Kelly’s Off Stream Storage Water Quality Study published in Australian Water Association e-journal

After almost two years of collecting data in Byfield’s Kelly’s Off Stream Storage and Water Park Creek, Livingstone Shire Council in conjunction with CQUniversity, is pleased to announce that the findings of this study have now been published as an Academic Paper in the Australian Water Association (AWA) Water e-journal.

The study was co-authored by CQU’s Associate Professor Larelle Fabbro and Council’s Water and Waste Operations Technical Specialist Michael Dalton, along with contributions from Alison Craig, Geeta Gautam Kafle, Lorna Wells, Tania Collins, and Glenn McIntyre.

Portfolio holder Water, Waste Management and the Environment, Councillor Andrea Friend, said this study had provided a deeper understanding of the physical and chemical processes in this raw water source which will assist in evaluating and managing water quality risks.

“It illustrates the link between a protected and well vegetated catchment and a high quality and good tasting water supply,” Cr Friend said. 

“The drinking water from the treatment plant associated with this Off Stream Storage has won many awards in taste tests.

“Key to the quality of this water is the sand filtration in the dunes upstream from Water Park Creek, pristine catchment, riparian vegetation in the source stream, the pattern of stratification and mixing, low conductivity, and low concentrations of nutrients.”

The site for this study was Kelly’s Off Stream Storage, Byfield, 19 km north of Yeppoon, also referred to as Kelly’s Dam. Water is pumped from Water Park Creek into this Off Stream Storage and from there to the Livingstone Shire Council’s Woodbury Water Treatment Plant.

At the plant, water is conventionally treated with coagulation, flocculation, clarification, filtration, and disinfection by chlorination.

Cr Friend added that water from this plant has won the Ixom Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test 2017, the Sigura Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test and the Water Industry Operators Association Ixom Water of Origin Taste Test 2021, along with several other commendations.

“This treatment plant supplies potable (drinking) water to parts of the Capricorn Coast. The catchment around Kelly’s Off Stream Storage itself is bushland with no human development,” Cr Friend said.

“Many thanks must go to Associate Professor Larelle Fabbro and her team from Central Queensland University for their input to the joint water quality study, and their ongoing commitment to the technical collaborative partnership with Livingstone Shire Council.”

To read the document in full, please visit Council’s website.