Byron Shire Council

Environmental Laboratory

Our laboratory started in 1990 as a research lab for the West Byron Wetlands project.  It was planned as a temporary facility and operated from the Sewage Treatment Works (STW) operator’s rooms at West Byron.  It was run by the University of Western Sydney Water Research laboratory. Two post graduate students were in charge.

Council’s engineering department immediately saw the advantage of having an on site laboratory and started to use it regularly for EPA license testing and for process monitoring all of the Shire’s STWs. The wetlands research project ended in 1996 and the laboratory remained in the hands of Council. Its operations had grown by then and larger premises were needed. The new laboratory was jointly funded by The NSW Department of Public Works and Byron Shire Council.

* In 2002 the laboratory became accredited through The National Association of Testing Authority in both fields of chemical and biological.

Testing Facilities Available to the Council and the Community

• Water testing – routine analysis on bore, dam, spring, creek and tank water for physical, chemical and bacterial analysis. T
• Effluent monitoring – BSC is committed to maintaining the quality of local waterways. All effluent discharges into local waterways are regularly tested to ensure EPA requirements are met.
• Environmental Survey and Monitoring – The lab provides analytical support for environmental surveys and monitoring.  This work involves sampling, on-site measurements of physical parameters, as well as chemical and biological analyses back at the laboratory.
• Water Testing - If you are collecting rainwater in a tank, or pump from a creek or bore, chances are that it is contaminated by wildlife.  You may have been drinking it for years and not have suffered any ill effects.  You have probably built up immunity to ‘bugs’ in the system.
  Visitors, however may not be so lucky, above all if they are children, elderly or in any way immuno-compromised.  A faecal indicator-screening test can put your mind at ease or make you aware that some action is needed to make your drinking water safe.

Confidentiality of test results is assured.

Range of tests conducted at the Laboratory and their costs

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