Boiled up with Scamander Water
TasWater still has a boiled water alert out for the Scamander Water Supply. How could that be?
Many people were in favour of the then corporation Ben Lomond water taking over the water supplies throughout Tasmania. It was thought at the time that our water supply would be improved. My article written in December 14 , 2011 summarises the situation completely. www.eurekafarm.com.au/water
So we are paying a lot more for our water since TasWater took over from Break O’Day Municipality and to add insult to injury we get the following typical warning:
“Scamander boil water alert
Regular monitoring in drinking water supply systems is routinely conducted by the Tasmanian Water Corporations. It has been found that this system is unable to adequately treat the drinking water supply to ensure E. coli is not present. E. coli itself is generally not harmful but its presence in drinking water is associated with faecal matter. The presence of these bacteria indicates that the water may be contaminated with organisms that may cause disease.
As a precaution you are advised that water for consumption within the Scamander area should be brought to a rolling boil for one minute. Water should then be allowed to cool and stored in a clean container with a lid and refrigerated.”
The plant located at the crossing in Upper Scamander uses modern membrane technology coupled with aeration to lower solids before filtration. “The later step of flocculation was added when it was found that the membrane system wasn’t able to handle fluctuating solid loads. It is my understanding this is a prevalent condition after heavy rains etc.
The initial plant was completed in late 2011. Before this new plant was commissioned the water was simply chlorinated. At that time we only had boiled water alerts after heavy rains when the chlorination process was inoperable. Since it was built is was severely damaged by floods due to its lower location than the original pumping station.
The membrane treatment works I believe produces exceedingly good water much of the time but because they cannot guarantee that it will work all the time they have placed a boiled water alert. The air floatation system and flocculents added at a later date must be causing some problems which have not been explained to the public. However heightened concern over Taswater’s competence did occur when a large number of fish died near the outlet to the treatment plant large year.
To continue this process of no information or misinformation is entirely unacceptable and doesn’t give us the consumers any confidence in their credibility to fix the problem EVER
It is now 2016 and we continue to pay exorbitant rates for a service which has not improved in 6 years. I think we should demand that if Taswater continue to claim that our water remains unacceptable for drinking we get a discounted rate as it is not treated and therefore should only incur a pumping fee.