Even before the projection for the peak height of the Goulburn River in Shepparton this week was revised under the major flooding level, local infrastructure was confident none of their services would be affected.
Goulburn Valley Water released a statement regarding its water and sewerage treatment plants.
GVW managing director Steve Capewell assured the public that all water supplied by Goulburn Valley Water is safe to drink.
“Our water and sewerage treatment plants are operating normally, and we’re closely managing the operation of water and sewer network infrastructure,” Dr Capewell said on Wednesday morning.
“Our Incident Management Team is working around the clock and closely monitoring the situation as the flood peak moves through our region.
“We have protection measures in place at the Shepparton Water Treatment Plant, including sandbagging critical water supply infrastructure. We also have water quality specialists monitoring the plant 24/7 until water quality returns to normal.”
GVW will also closely monitor the raw water quality in the Goulburn River and adjust treatment processes as needed to ensure safe drinking water continues to be supplied.
With the water in the Goulburn River already brown at Shepparton, journalist Monique Preston asked Shepparton Incident Control Centre incident controller Ray Jasper about drinking water levels for Shepparton and Mooroopna.
He said GVW had been busy in the past few days pumping extra water into its storage tanks to allow for this scenario.
“They have a comfortable amount of water supply,” he said.
GVW’s sewage treatment plant will also remain “high and dry”, Mr Jasper said.
A spokesperson from Powercor stated that floods in Shepparton have not impacted its network or power supply.
It has been monitoring the flood threat and rising water levels in the Goulburn River and staying updated with authorities.
The spokesperson also said they’ve taken preventive measures across some of their sites to ensure there’s no damage to them in the case of flooding.
One of these sites includes the Mooroopna Zone Substation, where a permanent levee was built last year following damage to the station in the October 2022 floods after rising water from nearby creeks and rivers flooded the site.
They aren’t expecting the floods to impact the station as it did last time. However, they have closed the levee as a precautionary step.
Powercor has confirmed it will keep customers updated if the situation changes.