December 17, 2025 • 4 mins
ADC Infrastructure Manager Neil McCann was on to share an update on the containers in Lake Hood, and how the Domain water pump is coming back online this week
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Neil McGann is the infrastructure Bars and Ashputin District Council. Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Wait, Luke, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're good? And maybe an early Christmas present of sorts
for our friends at lake Hoods. Those containers in the
canal as you're driving in on the right there, they're
coming out today.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's correct, Yes, they The pre trial exercise we are
undertaking is now done, so we will remove the containers
today and be ready to come back on the nineteenth
of January when we prepare for the full scientific trial.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What can you tell us at this stage we had
in the early wins, No, I think it's more.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
About how the professor and the university students are going
to set up the trial. That just learned a lot
about how to take the sampling, were to sample it,
just understand the environment, and we do have a control
container with no product added to it, and we use
(01:02):
that as a reference for the other five which we'll
have products. And it was just a matter of just
getting to understand how they're going to use it and
how they test, and particularly the starting point that they
all started the same conditions with temperature and and all
the other conditions. So it's really scientific topic work to
make sure that each particular container is very similar to
(01:24):
the other one we come around to doing the scientific trial.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, a lot of interest in this to fill in
the blanks for any listeners that might be thinking, what So,
there's about six containers that have had the top and
the bottom cut off and they've been put in one
of the canals of the lake. And the products that
you mentioned is stuff that we're trialing to get on
top of the algae.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's right. So we've got five different products that have
been offered by companies to test out their effectiveness in
mitigating the growth of sinobacteria blue. So by putting these
containers in there we had it basically gave us an
opportunity to have a controlled environment. Because the sediment is
(02:06):
really important. It's not a matter of just pumping water
out and testing it in a pond. You want to
test it in the environment where there is signo bacteria
in the sediment. And so it's a perfect condition conditions
for the trial. Temperatures is a bit warmer in the containers,
which is even better for for siginobacteria bloom. So it's
(02:27):
actually worked really well. And Professor as he would is
particularly excited with the way it's worked, and it's looking
good for the more detailed trial.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Am I correct to Neil and saying that we're getting
funding for this?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's correct. Yes, all the time being spent by the
university and the students is all covered by a government grant.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, it's very good.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So we as council provide the containers and just a
bit of assistance with some of the operational issues of
the trial.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Great hey, Keeping with water super quake, I also spot
that the water treatment plant and the ash person domain
is back online this week. It's one of four that
supplied town although fun thanks. This one supplies over half
of all the drinking water that comes out of our taps,
so it'd be great to have it back up and running.
Will that see an end to water restrictions and time
for Christmas?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
No? Well, depending on the weather. If the weather continues
like us, we should we should be okay and we
shouldn't have to lift the water restrictions to the next level.
But I think for the time being we'll just monitor
the float. Will it will provide more pressure in the
system for the people in town have noticed a drop
and pressure while plants being offline, so it will come online.
(03:46):
We'll get the pressure back up and running. But the
total consumption, although it has dropped slightly since we did
implement the conservation risk years, that's good. So it's looking
looking promising and if the weather continue, if we get
a few days like this going forward, we should be
good for Christmas New Year.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, be apprecive for washing those Christmas spuds and also
just to read public service messas, don't panic if we
see a bunch of water running along the gutter down
Walnut Air this week. It's all hard the process.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yes, that's right. So we've got to get a good
flush through the new equipment network take placed. I think
it's today and tomorrow we hope to be done. And yeah,
there will be some water that will run into the
gutter and into the drains just while we do these tests,
and it's necessary to just give the equipment a good flush.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Nice Merry Christmas to yourself, Neil. We can enjoy a
well earned break
Neil McGann is the infrastructure Bars and Ashputin District Council. Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Wait, Luke, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're good? And maybe an early Christmas present of sorts
for our friends at lake Hoods. Those containers in the
canal as you're driving in on the right there, they're
coming out today.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's correct, Yes, they The pre trial exercise we are
undertaking is now done, so we will remove the containers
today and be ready to come back on the nineteenth
of January when we prepare for the full scientific trial.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What can you tell us at this stage we had
in the early wins, No, I think it's more.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
About how the professor and the university students are going
to set up the trial. That just learned a lot
about how to take the sampling, were to sample it,
just understand the environment, and we do have a control
container with no product added to it, and we use
(01:02):
that as a reference for the other five which we'll
have products. And it was just a matter of just
getting to understand how they're going to use it and
how they test, and particularly the starting point that they
all started the same conditions with temperature and and all
the other conditions. So it's really scientific topic work to
make sure that each particular container is very similar to
(01:24):
the other one we come around to doing the scientific trial.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, a lot of interest in this to fill in
the blanks for any listeners that might be thinking, what So,
there's about six containers that have had the top and
the bottom cut off and they've been put in one
of the canals of the lake. And the products that
you mentioned is stuff that we're trialing to get on
top of the algae.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's right. So we've got five different products that have
been offered by companies to test out their effectiveness in
mitigating the growth of sinobacteria blue. So by putting these
containers in there we had it basically gave us an
opportunity to have a controlled environment. Because the sediment is
(02:06):
really important. It's not a matter of just pumping water
out and testing it in a pond. You want to
test it in the environment where there is signo bacteria
in the sediment. And so it's a perfect condition conditions
for the trial. Temperatures is a bit warmer in the containers,
which is even better for for siginobacteria bloom. So it's
(02:27):
actually worked really well. And Professor as he would is
particularly excited with the way it's worked, and it's looking
good for the more detailed trial.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Am I correct to Neil and saying that we're getting
funding for this?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's correct. Yes, all the time being spent by the
university and the students is all covered by a government grant.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, it's very good.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So we as council provide the containers and just a
bit of assistance with some of the operational issues of
the trial.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Great hey, Keeping with water super quake, I also spot
that the water treatment plant and the ash person domain
is back online this week. It's one of four that
supplied town although fun thanks. This one supplies over half
of all the drinking water that comes out of our taps,
so it'd be great to have it back up and running.
Will that see an end to water restrictions and time
for Christmas?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
No? Well, depending on the weather. If the weather continues
like us, we should we should be okay and we
shouldn't have to lift the water restrictions to the next level.
But I think for the time being we'll just monitor
the float. Will it will provide more pressure in the
system for the people in town have noticed a drop
and pressure while plants being offline, so it will come online.
(03:46):
We'll get the pressure back up and running. But the
total consumption, although it has dropped slightly since we did
implement the conservation risk years, that's good. So it's looking
looking promising and if the weather continue, if we get
a few days like this going forward, we should be
good for Christmas New Year.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, be apprecive for washing those Christmas spuds and also
just to read public service messas, don't panic if we
see a bunch of water running along the gutter down
Walnut Air this week. It's all hard the process.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yes, that's right. So we've got to get a good
flush through the new equipment network take placed. I think
it's today and tomorrow we hope to be done. And yeah,
there will be some water that will run into the
gutter and into the drains just while we do these tests,
and it's necessary to just give the equipment a good flush.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Nice Merry Christmas to yourself, Neil. We can enjoy a
well earned break
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