Workers kept our water running

WORKERS camped under torrential rain for days on end, pulling rotating 12-hour shifts to ensure the water supply was never at risk of running dry.

Cairns Regional Council has released an internal report on reticulated water issues that arose during downpours in late March that resulted in a blockage at the main intake at Crystal Cascades.

Water and waste general manager Graham O’Byrne said there were measures available – increased pumping or more stringent usage restrictions – which did not need to be implemented.

“When the reservoirs reached their lowest level, which was about 83 megalitres or about 34 per cent of storage capacity, our water production had actually ramped up to reach 100 per cent of the actual demand,” he said.

“In other words, at that point in time we were actually starting to fill our reservoirs.

“That was a bit over 36 hours after the rainfall event.”

Council CEO John Andrejic stressed: “At no point were we at danger of losing water.”

Water and waste committee chairman Cr Richie Bates argued the focus on water storage did not tell the full story.

“The reality is, the real concerns in the March event lay in our water treatment systems and these are operating close to their limits,” he said.

“Tunnel Hill has for some time not been operating its filtration plant at full capacity.

“One of the six ageing filters on site has been offline for more than a year, limiting our water production to 800-900 litres per second, just above the demand.

“When water production became more urgent after the intake blockage after ex-tropical cyclone Nora, council’s ability to keep up with demand was severely stressed — the threat of losing water to parts of the city was very real.”