Cloncurry Shire Council is working to rectify Dajarra's ongoing water issues, as power supply and water leaks continue to raise concern.
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As outlined in the Cloncurry Shire Council meeting on April 20, discrepancies between Dajarra's average daily household consumption (125kL) and meter reads at the tank reservoir (400kL) sparked an investigation into associated water loss.
Recent inspections of Dajarra's underground water mains on April 1, showed no pressure loss in the supply line and was determined that the water losses were occurring within the Dajarra town mains.
From April 6-9 a vacuum truck was used to expose potential areas of concern and results in three exposed water leaks which were repaired and approximately six illegal connections.
Following these works, the tank reservoir meter now indicates a significant reduction in the daily consumption of potable water from approximately 400kL per day, to 100kL per day. Tank reservoir meter reads also indicate average daily total potable water consumption to be 90kL.
Cloncurry Shire Council Mayor Greg Campbell said the recent inspections of Dajarra's water mains led to a series of repairs which reduced system losses by 300kL per day.
"The fact that staff have been able to identify and stop water disappearing and being wasted, it is great for the community and Council. Now the water that is pumping out of the bores and going through the treatment plant is actually staying in the system to be used by the residents," Cr Campbell said.
"As for the uranium that was detected in the water supply, my understanding is that there was one bore that had elivated levels of uranium but was still within the Queensland Health Guidelines. Now that the leaks have been fixed, the water treatment plant is the only treatment option that takes uranium out of the water, so there will be no issue with uranium in Dajarra's water while the treatment plant is operating as it should."
Cloncurry Shire Council is also working to rectify ongoing power and performance issues at Dajarra's Water Treatment Plant by automating the existing generator and installing a telemetry system.
Frequent power outages in Dajarra has led to the Reverse Osmosis Plant shutting down, therefore disrupting the supply of potable water to the tank reservoir. The generator at the water treatment plant is manually controlled therefore the generator will not start unless manually switched on by a Council operator.
Bores also supplying water to the mixing tank do not shut down when the tank is full, resulting in water waste and bore pump failures. Therefore Council are looking to install a telemetry system on four bores, tanks and pumps to ensure an automatic shutdown of bores if the mixing tank is full.
The maintenance and upgrade is expected to cost $250,000; with Council completing grant funding submissions to Queensland Recovery and Risk Reduction Fund and Queensland Recovery and Resilience Fund for the works.
"The Reverse Osmosis Plant installed over 12 months ago, will see the first time that Dajarra's water is actually good," Cr Campbell said.
"The telemetry system makes it all work so that we don't have to have a person on the ground every time the power fluctuates to reset things or to monitor the levels in the tanks, it can all get done automatically."
Cr Campbell said dealing with Dajarra's water issues had always been tough.
"It has been a great frustration for the last 12 months, where Council had made a decision to really improve Dajarra's water and it been a trail of errors since," he said.
"We have always only ever been told part of the story, which was the hardest option to deal with at that time. The staff we have at the moment are looking at the whole system and I am confident that Dajarra's water is going to be sorted and residents will have high quality water coming out of their taps, which was our aim from the start."
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Samantha Campbell
Samantha Campbell (nee Walton) has worked for regional and rural publications across New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. She is currently writing for the North Queensland Register based in North West Queensland. Email: samantha.campbell@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Samantha Campbell (nee Walton) has worked for regional and rural publications across New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. She is currently writing for the North Queensland Register based in North West Queensland. Email: samantha.campbell@austcommunitymedia.com.au
