Mullumbimby’s drinking water will be sourced from the Rous County Council mains supply, rather than the Lavertys Gap weir for at least the next year, possibly much longer, owing to concerns about Mullum’s ageing water treatment plant.
As Byron Shire Council continues to work on developing a long-term water supply strategy for Mullum, Council’s Water & Sewer Advisory Committee voted last month to extend a planned temporary shutdown of the Mullumbimby Water Treatment Plant (WTP) until work on this strategy is completed.
The planned shutdown, which was due to works on the Lavertys Gap weir, will now continue until at least October next year, and may extend considerably further.
The Rous supply, from which the rest of the Shire gets its water, comes primarily from the surface water catchments of Rocky Creek Dam, Emigrant Creek Dam, and the Wilsons River.
These sources feed into the Nightcap and Emigrant Creek Water Treatment Plants, providing water to the Ballina, Byron, Lismore, and Richmond Valley shires.
Planned temporary shutdown
The decision to significantly extend the planned temporary shutdown of the local Lavertys Gap supply stems from concerns about the treatment of this water at the ageing Mullumbimby WTP.
A recent examination and report into the Mullum WTP found that it had failed to consistently provide the town with water of compliant quality and that this represented a ‘risk to public health’.
The report found that the water coming from the plant failed to consistently meet decontamination standards (known as ‘Log Removal Values’) as required by NSW Health and the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
Failing to consistently meet required turbidity
The plant was also failing to consistently meet required turbidity levels as set out in Council’s Drinking Water Management Strategy.
‘Until such issues are addressed, the WTP cannot be considered compliant with current microbial safety standards and there remains a risk to public health during periods of poor filter performance,’ the authors of the report said.
Both they and Council staff recommended that supply be switched to the emergency Rous connection when planned works on the WTP are undertaken later this month. This recommendation has now been adopted by Council’s Water & Sewer Advisory Committee.
At its meeting on August 21, the committee noted that staff will undertake an ‘extended temporary shutdown’ of the facility and confirm this with both Rous Council and NSW Health.
With the authors of the external report and Council staff both stating that significant, costly upgrading work on the WTP is required before it can be relied upon to produce high-quality drinking water it is possible that it will remain out of commission for an extended period and perhaps even indefinitely.
Further investigation
Meanwhile, staff have indicated that undertaking a further investigation into the future Mullum’s water supply will cost around $580,000.
This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Council has previously spent on examining this question.
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