WHILE residents in the northern part of the Bega Valley Shire were aware they had to boil their tap water after January’s floods, two other regions in the shire also had water quality issues.
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On January 5, Bega Valley Shire Council issued a precautionary boil water notice stating residents in the area between Quaama, Cobargo, Bermagui and Wallaga Lake on the Brogo River supply system should boil their water before use.
Council’s environmental health coordinator Greg O’Donnell said there was also concerns about the water quality at Bemboka and Tantawangalo during this time.
However, instead of issuing a boil water notice to these parts council stopped pumping water from the Bemboka River into the town and instead tanked in safe water from Bega, while using a reverse flow from Yellow Pinch Dam to safely supply the Tantawangalo system.
This was possible because these two areas have a much smaller population than the northern part of the shire; Mr O’Donnell said around this time of year about 1.5megalitres of water is pumped daily to the northern section.
He said while tests had proved the water from these three systems was safe, they had increased turbidity from the floods so procedures were taken to use alternative water supplies or residents asked to boil the water as an extra safety measure.
Turbidity is a measure of water’s clearness, and Mr O’Donnell said when there is a flood this can become impacted, such as when a lot of mud washed into the Brogo Dam during the floods.
The boil water notice was lifted on January 14 and Mr O’Donnell said the reason for issuing it was in response to council following the processes set out in NSW Health’s response protocol for the management of microbiological quality of drinking water.
“With rapidly changing source water in the Brogo River, following a minor flood, contact was made with the Public Health Unit (PHU) within NSW Health seeking their advice,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“Advice received from the PHU at that time was for council to issue a ‘precautionary’ boil water notice.
“It was not issued in response to any problem.
“It was about being proactive and not reactive.”
Council has previously issued boil water notices for the Bemboka and Bega water supply systems in February 2010 following a major flood and for Candelo in March 2011 after a bacteria non-compliance.
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