South Burnett councillor Barry Green floated the idea of draining Gordonbrook Dam to clean up Kingaroy’s water supply at today’s monthly Council meeting.
Cr Green, who chairs the Water & Wastewater portfolio, told fellow councillors a recent scare over trihalomethane (THM) and bromide levels in Kingaroy’s water supply had been solved.
“At present 100 per cent of the water supplying Kingaroy is coming from Boondooma Dam,” he said.
Cr Green said Council officers had taken this step to allow them time to reduce the levels of THMs in the Gordonbrook water supply while minimising any risks to public health.
He noted that because water from Boondooma Dam was clearer, had lower salt and blue-green algae levels, the amount of chlorine the Kingaroy water treatment plant was using had dropped from 20 litres per hour to around nine litres per hour.
This produced enough savings to offset most of the extra cost of the Boondooma Dam water.
Cr Green said the difference in Kingaroy’s water quality was so noticeable he had received compliments from several people about it recently.
“Frankly, Kingaroy’s water has never been better,” he said.
Looking further ahead, he said Council staff were considering blending water from the two sources in future as one possible solution to the town’s ongoing water quality issues.
Another option would be to source all the town’s water from Boondooma Dam, though this would require increasing Council’s current allocation.
And a third option would be to drain Gordonbrook Dam completely and let it refill with fresh water.
Cr Green said because fresh water floated above salty water and Gordonbrook’s water was getting saline, most of the fresh water that fell into the dam during heavy rains “just flowed over the spillway”.
But if Council could drain the dam before a heavy wet weather period then it could be refilled with fresh water.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said he thought draining Gordonbrook Dam would be a remote possibility at the present time.
“Anything like that would require extensive consultation,” he said.
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[UPDATED with correction February 19, 2014]
