Four things to know in Rouse Hill
Recycled water since 2001
Sydney Water's Rouse Hill scheme supplies more than 30,000 properties in the North West, including all or parts of Rouse Hill. It has its own reservoirs, pipeline and meters, all marked purple.
Purple is not for drinking
Purple taps and pipes are for gardens, toilets, ornamental ponds and the washing machine (with the right plumbing). Never for drinking, cooking, bathing, pools, sprinklers, cleaning indoors or evaporative coolers.
Two councils
The Hills Shire marks Rouse Hill as only partly in its area, and Blacktown City lists it too. ABS figures put 66.0% of the suburb's dwellings in The Hills Shire and 34.0% in Blacktown.
Many renters and townhouses
At the 2021 Census, 54.4% of occupied homes were separate houses, 19.9% townhouses or semis and 25.4% apartments. 39.7% were rented, and just 15.9% were owned outright (NSW: 31.5%).
Sydney Water's recycled water connection check
Shut the purple meter tap
Turn off the recycled water meter tap outside. Leave the drinking water meter tap on.
Run every indoor tap
Hot and cold, in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. All of them should still flow, because they belong on drinking water.
Flush toilets, then any bidet
Toilets belong on recycled water, so they flush once and the cistern stays empty. A bidet must always be on drinking water and should keep refilling.
Try the outdoor taps
Ordinary garden taps keep running. Purple taps marked 'Recycled water' or 'Do not drink' should run dry.
Turn the purple tap back on slowly
Then open taps gently the next time, so trapped air can escape. If anything behaved differently, contact Sydney Water.
Renovating, landscaping or just moved in?
Sydney Water says the check matters most after you move in, after a renovation that changed the plumbing, and after new landscaping. Those are the moments a pipe gets joined to the wrong supply.
Its rules for plumbers are strict: no cross-connection between recycled and drinking water, and alterations, extensions and new recycled water plumbing must all be inspected. In NSW every plumbing job needs a licensed contractor whatever it costs, and the plumber lodges a Certificate of Compliance at the end. Planning a renovation? See bathroom plumbing in Sydney.
Sewer pipes in a townhouse
Your wastewater pipes are yours up to and including the point of connection with Sydney Water's system, and that point can sit beyond your boundary. Sydney Water owns the junction itself. Where townhouses share one private line, every owner on it shares responsibility for it.
In a strata scheme, NSW says the lot owner usually covers fixtures and pipes inside internal walls, while the owners corporation covers pipes in boundary walls and under the floor. Check your strata plan and by-laws. For a slow or overflowing drain, start with blocked drains in Sydney.
What we would do
Run Sydney Water's five-step check this weekend, especially if you bought recently or had work done. Sydney Water calls it a simple check. If a toilet cistern refills with the purple tap off, or a purple tap keeps flowing, get a plumber who specialises in dual-supply plumbing to trace it before anyone drinks from the wrong tap.