MORE than 165 megalitres of water is being released from Chaffey Dam every day as Tamworth residents are still being told to rein-in their use at home.
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People connected to the town supply in Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal are guzzling about 40 megalitres per day, but WaterNSW is still releasing volumes from the dam for a raft of customers downstream.
A spokesperson for WaterNSW said the releases were reviewed daily and “customers with general security licences can only order from the water remaining in their accounts from this year’s 38 per cent allocation”.
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He expected releases to be reduced over autumn and winter.
Meanwhile, Tamworth residents are braced to be moved to level two water restrictions soon for the first time since July 2016.
It follows a chiding at locals from council water officers for the “large swathes of green lawn” they’ve spotted in the city.
Mayor Col Murray said we shouldn’t “pointing the bone” at irrigators or the green grass gangs and suggested the energy should be directed elsewhere.
“In my personal view, it shows what might be considered an anomaly in our system of sharing water,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be about blaming irrigators or blaming people that use water when they're legally entitled to in our broader regional and city water sharing plans.”
But the mayor said the ongoing hot and dry spell, which had already drained Chaffey Dam to 36.6 per cent capacity, had raised “broader questions” about how water was being utilised and how much was being stored.
He said the city must realise “unless the water sharing plans change”, there are customers other than council which have entitlements.
“It’s why council doesn't ask residential users to go into restrictions earlier, because it’s a bit pointless to have towns on restrictions when irrigators are using what they can,” he said.
Rather than rallying to amend the current water sharing plans, there was a more pressing priority which should be front of mind, according to Cr Murray.
“I think the answer is to build a bigger dam wall,” he said.
“In a rapidly growing city like Tamworth, the hard, cold reality is we don’t have enough water stored.”
It echoed recent comments from New England MP Barnaby Joyce who said a bigger Chaffey Dam would be needed for the city to address greater irregularity in the climate.
Tamworth Regional Council will introduce level two water restrictions once Chaffey falls below 35 per cent cent capacity.
At its current level, there is just 1608 megalitres between the city and level two restrictions being enforced.
For perspective, you could fill about 644 Olympic swimming pools with that much water.
Under level two restrictions, the use of all sprinklers is effectively banned.
Hand-held hoses and sub-surface dripper systems can be used for two hours per day from 6pm to 8pm Daylight Saving Time.
Vehicles can only be washed with a hand-held hose, with a trigger nozzle attached between the same hours.
There’s no washdown of hard surfaces permitted unless using a high-pressure cleaner.