Contaminated water all clear

WATER supply to central Gatton has been given the all clear after a contamination scare last week.

The scare came after water from one of the reservoirs supplying Gatton tested positive for the harmful E. coli bacteria.

Mayor Steve Jones said after a thorough regime of testing by the Queensland Health Department, he was happy to say everything was all in order and the water was safe to drink again.

“A lot of people in the shire have rainwater tanks and the level of contamination would be very much worse than what we found in the reservoir,” Cr Jones said.

“However, being a reticulated supply, there are stringent conditions and as soon as there was a problem, the water in the suspect reservoir was shut off.

“It did not affect the whole reservoir.”

Cr Jones said the pipes had been flushed, with three consecutive Queensland Health tests coming back clean.

He said he was relieved the problem had been rectified and the water was once again safe for locals to consume.

Officers from the Lockyer Valley Regional Council door-knocked homes in Gatton when the threat became known on Thursday night.

A notice advising residents to either boil or drink bottled water, resulted in the supply of bottled water at the Coles Gatton outlet being sold out at the weekend.

Coles Gatton acting service desk manager Wendy Newby said with the Gatton State School closing early on Friday, the store had done a roaring trade.

“We did good business with all the parents picking the kids up from school and deciding just to do their shopping,” Ms Newby said.

“We ran out of water and had to get some from Toowoomba.”

Ms Newby said water sales had also been strong on Saturday.

“We had a lot of people going through with water,” she said.

“We told the staff just to take it off the shelf and we would write it off.”