00:00 The Yass River catchment appeared tranquil today, but it contained troubled waters.
00:07 I think it's pretty ordinary that we can't have a decent rig of water in a town like
00:13 this.
00:14 Everybody acknowledges that the water quality around here is not that great.
00:17 Recent heavy rainfall was too much for the local treatment plant to handle.
00:22 It's basically shut down from delivering water to our distribution system, while we try and
00:29 manage the water within the plant and treat it.
00:33 The message went out on Facebook late last night.
00:36 People in Yass, Murrumbateman, Bowning and Binalong were warned not to use their tap
00:40 water.
00:41 Today the pool was closed and residents were using boiled or bottled water.
00:46 It's not great news for cafes and pubs.
00:49 We've been trying to keep a rolling pot of water on all morning, but it's quite a task.
00:56 It added a lot of extra work and costs.
01:00 We've had to change out all the table water and flush out our ice machine as well.
01:06 We've had to sanitise that and sanitise all the things that contained the water beforehand.
01:12 The Yass Valley Council says the heart of the problem is its ageing water treatment
01:16 plant that was last upgraded in the 90s.
01:19 There's bits of the infrastructure that probably was built when the Romans were around.
01:23 The overall plant is over 50 years old.
01:26 The Council has secured state funding for upgrades but needs federal funding too.
01:31 It missed out on assistance through the National Water Grid Fund recently, but is ready to
01:35 apply again.
01:37 The suggestion has been made that the next round could be open as early as July.
01:42 It's likely residents here will have to keep boiling their water for at least the next
01:46 few days, with the Council hoping to provide an update in the next 24 hours.
01:51 It says the worst case scenario is the problem won't be fixed for 10 days.
01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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