12 January 2024
Customers in Nagambie are being asked to conserve water while poor raw water quality continues to impact the Nagambie Water Treatment Plant after the floods. Water supplied to Nagambie customers by Goulburn Valley Water remains safe to drink.
Continuing very poor raw water quality is creating treatment challenges to ensure it’s safe to drink. Operators and water quality specialists have been working around the clock to adapt the treatment processes, but the treatment plant is currently running at a lower capacity than usual as a result of the poor raw water quality.
To ensure we can continue to meet water demand, we’re tankering fully treated water from Seymour into our treated water storages at Nagambie to supplement the supply to customers. Treated water storage reserves are also lower than usual.
Goulburn Valley Water Incident Controller Dan Flanagan said the raw water quality in the Goulburn River at Nagambie was showing unprecedented levels of sedimentation and organic material.
“We’re currently seeing levels of cloudiness, or dirtiness, and colour at least 10 times higher than we normally would in our raw water supply, as a result of the floods,” he said.
“Customers can play a role by conserving water, which will help ensure we can continue to meet water demand for essential needs, and we thank everyone for their help in reducing water use already.”
Tankers will be seen entering the treatment plant area today and they will commence 24-hour operation from tomorrow morning through the weekend.
We expect the conserve water request to be in place for at least the next 24-48 hours and we’ll let customers know as soon as possible when they can resume normal water use.
Customers can continue to use water for essential needs like drinking, cooking, bathing, cleaning and running evaporative air conditioners, but are asked to delay outdoor high volume uses like watering the garden or washing vehicles.
We will continually assess the situation and provide updates.
Image: In the far left beaker is poor raw water coming in to the plant, and on the far right is the fully treated water leaving the treatment plant.