water or the broadband network would result in service failure for both industries. This would have obvious and significant cost and service level implications,” said Mr Young.

Similarly the deployment of communication cables within pressurised pipelines (mainly water supply) is regarded as operationally impossible. For water supply, it is also important to ensure that drinking water quality is not comprised. However, what turns in-pipe use from ‘the need to take care’ to ‘operationally impossible’ is that it is simply incompatible with valving the water networks (valve closing) and mechanical cleaning methods said Mr Young. In addition, particularly in regards to pipes with smaller diameter, the restricted cross section will increase the maintenance costs. The mere presence of the communication cable may restrict the inspection and cleaning/clearing methods, effectively ruling out mechanical techniques. Burst water pipes would inevitably result in compromising the broadband asset (either in the actual burst or in the subsequent repair phase).

Communication cables in sewers

As has been previously mentioned, the location of communication cables in non-pressurised wastewater pipelines is achievable especially in new construction where the design can take account of the asset management needs of, and cost implications to, both networks.

Installation in existing sewers would require full condition assessment followed by necessary repairs; rehabilitation and renewals before the installation of communication cables could be undertaken said Mr Young. Without such action, there would be an unacceptably high likelihood of the installed communication cable suffering damage as the clearance of blockages by high pressure jetting and other mechanical means is not an uncommon occurrence.

The mixing of tree roots and communication cables in sewers would be particularly problematic and rule out existing techniques for dealing with the intrusion of tree roots in sewers. The use of trenchless techniques used in renewal and rehabilitation of existing pipes would be similarly compromised by the presence of communications cables within these pipes.

Conclusions

Mr Young said “It is important that the above costs and service level implications are factored into any consideration to seek access to water and wastewater infrastructure, and not ignored in a more narrow assessment of the costs merely incurred by the entity tasked to deploy the National Broadband Network. This would ignore costs shifted to other industries but borne by the same end users and the ongoing maintenance and replacement costs for both industries.”

Third party access to infrastructure of national significance is the subject of existing legislation and assessment processes that consider a broader range of costs and benefits than merely the costs associated with the deployment of the National Broadband Network.

Mr Young concluded that “WSAA cannot conceive of any reason to bypass such arrangements and considerations and notes that it doubts that such an assessment would lead to the deployment of the broadband network receiving broad access to the urban water industry’s infrastructure when such access would essentially make redundant almost all existing maintenance techniques while at the same time reducing the industry’s service level and increasing prices to its customers.”