The highly unusual rainfall this year is wreaking havoc with local infrastructure. The latest impacts are affecting water supply and quality across the city, including in villages.
Lithgow’s water supply is drawn from two principal sources – Farmers Creek and Fish River. Both of these hold water in open reservoirs.
This week the rains have carried excessive sediments into the Farmers Creek reservoir. The downstream water treatment plant has been unable to remove these sediments from the water that it is receiving. Also, the sediments prevent drinking water standards being met because they consume water treatment chemicals.
Lithgow Council yesterday implemented “boil water” directions for all users of the water. This advises residents to boil water prior to use for drinking or food preparation until notified that this measure is no longer required.
The Council moved across quickly to WaterNSW’s Fish River scheme to supply treated water into the city’s water reservoirs. But, again, the weather intervened with one of the major pipes in a dual pipe supply scheme breaking. WaterNSW are using every effort to repair their pipe but this is proving challenging given the weather, saturated ground conditions and the difficult terrain in the locality of the break.
A team has been formed with representatives from Lithgow Council, and a range of NSW Government agencies to manage these issues. From this it has become very apparent that numerous towns across NSW are experiencing the same challenges.
The Council staff are working around the clock to resolve the issues and ensure there is water available in the system so residents are able to continue using the water under the boil water notice. Council also would ask residents to be mindful of their water usage during this time on low supply until such time as the system is refilled and the supply returns to normal.
Council continues to investigate all complaints and service requests put through from the community.
Upon return to normal service, residents may experience dirty water for a period. Council will endeavor to minimize this by flushing the mains. Before using the water for domestic purposes, residents are advised to run the first tap that services their property to ensure the water is clean and any dirt released into the system has been flushed before running internal taps and following the advice of the boil water alert and NSW Health advice.
