‘Dirty’ water draws residents’ concerns

The council’s general manager Warwick Bennett told the Post that water leaving the treatment plant was clean.

A November departmental report put to the December 15 council meeting confirmed blue green algae results were “close to zero” in all raw water storages.

Taste and odour, however, were impacted by compounds called Geosmin and MID (Methyl- Isoborneol) detected in the water supply.

“These are naturally occurring compounds that have an earth taste and are generally present in drinking water at levels that are not noticeable. These compounds are not harmful,” the report stated.

Allegations of discoloured water circulated on Facebook last week.

“My bath water always looks dirty when I fill the bath ... it’s not a new thing,” wrote Eastgrove resident Deryn Hayter on the Goulburn Neighbourhood Watch page.

“[It’s] been like it for about two years ... When I go and visit family for a few days in Sydney, I immediately can taste the difference in the water and even my skin feels better when not using Goulburn water for a few days.”

Resident Paul Agius, concerned about possible health risks associated with “dirty” water, told the Post he first noticed a decline in water quality some months ago.

“My wife and I, we filter our water and a filter is supposed to last us about three months. The last filter we bought only lasted a month because the water was so dirty,” Mr Agius said.

Last week, “I got really angry because I turned the tap here at work [on Combermere St] and it was brown, brown like tea, and that’s ridiculous. We need to sort this out.”

Mr Bennett said reports were dealt with on a case-by-case basis by flushing the lines.

“We are currently releasing water from Sooley Dam, this is drawn from Rossi Weir, and the water is tested daily as per normal practice,” Mr Bennett said in a written statement.

“We do not believe it is severely discoloured, we have had six complaints in the last three weeks, which have been dealt with.”

He urged the Goulburn Post to be “positive,” because of the 10,500 water connections in Goulburn, the council receives two waterrelated complaints each week.

“We question why people are ringing the Goulburn Post and not Council for discoloured water unless you are making more out of this story [than] it actually is,” Mr Bennett said.

“It is time for the Goulburn Post in 2016 to be positive as per letter to the editor in [January 6] Wednesday’s paper...

“The reason why we get issues of discoloured water vary considerably; the main reason is due to regular maintenance work that we undertake in all parts of the city, that cause some infrequent discolouring.

“If a resident does experience discoloured water, contact the council immediately and the problem will be addressed.”