Rainfall and flooding in the region

MONDAY 8 JANUARY - SUNDAY 14 JANUARY

Key messages

  • Water supply remains safe to drink across the Goulburn Valley Water service region.
  • We've got water quality experts monitoring and adapting our treatment processes in response to poor raw water quality in the Goulburn River. to ensure water is always safe to drink.
  • All treatment plants (water and sewerage) are operating normally, with the exception of Nagambie.

► Update - Sunday 12 January 2.30pm

Nagambie
Operators ran the water treatment plant overnight Saturday and continued running water tankers to the plant over the weekend to increase treated water storages.

As a result, the storage levels of drinking water have increased and we can now treat water at the plant to maintain supply to customers.

Water tankers will stop running at 5pm Sunday.

We have also lifted the conserve water request. Customers can now return to normal water use, in the the home and outdoors, following Permanant Water Saving Rules that are always in place - for more information Water Restrictions | Goulburn Valley Water (gvwater.vic.gov.au)

Thanks to Nagambie customers for their ongoing help and support. We appreciate their efforts minimising water use where possible when we asked.

Shepparton
The flood peak has now passed, with no impact on assets or disruption to services. Our focus continues to be on water treatment.

We’ll closely monitor the raw water quality in the Goulburn River over coming days and adapt treatment processes if needed.

Seymour, Yea and Alexandra
The raw water quality has improved slightly and the treatment plants are now running as normal.

We'll continue to keep a close eye on things over the coming week.

We also want to thank customers at Alexandra, Eildon and Thornton for their ongoing help and support conserving water.

This will be the last update on this webpage at this stage.

If you need more information or advice, or have any issues with your water or sewer services, please call us 24/7 on 1800 454 500.

► Update - Friday 12 January 4.30pm

Shepparton/Mooroopna
With the floodwater expected to peak in Shepparton overnight, we’re keeping a close eye on water quality in the Goulburn River – we have operators on site 24/7 who are continually testing and monitoring to adapt the treatment process as the water quality changes. We’re still not anticipating any impacts on our assets with the current flood peak prediction.

Nagambie
A conserve water request remains in place to help reduce demand while the water treatment plant is operating at reduced capacity due to impacts from poor raw water quality after the floods.

A full update from this morning is posted below – the situation remains the same.

Yea, Alexandra, Eildon, Thornton, Murchison
All treatment plants are operating as normal, we’ll continue to monitor over the next couple of days.

Seymour
Despite ongoing poor raw water quality, the treatment plant is continuing to hold up well. We’ll continue to monitor closely.

Further updates
Our next main update will be about 11am tomorrow (Saturday).  

If you have an issue with your water or sewer service, please contact our 24/7 Customer Service Centre on 1800 454 500.

► NAGAMBIE update - Friday 12 January 11.30am

Water in Nagambie remains safe to drink.

Raw water from the Goulburn River is still very poor quality from the floodwaters and remains challenging to treat, meaning the Nagambie Water Treatment Plant is running at a lower capacity than usual. To ensure we can continue to meet water demand, we’re tankering fully treated water from Seymor to supplement the supply. Treated water storage reserves are also lower than usual.

Tankers will be seen entering the treatment plant area today and they will commence 24-hour operation from tomorrow morning through the weekend. 

We’re asking Nagambie customers to consider their water use and conserve water where possible to ensure we can continue to meet demand. We expect this may be in place for at least the next 24-48 hours – we’ll let you know as soon as possible when you can resume normal water use.

We’ll continually reassess the situation throughout the day and update customers regularly.

Thanks for your help – for more information or advice, please call us 24/7 on 1800 454 500.

We’ll post another update on this page by 5pm today (at the latest).

Conserve water helpful information:

  • Please continue to use water for essential needs: drinking, cooking, bathing, cleaning and running evaporative air conditioners.
  • Please consider your water use: if you need to run your dishwasher or washing machine, make sure it’s a full load and is on eco mode.
  • Outdoors, please hold off watering lawns with sprinklers (watering small pot plants with a watering can is fine). Delay other high-volume water uses like washing your car.

► NAGAMBIE update - Thursday 11 January 7pm

Please conserve water to help us manage demand while the treatment plant is impacted by floodwaters.

Treated water supplied by Goulburn Valley Water in Nagambie is safe to drink.

However, due to impacts from the heavy rain and flooding, the raw water quality in the Goulburn River is poor and challenging to treat to ensure it’s safe to drink.

To ensure there is enough water for critical users in the region, we’re asking everyone to conserve water where possible to help reduce demand and allow us time to ‘catch up’ in treating enough water to maintain supply and replenish storages. 

We expect the Goulburn River water quality continue to improve over the next couple of days. In the meantime, water tankers have been organised to deliver treated water from Seymour commencing at 7:00am tomorrow.

Please continue essential water use indoors – i.e. cooking, drinking, bathing, cleaning, running evaporative air conditioners. Where possible, limit watering lawns and large gardens outdoors (small pot plants are okay), cleaning cars, and other high-volume water use. Consider delaying using your dishwasher or washing machine, and take quick showers.

We appreciate your help and will keep you updated via text messages and our website.  We will let you know when you can return to normal water use.

For further advice or information contact 1800 454 500.

 

► Update - Thursday 11 January 12.30pm

The Incident Management Team continues to assess the impact of the floodwater as it moves downstream along the Goulburn River. As the flood peak begins to recede, our focus is moving towards managing water quality impacts.

In some areas, we’re seeing unprecedented high levels of sedimentation and discolouration in the raw water supply, so we’re constantly monitoring and adapting the treatment process.

Our operators and water quality specialists are working around the clock to prepare and protect our infrastructure, and ensure services are running smoothly.

Yea, Alexandra, Eildon, Thornton
Operations at the Yea and Alexandra water treatment plants have essentially returned to normal. We’re continuing to see improvements in the water quality as fresh water makes its way downstream in the Goulburn River with ongoing releases from Lake Eildon. We’ll monitor water quality over the next couple of days.

Seymour
We’re still seeing poor water quality in the raw water at the Goulburn at Seymour. Operators are still working around the clock at the water treatment plant to adapt the treatment process to balance the poor raw water – we’re still seeing unusually high levels of colour and organics. However, the plant continued to operate well overnight and we have high levels of treated water stored ahead of the warmer weather over the next couple of days.

Nagambie
We’re very closely monitoring the persisting poor raw water quality at the Nagambie Water Treatment Plant. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of discolouration in the ‘slug’ of water currently coming through (which is localised to Nagambie) and water quality specialists will remain on site all day today preparing the treatment plant to manage the increased treatment requirements. Our treated water storages are holding steady at full capacity and we are continuing to tweak the treatment process. Poor raw water quality in Lake Nagambie (source location) is expected to remain for another two weeks, and we’re planning ahead to manage this at the Nagambie plant.

Murchison
Murchison is operating normally. We’ll keep a close eye on water quality as flood waters recede.

Shepparton, Mooroopna
We’re closely monitoring water quality in the Goulburn at the Shepparton treatment plant as the flood peak approaches – we’re testing every half an hour. The situation remains mostly the same as yesterday and we have prepared our sites as much as possible.

Staff remain onsite at the plant 24/7 to monitor and adapt the treatment process as raw water quality continues to decrease.

With the peak revised down to a minor flood level at 10.4m, we’re not expecting any impact on our sewer assets in Shepparton or Mooroopna at this time. We will continue to keep a close eye on the situation.

Wastewater Management Facility releases
We’re currently releasing fully treated wastewater from Goulburn Valley Water's (GVW) Seymour, Kilmore, Broadford, Nagambie, and Mansfield wastewater management facilities. Storage lagoons at these sites have reached capacity as a result of heavy rainfall and flooding in the region.

Further updates
We’ll add further information as the flood peak reaches additional towns in our service area.

Our next main update will be about 11am tomorrow.

If you have an issue with your water or sewer service, please contact our 24/7 Customer Service Centre on 1800 454 500.

► Update - Thursday 11 January 8.30am

Customers in Alexandra, Eildon and Thornton can resume normal water use - thanks for your efforts to conserve water over the past two days. We're continuing to see improvement in the raw water supply from the Goulburn River, and overnight the water treatment plant has been able to 'catch up' a little while water use was decreased. Treated water storages are now high in preparation for the warmer weather and expected high demand over the next couple of days. We'll monitor raw water quality as it continues to improve over the next couple of days.

► Update - Wednesday 10 January 5.30pm

The Incident Management Team continues to assess the impact of the floodwater as it moves downstream along the Goulburn River. As the flood peak begins to recede, our focus is moving towards managing water quality impacts.

In some areas, we’re seeing unprecedented high levels of discolouration (suspended sediments) and debris in the raw water supply, so we’re constantly monitoring and adapting the treatment process.

Our operators and water quality specialists are working around the clock to prepare and protect our infrastructure, and ensure services are running smoothly.

Yea
Raw water quality from the Yea River remains poor so we’re continually monitoring and adapting our treatment processes to ensure water is safe to drink.

Alexandra, Eildon, Thornton
We’re still asking customers to reduce non-essential water use to help reduce the demand on the Alexandra Water Treatment Plant. A full update is in the previous update from this morning.

A fresh flow of water is coming through and in the next day or so will improve raw water quality. We’ll reassess the situation first thing tomorrow morning, including the request to conserve water. In the meantime, please continue to use water for indoor/essential needs only.

Seymour
Raw water quality from the Goulburn River at Seymour is poor, so we’re continually monitoring and adapting our treatment processes to ensure water is safe to drink. We’ve changed our dosing systems to manage the poor raw water quality and we’ll keep a close eye on it.

Nagambie
We’re very closely monitoring the raw water quality (very poor) at the Nagambie Water Treatment Plant. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of discolouration in the ‘slug’ of water currently coming through (which is localised to Nagambie) so we’ve had water quality specialists on site all day preparing the treatment plant to manage the increased treatment requirements. Our treated water storages are holding steady at full capacity and we are planning to change our dosing systems tomorrow to further improve treatment..

Murchison
With the flood peaking at Murchison today, we’re continuing to monitor water quality. There have been no impacts on the sewer system.

Shepparton, Mooroopna
We have water quality specialists manning the site 24/7, with extra shifts added to ensure we can manage changes to the raw water quality in the Goulburn River as they occur.

We’re frequently testing and analysing the water and it’s currently at normal levels, although we are starting to see an increase in poor raw water quality coming through in the Goulburn River. Our plant is well placed to cope with any changes as the quality decreases.

Sandbags are in place around critical infrastructure, and we’ll continue to monitor as the flood peak approaches. We have operators on standby to sandbag assets that may be impacted by rising waters in low-lying areas at Shepparton (Tom Collins Drive) and at Mooroopna (Lenne St area) if needed.

As floodwater rises, some customers may notice their sewer running ‘slow’ or toilets and pipes gurgling – this is a result of floodwaters entering the sewer system. Services will return to normal in time.

Wastewater Management Facility releases
We’re currently releasing fully treated wastewater from Goulburn Valley Water's (GVW) Seymour, Kilmore, Broadford, Nagambie, and Mansfield wastewater management facilities. Storage lagoons at these sites have reached capacity as a result of heavy rainfall and flooding in the region.

► Read the full media release here.

Further updates
We’ll add further information as the flood peak reaches additional towns in our service area.

Our next update will be after 12noon tomorrow.

If you have an issue with your water or sewer service, please contact our 24/7 Customer Service Centre on 1800 454 500.

To stay up-to-date with the latest warnings, head to the Bureau of Meteorology website: http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/warnings/

Emergency alerts and warnings will be issued by VicEmergency. Stay up-to-date at their website: emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

► Update - Wednesday 10 January 11.30am

Alexandra, Eildon and Thornton customers - Please continue to conserve water to help us manage demand while the treatment plant is impacted by floodwaters.

Treated water supplied by Goulburn Valley Water in Alexandra, Eildon and Thorton is safe to drink.

However, due to impacts from the heavy rain and flooding, the raw water quality in the Goulburn River is poor and challenging to treat to ensure it’s safe to drink. As a result, the treatment plant is running slower than its usual capacity – at about 50% of its usual volume.

To ensure there is enough water for critical users in the region, we’re asking everyone to conserve water where possible to help reduce demand and allow us time to ‘catch up’ in treating enough water to maintain supply and to store. Thanks to everyone who has already reduced their usage – this is helping and we appreciate it.

We expect the Goulburn River water quality continue to improve over the next couple of days – we’ll provide further updates via SMS and on our website to let people know when they can return to normal water usage.

Please continue essential water use indoors – i.e. cooking, drinking, bathing, cleaning, running evaporative air conditioners.

Where possible, please limit watering lawns and large gardens outdoors (small pot plants are okay), cleaning cars, and other high-volume water use. Consider delaying using your dishwasher or washing machine, and take quick showers.

► Update - Tuesday 9 January 1pm

Treated water remains safe to drink in all towns across Goulburn Valley Water’s service area.

Our teams are monitoring the raw water quality 24 hours a day, and where needed we’re adapting treatment processes to enable us to continue to supply safe drinking water.

Our incident team is working hard to protect our water supply and sewerage sites and networks - we’ve sandbagged critical assets and will continue monitoring water quality.

We are keeping a close eye on things as the flood peak approaches Nagambie, Murchison, Mooroopna and Shepparton.

You can find more information about flooding at:

Emergency Vic for the latest emergency warnings and updates

VicRoads - VicTraffic for road closures

Need our help? You can contact us 24 hours a day on 1800 454 500.

► Update - Monday 8 January 6pm

We are closely monitoring our water and wastewater treatment plants and networks following heavy rainfall across the region.

Flooding is impacting the south of the catchment with people in Seymour and Yea advised to move to a safe location as river levels have peaked or continue to rise.

We have an incident team activated that will keep monitoring our services over coming days. You may notice staff out and about checking treatment plants and pump stations where it is safe to do so.

We are putting emergency response plans in place to minimise any risks to our assets so we can keep supplying water and wastewater services, which remain unaffected at this stage.

Where there is flooding or floodwater, people may notice manholes bubbling or gurgling in the street. The water is mostly floodwater but we advise people to avoid the immediate area as a precaution.

If you see a sewer manhole spilling, please let us know by reporting it through our form report-a-problem

People may also notice your toilets and drains aren’t running as normal, or draining slowly – this is a result of the high volume of water/floodwaters in the system. The system will return to normal in time.

If you have a critical blockage or immediate emergency, please contact us on 1800 454 500.

We will provide daily updates on this webpage and social media. We will SMS to customers if there are any interruptions or service issues, for those who have a mobile number registered with us.

You can find more information about the rainfall and flooding at:

Emergency Vic for the latest emergency warnings and updates

VicRoads - VicTraffic for road closures

Need help? You can contact us 24 hours a day on 1800 454 500.