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Speaker 1: Now, if you live in Catherine, you may be aware

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Speaker 1: or you may not be aware. But Power and Water

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Speaker 1: has developed an emergency management plan in the event that

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Speaker 1: Catherine River has a sudden inflow of runoff water that

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Speaker 1: could impact the quality and the ability for it to

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Speaker 1: be adequately treated to the required drinking water standards. So

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Speaker 1: what does this all mean? Well, Power and Water's senior

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Speaker 1: manager of Service Delivery Water Services, Eric Boyle, joins me

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Speaker 1: on the line right now.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Eric, Good morning Katie. How are you not

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Speaker 2: too bad?

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Speaker 1: Eric?

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Speaker 2: What's the situation with the water supply in Catherine.

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Speaker 3: So, just as you've explained, we're anticipating that we'll have

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Speaker 3: a frost flush event with the initial rains that we're beginning.

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Speaker 3: We've got a little bit of rain yesterday, but not

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Speaker 3: enough to causes any consound But if we do get

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Speaker 3: a significant rain, we'll get a first flush. We call

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Speaker 3: it of dirty water down the river, which the Catherine

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Speaker 3: residents are probably quite familiar with. Unfortunately, if we don't

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Speaker 3: get follow up rain, that water causes that first flush,

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Speaker 3: causes water to become contaminated and we're not able to

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Speaker 3: treat it with the surface water treatment plant that we

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Speaker 3: have there at the moment.

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Speaker 1: And so what does that mean. You've obviously got to

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Speaker 1: have a bit of a backup plan.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been. We've been flat out since early October

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Speaker 3: putting together several options. And during that process, one of

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Speaker 3: our operators and Catherine, came up with the fantastic idea

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Speaker 3: of utilizing some of the equipment that we've already purchased

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Speaker 3: for the new treatment plant that's been constructed in Catherine,

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Speaker 3: connecting it up temporarily and allowing us to use that

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Speaker 3: to treat sufficient water to maintain supply to the Catherine community.

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Speaker 2: Right, And so is this something that happens every year, Eric, The.

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Speaker 3: First flush happens every year, but it's not been it's

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Speaker 3: been a number of years since we've had one that's

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Speaker 3: caused as concerns. And as you may be aware, the

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Speaker 3: the if the event had happened in the past, we

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Speaker 3: would bring a bores on and therefore nobody would under

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Speaker 3: nobody would appreciate that there was an issue. We continue

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Speaker 3: on with supply, but because the aquifer has been contaminated

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Speaker 3: with pfas and we've not been able to use that

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Speaker 3: water supply to its.

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Speaker 1: Full extent, right, So it means that you've obviously got

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Speaker 1: got that other concern with the boor so not able

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Speaker 1: to use that as you back up, And so is

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Speaker 1: it quite a difficult process what you know potentially could

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Speaker 1: have to go through.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to say it's extremely difficult. But we've got

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Speaker 3: some fantastic people on board. They've been working really hard

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Speaker 3: over the last three to four weeks to make this

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Speaker 3: solution come to light, and it's all in place now,

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Speaker 3: it's been tested and we've now got a reliable source

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Speaker 3: or a reliable tenant source should this event happen in

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Speaker 3: the next couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, is it ever a situation where you

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Speaker 1: could potentially, you know, run out of water or not

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Speaker 1: be able to utilize water. Have you ever been in

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Speaker 1: that city situation before? And is there a backup for

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Speaker 1: your backup if required?

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Speaker 3: We've got a backup for our backup. We've got packaged

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Speaker 3: water sitting in Catherine now, which we would normally do

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Speaker 3: at this time of year. Anyway, we've got other areas

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Speaker 3: where we may need packaged water, so we went ahead

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Speaker 3: and we purchased some of that. We've got that in

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Speaker 3: storage and a compound in Victoria Highway, So that's the

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Speaker 3: backup to the backup. But we're comfortable that the solution

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Speaker 3: that we've implemented now will be what will come on

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Speaker 3: train if there is an issue with the Catherine River.

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Speaker 2: And what's the long term solution is.

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Speaker 1: I think you mentioned before that there is going to

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Speaker 1: be a new water treatment facility built at some point.

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Speaker 3: That's correct. We've, as I said before, we've borrowed a

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Speaker 3: couple of the primary filters from the new plant, so

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Speaker 3: all that equipment's ready to go. We're just working through

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Speaker 3: the construction process, which will continue on into next year.

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Speaker 3: By that time, this temporary solution will no longer be

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Speaker 3: require and we can relocate that filtration equipment into the new.

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Speaker 1: Plant and Eric at the moment the water is safe

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Speaker 1: to drink, it's fine to drink at this point.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know it will continue to be safe to

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Speaker 3: drink as well. We've got significant sampling rasiume in place

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Speaker 3: which will implement for this new filtration system as well.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, at all times, we'll guarantee that we'll be

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Speaker 3: within this year and drinking water guidelines as far as

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Speaker 3: the water is concerned.

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Speaker 2: Well, we really appreciate you having a chat with us

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Speaker 2: this morning.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that plenty of residents of Catherine a place

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Speaker 1: to hear that there is not just one backup plan,

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Speaker 1: but two we've required, and that Power Water is well

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Speaker 1: and truly onto this.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, and thanks to the community. I know this

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Speaker 3: has been an unselling time for them. There's been a

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Speaker 3: lot of rumors going around and we hope that the

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Speaker 3: solution that we provided is going to put those concerns

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Speaker 3: at ease.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we really appreciate you having a chat with

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Speaker 1: us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Eric, Thank you, no problem, Thanks Katie, thank you.

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Speaker 1: That is Eric Boyle there. Here's Power and Water Corporation's well,

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Speaker 1: the senior manager of service delivery for water services, and

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Speaker 1: no doubt there have been some concerns in the community,

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Speaker 1: but they have got that back up now in place,

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Speaker 1: and then they have also got that additional contingency in

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Speaker 1: place should they require. There is water being stored as

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Speaker 1: part of the cyclone and storm season preparedness, but hopefully

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Speaker 1: they won't need to get to that point.