Managing Our Water
Water Quality
Water works result crystal clear
Burnie's water is cleaner than ever thanks to several years of remediation work along the Pet River catchment. Burnie's water treatment plant now uses 25 per cent less chemicals than it did five years ago due to efforts in fencing off streams and rehabilitating banks. Water treatment operator Rodney Dick said the water was regularly tested, and it was getting better all the time thanks to work by Landcare and the Burnie City Council.
We cut our chemical consumption by about 25 per cent by keeping the cows out of the water leading into the dam, he said. Our water's pretty clean.
Approximately 80km of stock-proof fencing, 171 water troughs, 5 in-stream watering points and thousands of native plants have been added to the catchment area since 2000.
Fencing out livestock has helped reduce the amount of soil erosion in the catchment - previously, bogged-up water holes had contaminated the water supply. When it rained, these holes were flushed out, resulting m huge plumes of red mud going into Burnie's water supply reservoir.
Burnie residents need not worry about dwindling water supplies during the current dry spell, Mr Dick said
If it didn't rain ever, we'd have two years' supply in our dams
(Extract from The Advocate newspaper 30 March 2007.)
