The council is preparing to enforce its toughest set of water restrictions on the city in the coming weeks: level 5.

At its meeting this week, the council endorsed a new plan aimed at inspiring town-water users to reduce their consumption as storage levels deplete.

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However, Cr Murray made a point of removing the "crisis" level triggers from the report and the emergency actions that are recommended.

Councillors unanimously supported his amendment.

The report, compiled by expert urban water consultancy firm GHD, recommended a crisis point be declared if Chaffey Dam hit 5 per cent capacity.

Cr Murray said this needed a rethink.

"In my mind, it is just a bit too soon to be talking about what constitutes a crisis point in our water storage," Cr Murray

"The implications will be much different if we are just heading into summer with higher evaporation and water usage that'll mean a different length of water availability.

"If we are headed into winter where the usage slows off a bit, that'll mean something different."

The mayor said the crisis-point trigger would also have implications for local jobs dependent on water supplies.

"Over the next six months or so, we will be in a much better position to decide what constitutes a crisis - and I'm concerned when we start to talk about crisis level, that starts to impact on jobs," he said.

"There are lots of people who rely on water for their jobs and we need to be very careful about how we deal with those jobs."

There seems to be some conjecture around the council about how long the city will be fully secure.

At this week's council meeting, deputy mayor Phil Betts declared his full faith in the Chaffey to Dungowan pipeline and said it would get Tamworth through.

However, Glen Inglis was more pessimistic, saying running out of water was a real possibility and questioning whether the pipeline could be finished in time.

Water director Bruce Logan said the modelling he'd seen from Water NSW showed "we won't run out".

"We also need to consider what are we going to do if the modelling that Water NSW has presented is a little bit inaccurate or it doesn't prove to be correct," Mr Logan said.

He didn't say if the water department had a crisis point or day zero set down, but the prospect couldn't be ignored.

"I think there is nothing wrong with us planning for crisis points and continued fall of the storage in the dam," he said.

"It is far better to be ready for that. If it doesn't occur, well, that's great."

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