Storm tank carousel

 

Can Engineers have cake AND eat it? 

good environmental outcomes require us to understand and manage the consequences of achieving them.

slide carousel

Slide 1
Cleaner bathing waters don't happen by themselves.
They require infrastructure, engineering and investment.

Slide 2
A storm tank can prevent sewage reaching the sea.
But it doesn't make the consequences of that infrastructure disappear.

Slide 3
The tank needs cleaning.
That means tankers, traffic, noise, odour and operational activity.

Slide 4
The people who benefit from cleaner bathing waters may also experience the disruption.
That's the uncomfortable reality of environmental infrastructure.

Slide 5
Capital delivery is about much more than process engineering.
Civil, mechanical, electrical, environmental, construction and operational expertise all have to come together.

Slide 6
And the solution has to work in the real world.
It has to be buildable, operable, maintainable — and capable of being lived alongside.

Slide 7
Environmental improvement always involves choices and trade-offs.
We can't have the benefit without accepting some of the consequences of delivering it.

I particularly like Slide 7 as the closing thought because it moves the message away from “people shouldn't complain about tankers” and towards the much more defensible professional point: good environmental outcomes require us to understand and manage the consequences of achieving them.