Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Power and Water Senior Manager Service Delivery Water Services Eric Boyle

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Katie Woolf spoke with Power and Water Senior Manager Service Delivery Water Services Eric Boyle · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 3: For comprehensive political coverage impacting Territorians, the only voice you
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  Speaker 3: need is Katie Woolf on three sixty remaining one hundred
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  Speaker 3: percent and Mix one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 4: You're listening to Mix one oh four point nine three sixty. Now,
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  Speaker 4: obviously we've had lots of wet weather and this has
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  Speaker 4: an impact in lots of different ways, you know, mold,
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  Speaker 4: potholes on the roads and that kind of thing. But
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  Speaker 4: it does seem also be having an impact on some
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  Speaker 4: of our water services. Now joining me on the line
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  Speaker 4: is well from Power and Water. It's Eric Boyle, the
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  Speaker 4: senior manager of Service Delivery and Water Services.
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  Speaker 5: Good morning to you, Eric, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 6: How are you yeah, really well? Now? Eric, has this wet.
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  Speaker 4: Weather had much of an impact when it comes to
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  Speaker 4: the water services in the top end?
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  Speaker 5: Unfortunately or fortunately? Yes, Look, this is a time of
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  Speaker 5: year that the water services crews are extremely busy. We're
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  Speaker 5: not only getting through a lot of our maintenance work
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  Speaker 5: from the water system because the water demand is down,
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  Speaker 5: but also our sewage system is absolutely stretched, almost as
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  Speaker 5: you could imagine, to beyond capacity due to the frequent
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  Speaker 5: heavy rain that we've been having, particularly over the last
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  Speaker 5: couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 4: Goodness mate, what kind of impact does that then have
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  Speaker 4: when you talk about the sewerage system and it being
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  Speaker 4: a capacity.
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  Speaker 5: So look, we size our series system actually three to
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  Speaker 5: five hundred percent bigger than what it needs to be
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  Speaker 5: just to coop with the monsoon rains that we have
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  Speaker 5: here in the territory, and unfortunately from time to time
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  Speaker 5: that even that isn't enough. We've invested a significant amount
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  Speaker 5: of money, inspecting, religning video cameraing a sewage system to
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  Speaker 5: make sure it's in an optimal condition. But we still
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  Speaker 5: can't keep the seriage system the stormwater out of our
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  Speaker 5: sewage system.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, well, we did receive a couple of phone calls
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  Speaker 4: to the show yesterday.
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  Speaker 6: I'll take you to those. Firstly, let's have a.
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  Speaker 4: Listen to what Shane had to say on the show yesterday.
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  Speaker 7: Water mine keeps blowing in long Air Street. It's eighteenth
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  Speaker 7: time happened on Monday morning since June last year. From
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  Speaker 7: my waterline run down Rabbit Cree Road. Is the old
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  Speaker 7: concrete especial fine and it keeps blowing out in certain
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  Speaker 7: sections of war we lose water for three three four
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  Speaker 7: hours of the corn.
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  Speaker 4: What kind of impact is that having on you and
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  Speaker 4: your family?
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  Speaker 7: How would you feel while at the front of your
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  Speaker 7: place and have our swore in the morning, we'll big
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  Speaker 7: back intruck sucking up all the wh got our idiot,
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  Speaker 7: So I get the water one. Then I've got a
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  Speaker 7: concrete saw cutting across people's rawwise it five three in
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  Speaker 7: the mornings, so I can dig the old wine and
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  Speaker 7: for a new place and the band aid patch up.
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  Speaker 6: So Eric, what is the situation there.
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  Speaker 5: Look, that's it's absolutely frustrating, not for the customers, absolutely
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  Speaker 5: get the inconvenience. It's having a couple of things that
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  Speaker 5: I'll just I'll just add is that we try and
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  Speaker 5: do things outside of the pick hours so that people
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  Speaker 5: are not using the water in those early hours. But
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  Speaker 5: it does have a negative impact on the customers that
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  Speaker 5: are directly adjacent to where those works are getting carried out.
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  Speaker 5: So we're trying to look after the bigger part of
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  Speaker 5: the community, trying not to enterrupt water when it's it's
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  Speaker 5: it's picked usage, but then they don't follow. That is
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  Speaker 5: the is that the customer's experienced that you call it
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  Speaker 5: as iihlate.
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  Speaker 6: Did and so what work is underway?
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  Speaker 5: So what happens is as the caller mentioned, that main
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  Speaker 5: is quite old and since about late twenty nineteen early
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  Speaker 5: twenty twenty, we noticed an increase in the breaks and
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  Speaker 5: we use that statistic to guide us when we need
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  Speaker 5: to replace a water mains. Now, that particular water main
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  Speaker 5: is due for replacement this year and it's one of
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  Speaker 5: our priorities, so I suggest we won't be having this
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  Speaker 5: conversation at this time next year.
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  Speaker 4: Well, that is good to hear, so how soon, So
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  Speaker 4: you're anticipating that that work to replace the water Maine
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  Speaker 4: should be complete by the end of the year or
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  Speaker 4: how soon.
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  Speaker 5: It's on a twenty twenty one program. Okay, I'm so sorry,
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  Speaker 5: a twenty one to twenty two program. So it's programmed
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  Speaker 5: to get done this year.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, all right, and do you foresee that they're going
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  Speaker 4: to have that they're going to sort of continue to
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  Speaker 4: have issues on that road until that work is complaced.
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  Speaker 5: So our cruise are right right now, we're looking at
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  Speaker 5: rediverting some of the water floors to try and reduce
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  Speaker 5: the pressure that the issue with this particular area because
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  Speaker 5: it's all law lying, there's an increase in the pressure
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  Speaker 5: in those law lying areas, and we're looking to see
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  Speaker 5: if there's anything that we can do to reduce the
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  Speaker 5: floor into those areas so that the pressure is not significant,
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  Speaker 5: which should hopefully reduce the amount of breaks that we're
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  Speaker 5: experienced at this point in time.
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  Speaker 4: Right, So it does sound as though that you are
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  Speaker 4: having quite a few breaks there, you know, with that line.
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  Speaker 6: At the moment.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, And as you probably you'll have your colors will
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  Speaker 5: be aware that we've had these two dry wet seasons,
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  Speaker 5: so the grain has been really solid and hard, and
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  Speaker 5: now we've had this inundation over the last two to
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  Speaker 5: three weeks which has caused this recent spate of breaks
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  Speaker 5: because the ground gets soft and the water main moves
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  Speaker 5: and we end up getting cracks in the.
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  Speaker 4: Pipe, right, okay, But so so at the moment you are,
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  Speaker 4: there's that sort of worked underway to patch it up,
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  Speaker 4: to keep it moving until you are able to replace
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  Speaker 4: it a little later in.
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  Speaker 5: The year exactly. And with the with the gron being
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  Speaker 5: saturated at the moment and this area being particularly low,
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  Speaker 5: we can't send cruise in to do a complete means
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  Speaker 5: replacement because of the ground saturated. And as the collar
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  Speaker 5: was saying before, we've got vacuum trucks to try and
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  Speaker 5: suck the moisture out of the ground while we replace
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  Speaker 5: those small pieces. So to replace and this particular means
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  Speaker 5: about eight hundred meters long, and to do that in
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  Speaker 5: that environment at this time of years virtually impossible. So
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  Speaker 5: that's why we'll hold off until the rains subside and
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  Speaker 5: then we'll be able to get in and get that
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  Speaker 5: main replaced.
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  Speaker 4: All right, Eric, I'll take you to another call that
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  Speaker 4: we received yesterday. This one was from Bernie.
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  Speaker 6: Take a listen, Listeners.
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  Speaker 8: Of yours that are really missing going over to Ballei
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  Speaker 8: with the open sewers when it rains. If I'd like
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  Speaker 8: to come down for a drive down Ryland Road in
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  Speaker 8: Milner and there all the sewers are just popping their
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  Speaker 8: lids and everything. Yeah, there's bits of paper and they're fluent,
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  Speaker 8: and they're blowing down the gutters. And they've put a
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  Speaker 8: little triangular fences and signs on them saying don't get
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  Speaker 8: this stuff on you, don't walk in it, don't play
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  Speaker 8: with it.
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  Speaker 4: Is it having much of an impact on you guys
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  Speaker 4: that live around the area.
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  Speaker 8: I've got one right beside an entrance in the back fence. Yeah,
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  Speaker 8: it's boozing out there or flowing out. Sometimes it just
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  Speaker 8: lifts the lid plane up and just runs into the
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  Speaker 8: gutter and down the gutter. The cock broaches really enjoy
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  Speaker 8: it though.
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  Speaker 7: It's like surfing.
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  Speaker 6: I'll tell you what.
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  Speaker 4: Bernie Hetty's had a bit of a laugh at the
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  Speaker 4: end there. But it's not ideal. What is the situation there?
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  Speaker 6: Eric?
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  Speaker 5: So again, as we discussed just at the beginning, Katie,
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  Speaker 5: we've got a significant and flow of stormwater into the
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  Speaker 5: suriy system, and the series system is not designed to
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  Speaker 5: carry that amount of storm water. There are standards across
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  Speaker 5: the country where we upsize the serio system to court
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  Speaker 5: with the rain, and as I said before, our system
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  Speaker 5: size between three and five times the capacity that it
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  Speaker 5: needs to be to cope with these events. However, we
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  Speaker 5: are exceeding even that amount due to water that's getting
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  Speaker 5: into the system, and it's coming from many, many different places,
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  Speaker 5: and it's one of the things we'll be targeting this
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  Speaker 5: coming dry season. Not to say that we're reacting to
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  Speaker 5: what's happened now, we've been working on this for a
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  Speaker 5: number of years. We've made sure that the infrastructure that
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  Speaker 5: we're responsible for, that's the sewer mains, the manholes, the
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  Speaker 5: pump stations, everything this side of the customer connection is
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  Speaker 5: in as good condition as we can keep it. And
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  Speaker 5: what we're now going to be doing is reaching into
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  Speaker 5: customers connections and determining what condition those are in. We
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  Speaker 5: did some tests in Alova last year and we tested
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  Speaker 5: one hundred and twenty customer connections and eighty of those
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  Speaker 5: field hydrology tests, so that indicates to us that there's
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  Speaker 5: something else happening in the system that at this point
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  Speaker 5: in time, per word, I don't have any control over,
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  Speaker 5: and we're going to be working with the community to
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  Speaker 5: see if we can address that.
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  Speaker 4: So it could be that some of us in our homes,
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  Speaker 4: our systems are a bit backed up or something, and
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  Speaker 4: then when it rains a lot, it means that that
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  Speaker 4: it sort of all ends up in the wrong place.
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  Speaker 5: It's not the backup, it's the storm water when it rains,
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  Speaker 5: and there's a couple of ways that can get in.
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  Speaker 5: There's there's the RG connection next to the house. We've
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  Speaker 5: done inspections I think it was that around about two
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  Speaker 5: and a half three years ago in Rapid Creek, and
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  Speaker 5: there was a number of down pipes from the gutters
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  Speaker 5: are connected into that little drain and that goes straight
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  Speaker 5: into the sewerage system, which is not designed to do.
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  Speaker 5: The other one is the pipe that runs from the
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  Speaker 5: main sewer back to the to the customer's property, and
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  Speaker 5: that might be in very poor condition and there's water
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  Speaker 5: seeping into that as well, and that's the pieces that
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  Speaker 5: we're trying to address. We tried to put some devices
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  Speaker 5: on people's properties a couple of years ago, but even
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  Speaker 5: that's quite a logistical piece organizing to have access putting
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  Speaker 5: the piece in and then perhaps that's no no longer
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  Speaker 5: in place, and now the storm water is getting back
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  Speaker 5: into the system again. With over two or three hundred connections,
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  Speaker 5: to try and identify every single one that may not
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  Speaker 5: be an optimum condition is quite a lengthy task.
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  Speaker 4: And so, Eric, is it happening in a few locations.
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  Speaker 5: There's probably about seven that we are where I'm going
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  Speaker 5: to see wrestling with that. We we do a lot
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  Speaker 5: of work to make sure that we're prepared for the
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  Speaker 5: wet season, and we've been lucky over the last two years,
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  Speaker 5: but I guess it's reminded us this year that we've
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  Speaker 5: still got a problem and we need to work through
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  Speaker 5: it as a community to address the issue.
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  Speaker 6: And so Eric, I know it.
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  Speaker 4: You know, it probably sounds a bit gross to some
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  Speaker 4: of our listeners, But so in those seven locations, have
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  Speaker 4: we got a situation where there is some of that
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  Speaker 4: you know, some of that effluent, you know, like out
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  Speaker 4: on the roads or in different places on the street.
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  Speaker 5: So I can just assure you customers has shared the
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  Speaker 5: listeners that we've got disinfection processes of we're put in
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  Speaker 5: place when we have affluent spills, but we'd normally put
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  Speaker 5: them in in the dry season, so those are reactory
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  Speaker 5: when we have spills in the in the dry in
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  Speaker 5: the wet season, because it's so heavily diluted with storm
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  Speaker 5: water that the the the issue is not as great
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  Speaker 5: as as it is in the dry. Wow.
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  Speaker 4: I suppose cold comfort though to you know, to some
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  Speaker 4: of those people if they if they do live near
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  Speaker 4: those areas where where maybe they feel like that you
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  Speaker 4: know that they have got that affluent near their home
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  Speaker 4: or in one of those coming out of one of
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  Speaker 4: those those trains.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, And we we have a we have a staff
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  Speaker 5: and contractors that do their rounds of those particular areas
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  Speaker 5: to ensure that they're kept clean. And I was, I
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  Speaker 5: was a little bit surprised when you call it suggested
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  Speaker 5: that there was raw affluent and paper flowing down the street,
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  Speaker 5: because that's the reason why we do those rounds to
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  Speaker 5: ensure that that's not happening. However, if people do see that,
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  Speaker 5: then they must call Pound Water straight away so that
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  Speaker 5: we can get on to it and make sure that
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  Speaker 5: those areas are disinfair pitten cleaned up. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, Eric I do want to ask you. We know
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  Speaker 4: this obviously we've had so much wet weather. What does
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  Speaker 4: that mean for us in terms of our water levels?
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  Speaker 4: How are things going out at the Darwin River Dam.
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  Speaker 5: I guess that's that's the flip side of the coin
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  Speaker 5: for us. We've got these issues with a water system
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  Speaker 5: causing as dramas and the sewage, but it's great for
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  Speaker 5: our dam and our dam sitting. I think yesterday was
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  Speaker 5: sitting around forty five and me have gone up to
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  Speaker 5: forty seven, sorry, sixty five at me, I've got up
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  Speaker 5: to sixty seven percent today. I haven't check this.
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  Speaker 4: Morning, okay, so it's about sixty five to sixty seven percent.
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  Speaker 6: Gee.
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  Speaker 4: That's good comparatively to previous wet seasons, isn't it.
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  Speaker 5: Absolutely it's fantastic and hopefully it keeps on heading in
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  Speaker 5: the right direction.
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  Speaker 6: Well.
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  Speaker 4: Eric Boyle, the Senior Manager Service Delivery Water Services at
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  Speaker 4: Power and Water, I really appreciate your time this morning
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  Speaker 4: and coming on here to answer those listener questions.
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  Speaker 5: I really appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 6: Thanks very much, Kate, Thanks so much. Eric,