Water contamination in parts of Dubbo’s water supply is hurting local businesses, according to Dubbo Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Matt Wright.
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The community was alerted to the contamination on Monday when Dubbo Regional Council issued a boil water notice for parts of North, Central and South Dubbo.
It urged people to use boiled or bottled water for human and animal consumption and personal hygiene, after the council detected E. coli and other coliforms in parts of the water supply in North Dubbo on Thursday.
About 3300 properties, including hundreds of businesses, have been affected by the notice.
“I’ve seen a mix of a couple of things. The massive inconvenience is one, especially for businesses that have to provide water for customers and staff,” Mr Wright said.
“You go from that scale all the way to your food retailers who have massive issues whether it’s hygiene – washing hands and equipment – all the way through to handling raw food.”
A number of cafes have been closing their doors earlier in the day, Mr Wright said, foregoing the income that would have been generated.
“I know a lot of them have had to be doing a lot more preparation the night before...boiling water to have it ready for the next day.”
He said it meant additional costs for labour and electricity, as well as the cost of purchasing bottled water.
CSC, located in Dubbo’s central business district, has been giving customers free bottled water in lieu of tap water.
A licenced venue, CSC is legally required to provide free water for customers. It means they have two options: boil it or buy it.
They have also stopped using their ice machine, but moved to assure customers the coffee was safe.
“Every business, I would assume, has incurred some sort of additional cost,” Mr Wright said.
“Then we’ve got businesses like KFC who have opted to close altogether [during the alert], so I’d imagine they would be forgoing a bit of income through that.”
He said the idea of compensation has not been seriously raised with the Chamber at this stage.
Instead, businesses were just trying to get through the week, and hoping the contamination is addressed soon.
The boil water notice is set to remain in place until at least the end of the week while Dubbo Regional Council staff concentrate on identifying and isolating the contamination, and further sampling is undertaken.
“Staff have been following anti-contamination procedures since last Thursday when the first failed water sample was received, with low levels of e-coli detected,” council’s director technical services Stewart McLeod said.
“The standard procedure at that stage is to take further samples, begin flushing of lines and increase chlorine levels.
“After a second, low level read of e-coli came through over the weekend, the same actions were continued and an inspection of the reservoir took place.
“Further sampling was conducted on Sunday, and a teleconference was called with Public Health on Monday morning to call a Boil Water Notice as a precautionary measure while investigations continue.
“Although there have been improvements observed since testing began, two clear samples need to be returned from NSW Health before the all clear can be given.
“Obvious sources of contamination such as deliberate tampering have been ruled out so staff are conducting ongoing active investigations to isolate the source.
“These actions are being undertaken by Council staff who are also consulting regularly with NSW Public Health and the Chair of the DRC Drinking Water Quality Committee Clara Laydon, who was brought on board as an independent advisor and to assist with collating data for reporting purposes.
“I would like to reiterate that the processes that have been followed by Council during this period reflect the best practice of the industry and will continue to do so.”