KINKS in the new Chaffey Dam pipeline still need to be worked out with NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey and WaterNSW.
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Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) wants assurances from Ms Pavey that water which was once lost as it travelled down the Peel River will be held in Chaffey Dam to secure the city's supply.
There have been a few headaches since the pipeline was switched on at the end of June and at Tuesday's meeting, TRC will vote on whether to write to Ms Pavey to address them.
In the pipeline's first 10 days of automatic operation, it shut down almost every night which required a TRC staff member to go out and manage part of it manually.
The council's water and waste director Bruce Logan said a meeting has been organised with WaterNSW to discuss the continuing operation of the pipeline, and the yet to be built $480 million Dungowan Dam and pipeline project.
"Discussions are continuing and are centred on levels of service required, cost of providing those levels of service and the best outcome for the community," Mr Logan said.
"WaterNSW has addressed the issues that saw the pump station and pipeline shut down regularly during the initial period of recommissioning and it is now operating reliably."
Conditions on the pipeline's operation, which will be reviewed in October, still require it to be switched off when Chaffey Dam water levels reach 20 per cent.
A check of the historic levels since New Year's Day 2002 indicate the water has been below 20 per cent just 5.8 per cent of the time.
That means that if the 20 per cent limit is adopted long term, the pipeline would only operate every six days out of 100.
A report to the council argues the pipeline's price tag could not be justified on a cost-benefit basis if it only runs six per cent of the time.
Mr Logan said water should only be released from the dam into the Peel River when demand is greater than what the pipeline can carry.
According to the council report, when the pipeline is shut down for an extended period the water inside loses quality.
In his report, Mr Logan said there's no clear answer on how to deal with this water when the pipeline is switched back on.
There's no way to ditch bad water in the pipeline design, so instead it has to be sent to the Calala Water Treatment Plant and wasted if it can't be treated.
It could spell bad news for customers along the pipeline, as there's a high possibility that they will be delivered inferior quality water after a shutdown unless the pipeline is drained each time it is switched off.
At the moment there are no approvals for the pipeline to be drained, and the council report shows that in the past stopping infrastructure for long periods of time mean starting them up again is never as simple as flicking a switch.
The Leader sent separate inquiries to both WaterNSW, which manages the pipeline, and Water Minister Melinda Pavey's office - who paid for it - about the issues with management and ownership moving forward.
Both Ms Pavey's office and WaterNSW returned identical responses to the questions, and said they were working cooperatively with TRC to manage the pipeline.
"WaterNSW will continue to operate the pipeline into the future with the support of the NSW government," the statement reads.
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"The $37 million pipeline is now complete, bringing immediate savings in transmission losses for the city's water supply from Chaffey Dam.
"The government has also allocated funding and fast-tracked the construction of a new dam at Dungowan, with works set to commence by October."
As water supplies reach critical levels at Chaffey Dam, the council plans to start to source water from Dungowan Dam, but it can't do so while the pipeline is in operation.
Using both in the future will require careful consideration, council has said.