Former plumber Paul Humphries organised the meeting in an attempt to galvanise residents to work with council towards a solution.

He claimed in Friday’s story that independent tests he’d had done by a civil and sewer engineer friend at another council three months ago revealed various water chemical components in Yass’ town water were at unsafe levels.

However a second lot of tests he had planned to reveal at Sunday’s meeting came out similar to council’s tests that meet Australian standards.

He explained he “misinterpreted the wording” of the initial results.

“It’s the best possible outcome that could’ve happened,” he said.

He said his second lot of water chemical tests lined up with council’s most recently published results in all but one test.

“The only difference between my tests and council’s tests were that the tubidity levels were 30-times higher than the levels were when they left the treatment plant.

“A germ couldn’t survive in that water if it tried,” he told the Tribune. “Do not worry about bacteria or germs.

“We know now it’s more a process issue or a chemistry issue, not a safety issue.”

“What is happening is within the water, there is a ‘hardness’... When I said in the paper ‘alkalinity’ last week, in water-testing terms they are the same thing. So the positive ion charges in the water is being destablised with another mineral in the water and creating an effect within the town’s water.” 

He suggested it could be happening further upstream, or may have something to do with corrosion in the pipes.

Andrew McGrath, one of the administrators of Clean Water Yass community Facebook page, said the meeting was well attended with a lot of good discussion.

“I understand where council’s coming from but I’m also a bit disappointed in them because they are not responding to the community’s issues,” he told the Tribune.

“We needed someone like Paul to come along and say ‘right, we need something done!’”

Councillor Geoff Frost, who attended the meeting, said Paul put a different view as to what might be the underlying cause of the water issues Yass was dealing with.

“His presentation looked at council’s results and he had a different interpretation of what they meant,” he said.

“There were a few people who were vocal [during the meeting] but mostly, it was made up of people of good will and looking for a way forward.”

He would be meeting with council’s director of Operations Simon Cassidy and Paul for a visit to the waterworks facility soon.

“We are very hopeful at the moment that we can all end up working together on it.”

He reminded residents who had water issues, to bring samples in to council immediately so they could act.