Community meeting hears pondage upkeep concerns

RESIDENTS have told Coliban Water they want better cleaning and maintenance of Mitiamo’s pondage system.

Progress association president Jill Ramskill aired concerns at a community meeting with Coliban last week.

“(Non-potable) water is being pumped into the dirty old dam that’s still exposed to animals that could die and end up in the pond,” she said.

Ms Ramskill said residents would prefer a tank storage system on the poundage site or improved town pipe system to cater for direct water pressures from pumps, disposing of gravitational system.

Residents said Coliban told the meeting it was establishing new infrastructure with a raw water pipeline and raw water tank storage system for the Mitiamo township. The piped water and tank storage would replace channel and reservoir system, reducing chances of blue green algae blooms.

Blue green algae blooms triggered Coliban Water’s risk management plan at Mitiamo and Dingee in January.

The water authority is carting water several times a week to boost supplies of non-potable water. Coliban said last month it had also increased water quality testing to monitor the situation.

The meeting was also told that residents wanted more frequent town pipe cleaning.