September has been a mixed month for Tamworth Regional Council’s (TRC) water department, with the augmented Chaffey Dam breaking capacity records, staving off any hint of restrictions in the next 12 months. Dungowan Dam has hovered around 100 per cent capacity for a number of months and bores at Attunga have risen too.

But the water setbacks came in waves at Moonbi-Kootingal, with a uranium scare in the villages’ groundwater supplies, leading to a town-water switch, compounded by an ageing water main coming to “the end of its life”.

Last fortnight, when TRC water director Bruce Logan fronted the media to address the elevated uranium levels, he also said 30 homes in Kootingal were without any water, after the main on Privet St burst, once again.

Crews scrambled to patch the break and get water back to the 30 properties concerned, but it was the final straw for the water main which has failed on three occasions in the last month.

“We’ve had 30 houses at Kootingal without any water, let alone water from Tamworth, they’ve got no water at all,” Mr Logan said.

“We’ll be looking to program to replace that water main, so that it doesn’t keep breaking.”

Construction on the Privet St main should begin on Friday and is scheduled to be finalised by the end of October.

“The project involves replacing 450 metres of 100mm diametre water main at an estimated cost of $90,000,” Mr Logan said.

Residents of Damar Avenue and Privet St are asked to use on-street parking during construction hours.

TRC is also aware of an overflow at the Kootingal wastewater plant, due to to recent wet spells recorded across the region.

The final pond at the wastewater plant is now filled which will result in some treated effluent overflowing across the ground to the nearby creek. Until drier weather returns and the irrigator can once again be used to irrigate effluent on adjacent paddocks, the overflow is expected to continue.