During a routine check of our Chiltern water storage on Saturday 22 October 2022, we unfortunately found a deceased lizard.

This storage, which holds more than 1.5 million litres of water, supplies around 1,500 customers in both Chiltern and Springhurst.

On Monday 24 October 2022, the treated water storage was taken off-line with water supplied directly from the treated water storage tank at Wodonga Logic.

The water supplied from the storage remained disinfected at all times and your tap water remained safe to drink. You do not need to filter or boil the water.

We understand that you may be concerned, however we have worked with the Department of Health and have assessed the health risk of having consumed this water as being very low.

Please be assured that the water supplied from the storage remained disinfected at all times. As a precaution our staff will be flushing water mains within the towns and disinfecting the storage tank before it is brought back into service.

Although the risk is considered very low, customers who experience any gastro-like symptoms are encouraged to contact their doctor and advise them of this notice.

We will be in direct contact with the shire councils, schools, nursing and maternal and child health centres, and relevant large-scale commercial customers in the affected towns to let them know about the event.

Food manufacturers should refer to their HACCP plans. The water supplied from the storage remained disinfected at all times.

All water filters work slightly differently, and we can’t comment on their effectiveness. Our disinfection processes kill all common bacteria and there is a very low risk of illness from drinking filtered or unfiltered tap water as a result of this event.

No. The water supplied from the storage remained disinfected at all times and your tap water remained safe to drink so you don’t need to flush the taps on your property.

Our teams have been flushing water mains within Chiltern and Springhurst as an additional precaution. Sometimes flushing stirs up sediment in the water main and you may temporarily experience cloudy water from your tap. This is completely normal and can be removed by running the tap at the front of your property for a few minutes until the water is clear.
If your water supply does not clear after five minutes, please call us on 1300 361 644 (24/7).

We take our responsibility to provide you with a safe and reliable water supply very seriously. We believe we have a responsibility to keep our customers informed about anything that might impact our service quality and commitment, even if it is very low risk.

No. Our underground water network is connected to different storages depending on where you live. Only the towns listed receive water from this particular storage.

We are continuing to investigate how the lizard got into the storage. As part of this process we are investigating additional storage cover protections.

It is unknown as to when the lizard entered the storage but our water sampling results for all of September and up till now remained compliant and safe.

We do. Our water travels underground in a series of closed pipes from Wodonga. In this case, it appears that the lizard has been able to access the storage. As part of this process we are investigating additional storage cover protections.

We understand that our customers may be concerned and distressed about this issue. Our Customer Contact Centre will work to respond to complaints as quickly as possible.