Scottish Water: Killin residents told not to drink tap water after fuel spills into river

Households and businesses in the Killin area are being advised not to use their tap water for any purpose with immediate effect.

This is following a pollution incident affecting the water treatment works.

On Friday, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) alerted Scottish Water to a suspected chemical spill in the River Dochart where the local treatment works draws water from.

Scottish Water took immediate action to close the intake to the treatment works this morning and samples are being taken from the water network.

It is advising householders and businesses not to use their tap water for drinking, food preparation or washing until further notice.

This advice is for the circa 500 domestic and business properties served by Killin Water Treatment Works. Affected postcodes are detailed on the Scottish Water website.

Water from other reservoirs and treatment works is not affected.

Scottish Water’s Head of Customer Water Services, John Griffen, said: “We appreciate the inconvenience this advice not to use water will bring to people and businesses in the affected areas, but at all times our priority has to be the protection of public health.

“The incident management team is continuing to monitor the situation, liaising with NHS and SEPA. We will update customers regularly however we do anticipate this disruption to last several days, and thank customers for their patience and understanding while we work to restore their supply.”

The advice from Scottish Water is that mains water should not be used for drinking, food preparation, making babies’ feeds, brushing teeth, bathing or for feeding pets.

Any drinks and ice dispensing machines should also be avoided as these maybe connected to the mains supply.

They added that boiling will not make water safe to drink. Mains water can only be used for flushing toilets during this incident.

An information point for customer support is being located at McLaren Hall and bottled water collection points are being set-up.

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Door-to-door bottled water deliveries are set to commence this afternoon for all customers, and customers will receive a hand-delivered letter each day updating them on the progress towards restoring normal supply.

More information is available via Scottish Water’s website. Customers are advised that Scottish Water operates a 24/7 contact centre and can be contacted on 0800 0778 778.