Water catchment warning issued

The Water Corporation has warned against entering drinking water catchments after two people were fined recently in the Albany Magistrate’s Court.

The breaches relating to the Two Peoples Bay reserve led to the two prosecutions in May and June.

Both offenders received fines of $350, with the maximum pen-alty being $2500. A total of seven catchment prosecutions have been handed down in the court in Albany and Collie in the past three months relating to entering and bringing dogs into a protected area and marroning offences.

Water Corporation Great Southern regional manager Adrian Stewart said catchment legislation protected water resources from activities that may compromise drinking water quality.

“People may think marroning or swimming in a drinking water catchment area is just a bit of innocent fun, but the potential risks they impose on our drinking water quality are quite significant,” he said.

“There are a number of activities which are prohibited in Water Corporation’s drinking water catchments including swimming, marroning, littering, camping, lighting fires, and bringing dogs into protected areas.”

Mr Stewart said a variety of surveillance measures were used by Water Corporation rangers to patrol drinking water catchment areas and the recent prosecutions should act as a warning.

“We take a multi-barrier approach to drinking water quality management, which begins with protecting our drinking water catchments as our first line of defence,” he said.

“We ask those that are considering visiting our drinking water catchments to do the right thing, follow the signs in the catchment area and keep our local drinking water supply safe.”