Water supply and distribution

There's a lot of work that goes into getting clean and safe water to your tap. 

From the moment water arrives as rainfall as part of the water cycle to when it runs out of the tap at your house, water must:

1. Be extracted from the river source.
2. Be sent for treatment at the Karangi Water Filtration Plant.
3. Sent from the treatment plant to all Coffs Harbour residents via a distribution network of reticulation mains.

Council not only tests the quality of water before it's sent to your house, it also tests samples from the household end of the distribution system. This is to make sure all quality standards for consumer health and safety are being met.

All customers of Council pay for the water they use through the 'user-pays' system of water metering and bills. 

Coffs Harbour residents are subject to Council's Permanent Water Conservation Measures currently in place and to any further water restrictions when necessary.

Water always moves towards the lowest point, so we are very lucky here in Coffs Harbour to live on a low coastal plain with high mountains behind us. This topography enables water reservoirs on top of the high mountains and allow nature to do the work of moving the water down the hill from the reservoir to your house. This is a gravity-fed system. The higher up the hill towards the reservoir your property is, the lower your water pressure will be. If your property is at the very bottom of the hill, you will have the very highest water pressure.

In fact, Council uses Red Hill Reservoir to slow down the drinking water coming from the Karangi DAFF Treatment Plant into Coffs Harbour, as the water pressure created by water coming straight from the top of Red Hill into town could be too much and might even blow some water distribution mains out of the ground! You can see the Red Hill Reservoir next time you drive west of Coffs Harbour on Coramba Road - it's the big round, silver corrugated iron roof on the left hand side of Red Hill before you pass the quarry.

Coramba and Nana Glen are also classified as gravity-fed water supply systems.