IRON and manganese extraction is the latest environmental battleground for the small north Queensland community of Georgetown. Amidst the protests around drinking water filtration is the question of whether resident’s health is at risk.
Across mostly peaceful pastoral lands and farming communities some very clear and defined battle lines are being drawn.
The drought-declared Etheridge Shire is ripe for controversy with the council calling on the State Government to step in.
Since early April 2014 the small township of Georgetown, just 480km west of Townsville, have withstood the taste and cleanliness of a rust-coloured water supply.
Drinking, bathing and washing in the dirty liquid is a daily happening for many Georgetown residents, some of who have lived in the region for over 30 years.
Aeramix Water and Waterwaste Treatment, a business who visited the shire early last week, suggested iron and manganese are the common elements percolating into the water to cause the colour disfiguration.
They found iron pipes used to extract water from the Etheridge River may also be the cause of higher iron levels.
A concerning struggle for the Etheridge Shire Council, the “coca-cola” like substance has raised eyebrows across the north with speculators labelling it a health hazard.
The small drought-declared community has experienced directly from several failed wet seasons with the dried Etheridge riverbed leaving a build up of reactive elements.
A pathogens increase in the local water system over a decade ago forced council to chlorinate, with the chlorine now oxidising minerals and turning the water brown.
When Etheridge Shire Council mayor Will Attwood first noticed the discolouration he demanded immediate water testing and scrubbing of pipes and waterways.
“The pigging and flushing of all lines helped for the short-term but patches of discolouring are still evident,” he said.
Despite its look, Cr Attwood assured residents there is nothing wrong with the water quality, publically downing a glass of the brown fluid at last week’s council meeting.
The Etheridge council has since made a plea to the Queensland Government’s Royalties for the Region program, with the infrastructure’s initial cost estimating $400,000.
“The proposal has left the community divided, with many residents unprepared to pay for higher water rates,” Cr Attwood said.
“A filtration system is a huge cost and something we as a council have not budgeted on, let alone having already spent extra money to clean pipes and waterways each week.”
“We are only a small shire and due to the drought we have already had a reduction in rates.”
Mount Isa MP Robbie Katter addressed the Georgetown’s water concerns in parliament earlier this month saying “no one anywhere in Australia would find that (dirty water) acceptable.”
Mr Katter questioned fellow parliament officials labelling the cost of the filtration system as insignificant compared to the amount spent on the southeast’s failed desalination plant.
“Would people in the southeast put up with this?
“I highly doubt it, and pound for pound, the cost to remedy this is affordable.”
“I would not wash in that water. I do not think anyone else in this room (parliament) would. It is not acceptable and it needs to be fixed.”
Photographs, tabled in parliament, showed a child bathing in the dirty liquid, which locals say is destroying clothes and linens.
Georgetown Roadhouse owner Warren Devlin has recently installed water filtration systems at his business site to ensure he meets health standards.
“It doesn’t affect taste or smell, but there are a lot of cranky people with stained clothes, dishes and linen,” he said.
“Many residents, like me, are resorting to buying bottled water or installing tap filters.”
As former mayor of the Etheridge shire Mr Devlin is aware of the economic strains a communal filtration system will place on rate-payers, suggesting council should apply for a State Government grant.
“They should apply for a one off grant to purchase some good quality household filters,” he said.
Residents have stomached the water, but Georgetown Progress Association president Michael Rafferty said they were less forgiving about their stained laundry.
“My wife took a bag of stained clothes and an invoice to the council,” he said.
“Something needs to be done. The water is black meaning many locals have no choice but to store their whites and lighter items of clothing away to avoid stains.”
“I know the local hotel and caravan park have been having trouble with washing their linen.”
Mr Rafferty is appalled in the council’s decision not to fund filtration systems expressing he was “sick to death” of the dirty water.
Energy and Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle encourages the Etheridge Shire Council to discuss potential access to additional water allocations with the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM).
He said DNRM wrote to the council in November last year making them aware of 5000 mega litres of unallocated water available to them from the region’s strategic reserves.
“While the Department of Energy and Water Supply does not provide financial assistance, I am pleased the Council has applied to the Queensland Government’s Royalities for the Regions program, which is available to assist with funding water infrastructure” Mr McArdle said.
In a presentation given to the Etheridge Shire Council last week Aeramix suggested a short-term filtration system, in conjunction with Richmond, withholding an estimated cost of $200.000.
Through an application to the Queensland Government’s Royalities for the Region program, Aeramix suggested a long-term water treatment plant, inclusive of a dam and dam wall to store the 5000 mega litres of unallocated water, to cost near $2.5million.
The Water and Waterwaste Treatment business believe typical of most rivers and streams, the Etheridge River Catchment has low levels of soluble manganese ranging from 0 to 0.25 mg/L, averaging 0.03 mg/L.
At the concentrations as low as 0.02mg/L the manganese has formed maganise oxide sediments in pipes disturbing the manganese deposits to result in a yellow-brown colour in the water.
The Etheridge Shire Council will commence filtration strategies over the next fortnight with the ‘Charles Dam’ plans hosting a completion date of December 2015.
