Consumers on the Albury and Allandale Water Supplies are advised to boil all water until further notice.
Water feeding the Albury and Allandale Water Supplies is drawn from a surface water source, namely the Opawa Stream and the South Opuha River respectively. These sources receive much of their water from rainfall draining over the ground surface and into the stream and river, collecting contamination from silts, dirt, debris, and animal waste along the way.
Even when the water is visually clean, it may include bugs (pathogens) that can make people sick. It is Council’s responsibility to protect consumers from becoming sick from pathogens in the water supply.
Council treats the water with chlorine which protects against some of these pathogens, but unfortunately some of them are too strong for the chlorine to be effective. These stronger pathogens remain able to make people sick, and additional treatment steps need to be provided to protect health.
Each treatment step is called a ‘treatment barrier’ and currently, the Albury and Allandale supplies do not have sufficient barriers to make the water safe.
Plans to provide additional barriers are in their infancy and will take time to develop. Consumers should expect that the need to boil water will remain in place for at least two years as Council explores feasible solutions with the community which would enable compliance with the current legislation.
The way the schemes operate has not changed. However, as you will know, the government has made significant changes to the legislation relating to the provision of water. Under these rules, operators of water schemes are required to issue boil water notices where treatment systems do not meet the current standards.
Council is therefore advising consumers on the Albury and Allandale Water Supplies to boil all water used for drinking, food preparation and brushing teeth until such time as additional treatment barriers are in place and the water is made safe.
More Information
More information about these schemes and this ongoing boil water notice is available from our website at mackenzie.govt.nz, follow the front page link to Water Alerts.
Print copies of this notice and the individual scheme notices can be picked up from the Council office in Fairlie.
Advice about how to safely boil water for use in the house is available from The Water Services Authority, Taumata Arowai - taumataarowai.govt.nz, follow the front page link to Boil Water Notice.
The website of the Water Services Authority, Taumata Arowai also has more information about the current regulations and what they mean - taumataarowai.govt.nz.