A report on www.couriermail.com.au on Tuesday 22 April 2014 regarding Redland City Council’s management of a burst water pipe at Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island requires clarification and correction.
Council was notified of a burst pipe at 10.30pm on 21 April 2014.
The person who notified Council of the burst pipe reached a Council on-call officer, not a contractor as reported. The officer immediately set about liaising with appropriate parties – including Council management, SEQWater and the water taxi company – and also sourced resources to attend to the issue.
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A Council crew was transported to North Stradbroke Island via an emergency called-out ferry which picked up the crew from the mainland at the earliest opportunity – about 1am. The water mains were shut down at about 2.30am.
Trained personnel are required when shutting down water supply and this issue in particular required specific technical knowledge and equipment as further problems could have been caused by incorrectly isolating valves.
The dedicated Council crew worked through the night to repair the pipe, which was 15cm in diameter, not 2.5 metres as originally reported by www.couriermail.com.au. The Courier-Mail has since fixed this error.
It was also originally incorrectly reported that Redland Water declined to comment. Council’s communication team was contacted just three minutes before the online report was published at 9.37am this morning (22 April)and left messages for the journalist for several hours afterwards.
As stated in the amended published version (1.35pm), water supply was restored to all areas by 8am. This coincided with peak water usage times, so water pressure may have been less than usual as reservoirs were concurrently being refilled.
