TAMWORTH Regional Council will ask the state government to suspend Peel Valley allocations as concerns about the city’s water security heighten.
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It comes as level two restrictions finally made some impact on residential water use, with daily consumption dropping below 30 megalitres after blowing out to more than 40 megalitres in January and February.
Chaffey Dam’s rapid drainage might have eased but harsher restrictions could be less than three weeks away, with the dam currently at 31.9 per cent capacity.
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While Chaffey Dam does not belong to the council, it relies heavily on the catchment to supply water to its residents.
The council’s water director Bruce Logan said he was concerned with how much was being released from the dam every day.
Water NSW’s latest report said Chaffey was releasing about 140 megalitres a day.
“We have virtually halved our orders from Chaffey, but we are still seeing a significant amount of water released,” Mr Logan said.
“Obviously that is for other purposes, not just for the city’s use, that is obviously a concern.”
The council has already taken steps to ensure no one is taking more water than they are currently entitled to and asked the government to keep a close watch over the situation.
“We’ve highlighted that with the relevant departments that it’s important during this critical period that they monitor access to water for all consumers downstream of Chaffey Dam,” he said.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where it is found later that someone was accessing water in the dam when they didn’t have a right to do so and that water has been lost to other customers like Tamworth.”
The rapid release of water appears to be causing some concern in Ray Walsh House with the council set to ask the NSW government whether it would suspend the current allocations before June 30 to help preserve what water is left.
A similar request was made in 2006 when the city was in the grip of a drought, but to no avail.
“And I would imagine they will be reluctant to do it this time,” Mr Logan said. “[But] we will be raising that at the appropriate time with the appropriate people.”
General security entitlement holders in the Peel Valley will continue to be able to access 36 per cent of their entitlements from the river for the remainder of the water year, which ends on June 30.
A zero per cent allocation is expected for the next water year.