Thread: Caravan parks, are they required to supply clean water?

Ours is Murray water pumped down the Morgan Whyalla Pipe Line.

At the moment it has a distinct chlorine aroma..

Who cares... I drink it... Mrs Tombie drinks filtered water...

I don't; to me paying $3.00 for a bottle of water when we have it on tap is crazy.

You get accustomed to it...


Adelaide supply is primarily reservoir supply at this time as they are quite full..

Ours gets pumped ~ 600km from Mundaring Weir in the Perth hills to a reservoir on top of a hill not far from our house. I have been drinking it for years with no problems. SWMBO likes filtered rainwater (I put in a rainwater tank a few years back, and she filters it). Neither of us wastes money on "bottled" water. If we are going anywhere, we have plenty of bottles / containers which we fill and take our water with us.

It has never been lost on me that if you spell the name of the first of the major "bottled" water vendors (EVIAN) backwards, you are instantly provided with a description of their target market.

Originally Posted by jonesfam

Water quality depends on where you live.
In Blackall it's bore water, stinks of sulphur, boiling hot but quite drinkable.
Karumba is river water, once your used to it you can drink it.
St George, bore water again but not as stinky, drinkable but full of minerals that stain everything & hot.
Ravenshoe, creek water but fine.
Doomadgee, river water, brown/red when the river flows, clear at other times, drinkable once your used to it, may give you the runs if your not!
Bottled water, a RIP OFF!

Jonesfam

Karumbas' water comes from the Glenore crossing lagoon. In 2013, they nearly ran out.

Council report, 2013;

THE supply of potable water to the residents of Normanton in jeopardy with the Glenore Crossing lagoon on the Norman River at a dangerously low level.

Director of Engineering Services of the Carpentaria Shire Council, Peter Watton told the North Queensland Register on account of the bad wet season, the water stopped flowing over the weir wall as early as March this year.

The town had been on water restrictions since April 6th this year.

In an effort to prolong the supply the Carpentaria is pumping water from below the weir but that part of the Norman River is tidal and only so much of this salty water can be mixed and processed by the water filtration plant. The concentration of salt had become so high that last Thursday (October 3) was the last day that water from below the weir could be pumped into the lagoon.

"If we don't get meaningful rain beforehand we will run out of water by February," Mr Watton said.

...............................

To add to the problem the township tourist and fishing town of Karumba, 40km downstream, is also supplied with potable water from Normanton. There are some fresh water wells in Karumba but the supply is nowhere near what the town requires so the council has installed a boat wash-down facility using that well-water to save the main supply.



Normanton does have access to water from an artesian bore but the concentration of fluoride in that water is too high.
..........................

"The council made an application for $3.5 million to purchase a de-salination plant but the state government required the council to contribute more than it could afford so they withdrew the application," Mr Watton said.

He remarked that there was a deal of irony in the situation when the previous state government spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a de-salination plant that never went into operation.


How can the Normanton/Karumba potable water supply be drought-proofed? There are several possibilities: raise the wall of the Glenore Crossing weir; build suitable off-stream storage filled by wet-season. Flood harvesting the Norman River or build a series of storage weirs up-stream from the current one.

But all of this will require some serious finance from the State or Federal Government and to date that has not been forth-coming.

Until it does the Carpentaria Shire Council will have trouble attracting any large developments for Normanton or Karumba until it can guarantee a reliable and adequate water supply.

When we first moved to Karumba (1988 I think) they had not long had the main supply of water.
Half the taps around town were still on bore water, signs everywhere saying
"Non-Potable, Do NOT Drink".
Probably changed a bit by now?
Jonesfam

Well at least the water here is good enough to turn into ice and mix it in our drinks.

I feel sorry for the poor people of Ireland, who have not been able to have locally produced ice in their drinks for quite a few years now, ever since the old lady who knew the recipe sadly passed away.

Originally Posted by jonesfam

When we first moved to Karumba (1988 I think) they had not long had the main supply of water.
Half the taps around town were still on bore water, signs everywhere saying
"Non-Potable, Do NOT Drink".
Probably changed a bit by now?
Jonesfam

A little bit. The wifes sister and her husband have lived in Mt. Isa just about forever, it seems. They visited Karumba every year, without fail. Johns best mate Twiggy was radio operator at the fishing Co-op. Another of his mates took his boat to Sweers Island ,fishing, still does AFAIK. We visited when we could, not often enough. In 2011 we scattered Johns ashes at the boat ramp, no one has been back since. We just dropped Anne, Johns wife, at the airport, on her way back to Isa . We discussed going back, have to get the D2 up to scratch, jobs on. LG. [ I believe the Animal Bar is a bit tame now.]

The owner of one caravan park in a fairly remote area told me when I asked him what his establishment had
"We've got dirt and ants "
And free washing with bore water

Originally Posted by fitzy

The owner of one caravan park in a fairly remote area told me when I asked him what his establishment had
"We've got dirt and ants "
And free washing with bore water

Hehe, love his brutal honesty, not much of that left these days.