Experts partner with Richmond Valley Council

“We’re delighted to have our team on the ground working alongside Richmond Valley Council on opportunities to enhance the management of source water quality in the region,” WaterNSW Executive Manager Strategy and Performance, Fiona Smith, said.

“On day one our experts will be familiarising themselves with Council’s water treatment plant and source water its intake at Jabour Weir to better understand current operations, source water management practices and controls.

“On day two Council staff will travel to Toonumbar Dam west of Kyogle for inspections and discussions with our dam operators to better understand the dam’s impacts on the downstream river system.

“One of the big lessons from the most recent drought is the water sector must collaborate more closely to build expertise and provide better access to niche skills,” Fiona said.

“Some of those niche but critically important functions include catchment management and better ways to monitor and reduce risks at the source of water used in local town water supplies.

“WaterNSW is a national leader in the water sector, operating most of the large dams in NSW and protecting the health of the drinking water catchment that supplies the more than 5 million people of Greater Sydney.

“This is why our experts are well placed to help identify risks and fast track improvements to source water quality under the NSW Government’s Town Water Risk Reduction Program (TWRRP) which is an initiative of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).”

Source water quality is a critical part of the multi-barrier approach to address risks to water quality throughout the whole of the water supply chain, from the raw water source in the catchment, water storages and transfer systems through to treatment plants and delivery systems to customers’ taps.

“The multi-barrier approach recognises that while each individual barrier may not be able to completely remove or prevent contamination all of the time, they collectively provide greater assurance that the water supply will be safe,” Fiona said.

Collaboration at heart of TWRRP

The TWRRP brings the strengths of major entities in the water sector, like WaterNSW, to local councils, to provide extra support to help improve water security, quality and reliability by enabling them to tap into the skills and knowledge that will best assist them.

“Collaboration is at the heart of the Town Water Risk Reduction Program. We are working hand-in-hand with local water utilities to develop solutions that will help local communities lock-in a safer, more secure and sustainable water supply,” DCCEEW Director of Local Water Utilities, Jane Shepherd, said.

“Tapping into the expertise of WaterNSW is a great example of how we are doing this. As managers of some of the biggest dams in the state, they understand the challenges of drought, flooding and water quality better than anyone else.

“This is why we have brought them onboard to provide extra support at the grassroots level to improve the way we’re monitoring water source quality to give local water utilities more time to adjust their treatment processes when conditions change.”

WaterNSW has received NSW Government funding under the TWRRP to work with LWUs on dam safety risk assessments and to help improve the monitoring of source water quality. Under the program, DCCEEW provides ongoing support and expertise, free of charge to LWUs, to improve water treatment including providing training to water operators and funding to LWUs to carry out upgrades to plants.