Water quality update - May 2012

The January 2011 floods caused considerable deterioration to water quality within Lake Bellfield, the main sources of supply for the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline when a massive amount of silt and other material washed into the lake.

Water quality has been slow to recover in Lake Bellfield, currently turbidity levels are 30 NTU and colour levels are approximately 100 HU, this compares with the Australian guidelines for drinking water of 5 NTU and 15 HU respectively. The Murray River varies throughout the year with turbidity between 10 and 100 NTU, depending on whether the river has flooded or the river flows include water released from dams.

We treated town storages at Donald, Rupanyup Wycheproof, Minyip, Beulah, Woomelang, Brim, Jung, Jeparit, Pimpinio, Watchem, Ultima, Marnoo, Glenorchy, Lalbert, Lascelles and Yaapeet with an organic product that binds together particles in the water, assisting them to settle to the bottom of the storage. This has significantly improved the water quality in these towns.

We remind residents in these towns that water from these town supplies is not suitable for drinking.

We thank our customers for their ongoing cooperation as we continue to respond to these exceptional water quality issues.

Murray River water quality - May 2012

The water quality in the Murray River is deteriorating due to the influx of water from the floods in North East Victoria and Southern New South Wales. Due to this turbidity levels in the Northern Mallee Pipeline system have risen considerably.

High turbidity levels have been recorded in all sections of the pipeline.

Most GWMWater customers serviced from the Murray receive unfiltered water directly from the River. Only Manangatang, Quambatook, Ouyen and Underbool have any form of
treatment.

The turbidity level recorded in Swan Hill on 1 May 2012 was 90 NTU, up from around 40 NTU on 1 February 2012.

To help counter the high turbidity levels changes have been made to the raw water filtration devices at the river offtakes which should help to improve the quality of water supplied to customers.  It is expected that customers should start to see improvements to the quality of their water by the middle of May 2012.

Water quality in the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline

We are undertaking actions to improve the quality of water being delivered to our pipeline customers.

Water quality issues arose for our customers after Halls Gap received more than 200 mm of rain in 24 hours. This heavy rain fell on an extensive catchment area that was virtually destroyed by the 2006 Mt Lubra bushfires, causing a large amount of ash and debris to be washed into Lake Bellfield, the major source of supply for the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline. 

Read about our 2011 flood response ...