A TAMWORTH councillor is calling on the state government to further explain how half a year's worth of water released from Chaffey Dam became "unaccounted" for.
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In the 2018/19 financial year, more than 6000 megalitres, or 17 per cent of the water released from Chaffey went missing. Water NSW pointed the finger at "river evaporation, seepage, overbank flows and any measurement errors recording other components".
However in the past decade, the Peel Valley has only had one other instance of "unaccounted" water.
In 2010/11, more than 600,000 megalitres, or the equivalent of six full Chaffey Dams, flowed through the Peel Valley and only one per cent of the water was unaccounted for.
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Cr Mark Rodda wants more transparency from Water NSW about the missing water.
"I'd like to see an explanation as to why it's so high, when it's never been that high in previous years despite the dry weather we've had," Cr Rodda said.
"I'm not point the finger. I just wanted an explanation in regards to the region's water usage and where it went given Chaffey Dam was full three years ago, and what can be done to prevent this situation from happening again.
"I think that's a reasonable request and one the community wants to see answered as well."
In October, Cr Rodda made a motion to request the Peel Valley water balance report, which was knocked back by his fellow councillors.
Tamworth mayor Col Murray refused to be drawn on whether councillors had made the wrong decision in rejecting the motion in light of the missing water.
"I'm not interested in going back over all that stuff," Cr Murray said.
However, Cr Murray did call for the Peel Valley water balance report to be released to the public.
"I think they should release it, if there's a problem let's have a look and see if needs addition attention," he said.
"It's not productive to be sitting on it if anything is unclear."
Cr Murray believed transmission loss to be the culprit behind the unaccounted for water, pointing to a number of problems that have occurred since the Peel River was cut off, such as the drop in production at council's Scott Rd bores.
"We are learning a hell of a lot about how inefficient and ineffective the river is to transmit water," Cr Murray said.
"I would like to better understand if there has been water missing."
Jamieson Murphy
Newcastle Herald news director. Interested in any and all yarns. Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Newcastle Herald news director. Interested in any and all yarns. Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@austcommunitymedia.com.au
