Local news for local people
Letter - The state of Oberon's water
April 11, 2024
Vicki Walsh from the Laundry Pad made a short presentation to the April 10, 2024 meeting of the Oberon Business and Tourism Association and it's published here as a "Letter to the Editor"
I would just like to formally let OBTA members know that The Laundry Pad has closed its doors for business
After six years of being in business and four of them fighting council over dirty water problems I can no longer continue as it was costing me to keep tourists on beds to allow accommodation facilities to make money.
Now that I have closed my business I am here as a concerned community member as there is no going back to the laundry for me.
My concerns are the standard of our water for health reasons.
The Mayor was interviewed today by 2BS radio and has finally admitted there is a problem. Yes, the Mayor in his radio interview with 2BS today did state that 95 % of the time the water has tested within the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
I to date have sent off 4 samples and waiting on results from 1
more. All four (100%) DO NOT fall within the
Australian Drinking Water
Guidelines.
Someone recently said to me "If you test clean water you will get good results". You can take that statement how you like but I interpret that statement as only the clean samples are tested or recorded.
The next Council meeting is Tuesday evening 16th April 5.30pm
I have had a lot of community members post on Facebook and come to my premises to support me. This has been overwhelming but is too late to save what was and could be a thriving NEEDED business in our community.
As a community we need to rally for each other and our next generation and go to this meeting and in the public section ask the Mayor when is this going to be fixed as Council were given an independent report in December which included nine high priority recommendations one of which was to do the Pigging of the mains ASAP and then annually. In the mayor's interview today he said they will be done every three to five years.
Another recommendation which I feel the community needs to push for is for independent sampling to be done on our water supply.
You only have to Google the effects of manganese, especially on our children. I myself have three grandchildren in this community and the health of these babies is my priority.
I hope to see as many community members (so many they will wish they had of moved the meeting to the RSL) fill the Council Chambers as I stated not for the Laundry but for the health of our community.
Thank you for your time and hopefully support.
To show that this is not a new problem, the following article was submitted to the Oberon Review (but not published) in October 2022. The article was optimistic, but it seems that nothing has changed
Water quality in Oberon township has been a problem for some time. The Council has contracted Clearwater to flush out and clean the pipes distributing water around town and this process is continuing but water quality will remain a problem even if it always runs clear.
It's not just a problem of brown water coming out of the tap at home; many businesses rely on clear, pure water to keep doing what they are doing. The Laundry Pad can't do a good job of washing if the water stains the things being washed, and this has a flow-on effect on motels and other accommodation operators who need regular, daily laundry services.
"The dirty water has been going on for months and it's costing me money," said Vicki Walsh from The Laundry Pad.
The state of the Laundry Pad's filters after a
short period of use
"I'm the second largest water user in Oberon after the Borg factory and if I can't provide sparkling white linen to accommodation venues I risk losing long time customers to laundries in other towns. Every time I get told that the problem is fixed it isn't. Also, I have to close completely on days when the pipes in town are being flushed."
Even if the water is clear, contamination by unneeded chemicals is something that water users don't need. The laundry service doesn't need contaminants that reduce the effect of detergents and cafes and restaurants need clean water that doesn't affect the taste of coffee and food. Manufacturers who use water in their processes need clean water as well; boilers to create steam need as little residue as possible and chemical contamination of water can change the way other chemicals and materials react when water is used as an input to production.
As well as working to reduce visible water quality problems, Council has a program of daily monitoring of the quality of water coming out of the dam.
Water quality from the dam isn't constant, because there is continual mixing and changing in any large body of water. There are various layers of water in the dam and these rise, fall and mix with the seasons; large inflows into the dam from rainwater change the way the mixing happens, as well as bringing in possible contaminants from the ground that the rainwater runs across.
Winds can also affect the mixing by stirring the layers near the surface, and there has been a lot of strong wind lately. Constant overflowing also affects stratification, and the dam has been spilling constantly since November, 2021.
The extreme weather over the last few months has increased the levels of iron and manganese in the water coming from the dam, but these elements can be controlled with the right chemistry. As examples, dissolved iron compounds can cause staining of washing even if the water appears completely clear and can certainly affect the taste of the water. Levels of these elements have been gradually reduced over the last few weeks, as has turbidity caused by the greater than normal mixing of water in the dam.
So is Oberon's water safe to drink? Yes it is and it's getting better. The dreadful weather over the last few months didn't just break up the roads and turn pasture into swamp, it had severe and long-lasting effects on the water supply. There's nothing that can't be fixed, but it takes time. The Council would love a magic wand that could fix problems immediately but this is the real world, not a Harry Potter novel.
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