That scare came as a result of a system failure at the local water filtration plant and resulted in a month-long alert following advice from the NSW Health Department.

In an effort to avoid a repeat of the boiled water scenario, council believes it is under resourced when it comes to system monitoring and should consider employing a dedicated water quality compliance officer in its water and waste section.

This is in addition to its Drinking Water Management System (DWMS) which was completed in September 2014.

A report to last Wednesday night’s ordinary monthly meeting of council by the director of engineering services Doug Patterson stresses the importance of having safe drinking water, noting that in a worst case scenario there is the potential for loss of life.

“Poor quality drinking water can have the most severe and extensive consequences on public health, should the systems, processes and controls fail. In terms of overall risk for council, the greatest possible risk is failure of the drinking water management system,” the report stated.

“In cases elsewhere, people have become very ill and died from first world water supplies not being managed correctly.

“During development of the DWMS, where possible, staff have put in place processes/alarms/actions to minimise risk, but not completely eliminate it. It must be recognised that risks still exist and incidents may still occur. A further reduction in risk is possible should the majority of the identified actions be addressed, and this will require additional staff resources.”

Mr Patterson’s report also noted that since the boiled water alert, significant improvements have been made to minimise the risk of a similar incident.

“The water filtration plant has had additional instrumentation installed to monitor the process,” the report stated. “Additional alarms have been installed and critical control points identified, alarmed and monitored. Telemetry systems and components are also being improved and upgraded.

“Council has also purchased and is currently trialling a computerised communication software package, which will allow rapid communication with registered water consumers via SMS, email, voice mail and social media should it be required in the future. 

“Another significant improvement is the preparation of a Water Quality Emergency Response Management Plan with the assistance of Hunter Water. This plan covers the logistics and responsibilities involved in managing a similar type of event should it occur again.”

Mr Patterson said that a water quality compliance officer would also co-ordinate the collection, monitoring and reporting of additional water quality data from the two supply systems and maintain the DWMS.

“This will need a substantial review in early 2015 once the Manganese Removal Project is completed and commissioned,” the report stated.

“Further work will be undertaken to develop the required documentation to gain the necessary authorisation to recruit the water quality compliance officer.”