Forbes residents planning trips to Wyangala are being advised to take their own water or boil tap water, with an alert issued warning against drinking water from the taps in the area.
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The Boiled Water Alert was issued after routine monitoring of the Wyangala village water supply system revealed that recent tests had not met the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
Cowra Shire Council Director of Infrastructure and Operations, George Ridley, said the alert was the logical step.
“We had a meeting with NSW Department of Health when recent tests relieved we have high turbidity, which is the cloudiness of water,” he said.
“Based on their advice we thought it would be appropriate to put a boiled water notice out until further notice.
“I will be giving a more detailed report to Council on September 25 with various options available to us and we’ve done a letter drop and a flyer drop off.
“Turbidity does happen from time to time but it’s one of the things you wouldn’t worry about to much. It really only comes up as an issue when the health department comes to us, they did and the logical thing for us was to put out a boiled water notice out,” he said.
Mr Ridley said the small village’s water quality was a victim of circumstance.
“One of our problems at Wyangala is that we have a very low flow and that doesn’t help when we have turbidity,” he said.
“The reticulation, what we call dead end lines, makes it hard to flush them and makes it (turbidity) worse when we don’t have a lot of consumption or flow.
“Because we have an oldish plant there in need upgrading, is why the turbidity could take a little while to fix, there is an option that the supply could be classified as non-potable meaning you would have to boil it anyway.
”I have had some constructive feedback from the community about it and have been given the impression they use tank water or other sources apart from the tap water,” he said,
Mr Ridley said visitors to Wyangala village using tap water should bring it to a rolling boil prior to consumption, the water should then be allowed to cool and stored in a clean container with a lid and refrigerated.
Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, cooking, washing raw foods (such as seafood or salads), making ice, pet’s drinking water and cleaning teeth.
