A RISK analysis of the available water supply for South Tamworth has shown there is no justification for an extra $6.5 million reservoir at One Tree Hill.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A minimum of eight to 24 hours of extra water supply is recommended by the peak body for the urban water industry, where Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) has a two-day back-up.
Every couple of years, the council reviews its water supply schemes to plan for future growth.
The recent risk analysis showed a new 24ML reservoir wouldn't be needed until 2027, TRC water operations manager Dan Coe said.
"Based on the work that we did earlier this year we have decided to push this process back by five years, but continue with the design work," he said.
"So if growth occurs faster than expected, we could go ahead and build the reservoir as required.
"The benefit of that is it's pushed back the construction and associated operational and maintenance costs; we don't want to spend the community's money until we need to."
The One Tree Hill reservoirs collect a total of 27 megalitres of tap water which is served to businesses and homes in Calala, Kingswood, West Tamworth, South Tamworth, Westdale, Taminda and the Glen Artney Industrial Precinct.
The council models how much water it will need based on the peak demand for the city and the growth forecasts for the next 35 years.
Enough water is kept for two days in case of an unscheduled breakdown, like a broken pipe, Mr Coe said.
"One of our issues is if we have too much water stored on site, there is the potential for water quality issues," he said.
"By doubling the water capacity up here during lower demand periods, the water is an older age and we have to reduce the storage during that time.
Read also:
"It's a bit of a balancing act between peak demand through summer and winter storage as well to maintain water quality."
The design work is expected to take another six to 12 months, and the build would take the same amount of time if it needed to go ahead.
There's $200,000 set aside in the budget for the design and the construction is slated at $6.5 million for a 24ML reservoir.
Mr Coe said North Tamworth has less demand but more storage, so there should be no issues going forward there.
"The education campaign about our water use has helped too, the community are doing well at saving water," he said.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News