The city’s water provider is being urged to reimburse hundreds of residents who reported falling sick due to foul-tasting water.
Logan mayor Jon Raven is leading the calls, and has criticised the authority’s response as “not good enough”.
Heritage Park’s Dianne Wheeler is one of more than 280 locals from across the city who reported concerns about the quality of water coming from their taps.
They claimed the water smelled and tasted earthy, muddy, dirty and grassy.
Many also reported falling ill, with reports of vomiting, diarrhoea, hives, headaches, dry skin and other symptoms.
Water in taps across Logan began changing in taste and odour around Christmas last year.
Seqwater, which provides water to all of south-east Queensland, said the changes were a result of recent hot, wet weather.
Seqwater advised the water was safe to consume, as it met the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, and should return to normal “in the coming days”.
But almost one month later, Ms Wheeler and many others claim the water continues to smell of dirt, and tastes even worse.
She said she was sick after first drinking it.
“I had gastro for two days – I was vomiting for two days and had diarrhoea for two days,” Ms Wheeler said.
“I tried it again – I have tried boiling it, I have tried freezing it, I have tried cooling it – and it still tastes like mud.”
Many residents have spent hundreds of dollars on bottled water and filters.
“We have been buying bottled water since it started tasting like that, so $9.50 for 24 [bottles],” Ms Wheeler said.
“We spent over $60 on water in the first two weeks.”
She said many families in Logan could not afford to do so.
“… so they are stuck drinking this water,” she said.
“I work in employment services, so I see struggling people every single day, and for them to have to spend money that they don’t have on water – which they shouldn’t have to – is ridiculous.
“They pay their water and their rent, so they should be able to drink it.”
Mayor Jon Raven said Seqwater’s response of “telling people to go to Queensland Health” wasn’t good enough.
“I want the families who have had to fork out hundreds of dollars for bottled water over the last few weeks to be reimbursed by Seqwater,” he said.
“They’re paying for a service, they deserve for their water to be clean and drinkable.”
A Seqwater spokesperson said customer rebates were not available, as the water meets national drinking water guidelines.
“We understand that over the past few weeks some of our customers have experienced taste and odour impacts to their drinking water,” the spokesperson said.
“Water across South East Queensland has returned to near normal levels across the vast majority of the water grid.”
According to Seqwater, the water changes were a result of a recent algae bloom in local water catchments that source the Mount Crosby Water Treatment Plant.
“As algae is filtered out through the treatment process, it can leave behind organic taste and odour compounds known as MIB (Methylisoborneol) and Geosmin, which impact the aesthetics of tap water,” the spokesperson said.
“These compounds may cause an unpleasant, musty or earthy taste and odour, however they do not impact the safety of the water as confirmed by Queensland Health.
“Seqwater is taking this matter seriously and is continuing to explore options available to address this issue in the future.”
Seqwater recommended cooling the water to reduce the earthy taste.
Many residents claimed this was ineffective.
Cr Raven said that, while Logan could expect reduction in MIB/Geosmin levels this week, Seqwater should “take people’s concerns seriously” the next time this happens.
“I have also written to Hon Ann Leahy, Minister for Local Government and Water, to raise the concerns of residents and spoken with her office,” he said.
