Uralla Town Water Supply - Do Not Drink Alert

No longer on display. Expired on 27 April 2020, 12:00 PM

18 December 2019 – 12:00 noon

Uralla Town Water Supply - Do Not Drink

Problems with poor raw water quality mean that drinking town water in Uralla is currently unsafe.


Bottled water should be used for drinking, food preparation, making ice, cleaning teeth, and gargling. 

Council will be providing free bottled water that can be collected from FoodworksPursehouse Rural and Invergowrie Store.


Uralla town water is still safe to use for hand washing, showering, bathing, washing clothes, washing the dishes and in the garden.  Boiling the town water will not make it safe to drink and bottled water should be used for drinking, food preparation, making ice, cleaning teeth and gargling.

 Arsenic has been detected in the Uralla drinking water supply above Australian Drinking Water Guidelines to the value of 0.01 milligrams per litre. The concentration of arsenic in Uralla’s drinking water is 0.04 to 0.05 milligrams per litre. At levels much higher than the levels found in Uralla’s drinking water, arsenic can cause acute gastrointestinal and neurological issues. Short term health effects are unlikely at the concentration present in Uralla’s drinking water.

Arsenic can be removed by additional drinking water treatment. Uralla Shire Council is working closely with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment - Water and NSW Health to optimise the current water treatment processes to reduce arsenic concentrations to below the Australian Drinking Water Guideline value and to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.                                             

This advice should be followed until further notice. 

 

David Aber – Acting General Manager 

For further information contact Council on:  6778 6300