Goondiwindi Town Residents to Urgently Limit Water Usage

The Goondiwindi town Wastewater Treatment Pump has had a significant failure overnight, and residents are asked to immediately limit their water usage for today and over the weekend.

The issue concerns wastewater from households and businesses, including, but not limited to, water from toilets, showers, washing machines, and pool backwash. 

Council has had to shut down the pump and is manually trucking the wastewater from the sewer system to the treatment plant. As a result, residents will see high volumes of truck movements around town over the coming days.

To assist Council crews in manually carting the wastewater, we are asking residents to limit the water going back into the sewer system, this includes water from showers and baths, washing machines, dishwashers, and pool backwash. Whilst we aren’t currently concerned, the worst-case scenario is that if Council can’t keep up with the manual movement of wastewater output, there is potential for wastewater, including sewerage, to back up in the system and overflow.

A wastewater bypass pump is currently being urgently transported to Goondiwindi. Once operational, this will allow Council to assess and resolve the issue with the existing pump.  The full extent of the issue won’t be known until this assessment can be undertaken.  Council will provide further updates as they become available.

Residents in the western area of the region (PCYC through to E&E Waste and west towards the Barwon Highway) are not impacted. 

Councillor Julia Spicer OAM, the portfolio holder for Water and Sewerage Services, said, “We appreciate the support of locals in helping us to limit the impact of this incident by reducing their water usage over the coming days.  That means that we are encouraging everyone to have a weekend off from doing the washing. 

“The issue only relates to wastewater, and we don’t want residents to limit their, or their pets, drinking water.  We are only asking residents to keep the amount of wastewater in the sewer system to a manageable level while manual carting is in place. 

“Every little bit of water that we can prevent from ending up in the sewer will help.  At this stage, the request to limit water usage will be in place for today and over the weekend.  Council has contacted the immediate neighbours of the pump station and we are committed to providing regular updates to the community as they become available.

“I also want to thank the Council and other contractor crews who will work tirelessly throughout the weekend, including through the night, until the issue is resolved. 

“Residents will see high volumes of truck movement through town, and there will be increased noise from the emergency works and vehicles.  We thank everyone impacted for their patience and understanding,” said Cr Spicer.

Residents can contact Council’s Customer Service team on 07 4671 7400 if they have additional queries or to report concerns.