The shire council’s chief executive Ben Milligan said the specialist analysed the cause of the dirty water water and has written a report of his findings

“Is there some issues around the plant, is it around people not understanding how to deal with some of these things, is it an honest mistake? What is it?” Mr Milligan said. That’s what the report would determine. 

Mr Milligan said complaints of dirty water in residents’ water happened after a large amount of water went into Chinaman Creek Dam following storms. 

“So what that does is introduce a variation of the water quality and unfortunately we had some of that water go through the system and particularly two elements there, iron and manganese, which ended up discolouring the water,” Mr Milligan said. 

He said that council workers check the quality of the town’s water supply on a daily basis, and then make tweaks if necessary to remove minerals to meet standards. 

But on this occasion, as has happened previously, the water reached residents. 

The minerals built up in the dead ends of the town’s water system, where it could not continue to flow.

So council workers flushed the mains in town to try and fix the problem. 

“They use fire hydrants basically to flush them out and keep flushing until it comes out, and they see clear water coming through,” Mr Milligan said. 

The council workers have also checked six test points across the town’s network to examine the water was safe to drink and bath in. 

“(I’m) very pleased to say they all come up okay,” Mr Milligan said.

“There was no risk to health, it was just the water was discoloured.”