Low water to be pumped from dam
EXTRA drought measures are well underway to not only shore up critical water supplies in the short term to extend the resources currently available, but also to help future-proof this vital resource well into the future.
That’s according to Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders, who spoke of the medium and longer term options on Tuesday. Mr Saunders was announcing a $6.7 million contract to construct a pumping station, coffer dam, and electrical systems to extract water from Burrendong storage should the dam’s water level fall below the outlet valve next year.
“Importantly, there will be a focus on local contractors with up to 12 local contractors to be employed during that period – there will be a focus on buying local products as well and, importantly, Australian-made pumps,” Mr Saunders said.
He described the plan as “revolutionary”.
“It’s never happened before but the coffer dam will be set up with rocks with a liner across the rocks and then topped up with rocks again, and a floating pump sitting just outside that dam pumping water from where the dam is up to and into the coffer dam so that the level stays above the outtake valve.”
If there’s significant rainfall and the dam starts to fill quickly, the pumping station can be taken off the water and broken down into container-size components for storage or use elsewhere and into the future.
Construction should be completed by the end of February next year, but Mr Saunders said with record low inflows for the past three years and no rain in sight, people shouldn’t be running around saying there’s no need for stringent water restrictions in Dubbo.
“People have always said ‘it’ll be right, we’ll never run out of water’, but what this last couple of years has shown is that when things get horrendously bad, we need to be not just aware of it in Dubbo but also support other parts of the region,” Mr Saunders said.
“The claim that there’s no crisis and just hope that it will rain is not a very proactive way to go about things.
“Look, we’ve been close to this situation in the past where levels of the dam have been possibly lower than they are now, and then it has rained, but I’m not willing to take a bet, take a punt, that that will happen again. What we have to do is prepare for the absolute worst case scenario, that’s what we’re doing.
“If it doesn’t happen, well, happy days, but if it does we’re prepared and we’re on the front foot in making sure we look after towns and communities,” he said.
Water NSW spokesperson Tony Webber said Burrendong’s average annual inflows were typically around the 1500 gigalitres
“At the moment we’re receiving one gigalitre per month, so if this trend continues we’ll receive 12 gigalitres in this 12 month period – in the previous 12 month period we received 55, prior to that 42.
“That gives you an indication of the severity of the crisis.”
Flows have been restricted into downstream creeks to further reduce transmission losses just to get the water to various places and there’s the likelihood of a transfer from Windamere Dam to Burrendong via the Cudgegong River sometime in early 2020.
“This is much, much worse than previous droughts, this is well beyond what we’ve experienced previously,” Mr Webber said.
“It’s all about buying time so that additional supplies and supplementary supplies can be identified and sourced to ensure town and critical needs are met.”
* John Ryan is an elected councillor on Dubbo Regional Council.