October 15, 2016
Residents connected to the Kingaroy water supply will be asked to conserve water next week to help get better water supplies in the future.
The South Burnett Regional Council said three new treatment process units have been placed at the Gordonbrook Water Treatment Plant site.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said the new Dissolved Air Flotation and Filtration (DAFF) units would lead to significantly improved water quality and reliability for Kingaroy for many years to come.
However, while the DAFF units will give residents better water quality and services in the long term, in the short term locals will need to conserve water to allow the upgrade to be completed.
Council’s Manager of Water and Wastewater, Nerida Airs, said the capacity of the current plant needed to be halved for a short period to allow the connection of some of the new systems, which would mean the Kingaroy water supply would be temporarily limited.
“We need residents and businesses to conserve water from October 19-26 to allow the first stage of the new plant to be connected,” Ms Airs said.
“While we have enough capacity to supply the demand even with the reduced flow, it will mean the plant will need to run 20 to 22 hours a day, and we will not have much room to move.
“We are asking residents and businesses to conserve water as much as possible and to limit any non-essential external water use during this time.”
Ms Airs said the Council had also talked to most major water users to see what water-saving measures could be implemented.
Further plant shut-downs will be required over coming months but next week’s work will be the first big test for the system and town supply under these conditions.
Officers will be monitoring the system and usage to ensure that supplies do not get to a critical level and the town does not run out of water.
“We have contingency measures in place for emergencies such as burst water mains or a fire, and residents can be assured that we will not run out of water,” Ms Airs said.
The new plant is expected to be completed by May 2016.
The facility will increase the capacity of the plant as well as quality of water for Kingaroy. There will be the capacity to service Nanango as well in the future if a connecting main is constructed.
