By ALENA HIGGINS
THE first concern Councillor Glyn Rees received after he was elected to the former Warwick Shire Council in 2004 focused squarely on the state of Allora’s boar water.
“I had a lady come to see me about the water and asked me ‘what the hell we were going to do about it’,” he said.
“She said ‘she couldn’t drink it and thought the community was being poisoned’.”
Fast forward 10 years and the tiny town is rejoicing after Cr Rees and Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) mayor Peter Blundell officially connected the village to Warwick’s water supply last week.
It took council staff more than 2000 man hours to complete the $3.1 million project, which began in November 2013 and consisted of laying 25 kilometres of pipe from the Freestone Road reservoir.
However, Allora’s water ratepayers can expect to fork out extra for the privilege, with water access charges in the town jumping the most in the region – from $274.50 in 2013-14 to $338.70 in 2014-’15 and consumption charges from $1.16 per kilolitre to $1.29.
While he had not noticed any difference in water quality yet, owner of Allora Butchery Grant Lollback acknowledged on Monday what had been supplied up until now was “terribly hard” and he was prepared to pay the additional rates “as long as the water is better quality”.
Cr Blundell said last week residents could expect to enjoy an improved standard of water quality over the coming weeks.
While the boar water was perfectly safe to drink, the connection provides a “softer” and more reliable water supply that reinforces the town’s future, Cr Rees said.
“What we have at the moment is doing a lot of damage to people’s hot water systems and various other things,” he said, referring to limescale deposits caused by a build up of calcium and magnesium salts found in boar water.
Along with the pipeline works, there were specialist external services for the design of the entire system, construction of a pump station building, pump sets supply and installation, and construction of a balance tank at Willowvale Womina Road and a telemetry system.
