Residents in Yass, north of Canberra have been warned not to drink their tap water after recent heavy rain forced the town's treatment plant to temporarily to shut down. The problem is also affecting households and businesses in Murrumbateman, Bowning and Binalong and has prompted renewed calls for upgrades to the region's water infrastructure.
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TVTranscript
00:00 The Yass River catchment appeared tranquil today, but it contained troubled waters.
00:07 I think it's pretty ordinary that we can't have a decent rig of water in a town like
00:13 this.
00:14 Everybody acknowledges that the water quality around here is not that great.
00:17 Recent heavy rainfall was too much for the local treatment plant to handle.
00:22 It's basically shut down from delivering water to our distribution system, while we try and
00:29 manage the water within the plant and treat it.
00:33 The message went out on Facebook late last night.
00:36 People in Yass, Murrumbateman, Bowning and Binalong were warned not to use their tap
00:40 water.
00:41 Today the pool was closed and residents were using boiled or bottled water.
00:46 It's not great news for cafes and pubs.
00:49 We've been trying to keep a rolling pot of water on all morning, but it's quite a task.
00:56 It added a lot of extra work and costs.
01:00 We've had to change out all the table water and flush out our ice machine as well.
01:06 We've had to sanitise that and sanitise all the things that contained the water beforehand.
01:12 The Yass Valley Council says the heart of the problem is its ageing water treatment
01:16 plant that was last upgraded in the 90s.
01:19 There's bits of the infrastructure that probably was built when the Romans were around.
01:23 The overall plant is over 50 years old.
01:26 The Council has secured state funding for upgrades but needs federal funding too.
01:31 It missed out on assistance through the National Water Grid Fund recently, but is ready to
01:35 apply again.
01:37 The suggestion has been made that the next round could be open as early as July.
01:42 It's likely residents here will have to keep boiling their water for at least the next
01:46 few days, with the Council hoping to provide an update in the next 24 hours.
01:51 It says the worst case scenario is the problem won't be fixed for 10 days.
01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]