Upper Hunter Shire Council is on the verge of carting water from Scone to Murrurundi after the town dam’s usable water supply fell to five per cent capacity.
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An emergency bore installed last year has been supplying 70 per cent of the town’s needs with the rest coming from the dam and the Pages River gallery.
The dam will last for a few months but if the bore fails the council will cart water for domestic supply.
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Water carting costs of $1000 a day would be shared by the NSW government and the council’s water fund which comes from water rates, shire-wide.
If water carting is required, it will be trucked in daily to the lagoon to cover the town’s needs, rather than being stored, as 60,000 litres of water a day is lost from the dam to evaporation.
Murrurundi has been on level six water restrictions since last July.
The council is currently calling for tenders for the detailed design and construction of the Scone to Murrurundi Water Pipeline expected to be completed in 2020.
The project is estimated to cost $14.2 million, with over $13 million in funding provided by the NSW government’s Restart NSW Water Security for Regions program.
The remainder of the project funding is provided by the council.
