Cooling towers and warm-water systems

1. Notify Council

You must notify AlburyCity within one month of installing a new cooling water system.

Provide:

• the NSW Health Notification of installation or change in particulars form
• a site plan showing the location of the system.

Before a new system begins operating, a competent person must complete a risk assessment, and a Risk Management Plan must be in place.

Once notified, AlburyCity will provide a unique identification number (UID) for each cooling tower.

The UID must be displayed on a durable sign attached to the cooling tower. The sign must:

• be at least 148 mm × 210 mm (A5)
• be clearly visible to anyone inspecting the system.

2. Manage risks

A competent person must undertake a risk assessment and document it in a Risk Management Plan (RMP).

A new risk assessment is required:

• at least every five years for low- and medium-risk systems
• at least every 12 months for high-risk systems
• sooner in some circumstances where the existing risk assessment may no longer be valid.

A certificate of RMP completion must be provided to AlburyCity within seven days of completing the risk assessment.

3. Test and report

Cooling water systems must be sampled and tested monthly for:

• Legionella
• heterotrophic colony count (HCC).

A result must be reported to AlburyCity if:

• Legionella is 1,000 cfu/mL or greater, or
• HCC is 5,000,000 cfu/mL or greater.

You must notify AlburyCity within 24 hours of receiving a reportable result using the NSW Health notification form.

4. Complete annual audits

Risk Management Plans must be independently audited each year.

The audit must be completed within two months after the end of the 12-month audit period.

The Certificate of Audit Completion must be provided to AlburyCity within seven days of completing the audit.

AlburyCity reviews audit certificates and may investigate systems that do not comply with their RMP or regulatory requirements.