The days of hoarding bottles of water in the fridge and putting ice cubes in the bathtub will soon come to an end when the Lightning Ridge water supply is cooled, possibly by the end of this summer.
The cooling will occur as the result of a novel solution that will kill two birds with one stone.
To keep the pool in the new diving complex warm heat extractors have been installed.
As the name suggests, these extract the heat from the bore water that is pumped through them and use it to keep the water of the pool warm.
There was some uncertainty about what was to be done with the now-cool water, until it was finally suggested that it be pumped into the town's water supply.
Administrator Hugh Percy said it was the perfect solution.
"It was always the plan for the pool to take the heat out of the bore water and use it," he said.
"This way the town gets cold water as well. It turns it into something positive for the town, which the pool is also getting the benefit of, and makes it a lot easier to justify the expense."
It is uncertain exactly when the citizens of Lightning Ridge will have cold water flowing from their cold water taps, as the plan has now run into the same snag that has caused the diving pool project to grind to a halt - how to get water from the bore to the heat extractors.
Some time ago the Pool Association bought the pipes to bring water to the diving complex, but they turned out to be the wrong pipes.
To finally push the project through to its conclusion Mr Percy has dispatched an engineer to the town to examine the options and decide the best way to bring the bore water to the diving pool.
"He's a very capable man. He ran operations at Queanbeyan City Council for a number of years and knows what he's doing," Mr Percy said.
"I said to him: 'It can't be that hard. Get up there and make it happen.'"
Although some residents may be disappointed that they can no longer save money by turning their hot water service off during the summer months, most were pleased when they heard the news.
"It's great news," said Peter Healey, who has lived in the Ridge for 10 years.
"It's about bloody time. It's crazy to live in a town where you can't even have a cold shower on a hot day. Sometimes, right in the middle of summer when you need it most, you can barely stand under the water it's that hot."
This method of cooling the water is preferable to a cooling tower, which would have been far more expensive to install and would also have required the water to be chlorinated.
The water supply will also remain unfluoridated, at least for the time being.
After taking submissions from locals earlier in the year on the question of whether or not to fluoridate the water council has now referred the decision to the Department of Health.
"It's really a health issue, albeit a very emotive one," Mr Percy said.
"It just splits the community and it needs to be something that council doesn't get too embroiled in."
Although he is personally in favour of fluoride, Mr Percy said he didn't feel he was in a position to make a decision for the whole town.
"I've been drinking fluoridated water for 30 years and it hasn't killed me, but I wouldn't impose that on anybody else. I simply said to the department, ‘here are the submissions for and here are the submissions against, you're in charge of health, you tell us'."
There is no word yet on when a final decision will be made.
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