Good news as city’s water woes ease

Good inflows from the Macquarie pipeline and the city’s stormwater harvesting have again pushed back the date when Level 6 water restrictions could begin in Orange.

Last month, Orange City Council extended the worst-case scenario date when Level 6 could begin, back to May 15.

But at a meeting last week to considered recent inflows it was decided to push that date back another seven weeks to July 6.

The Council’s CEO, David Waddell, said the new date could be set because of the amount of water that’s come from the Macquarie Pipeline and stormwater harvesting systems.

Steady flows in the Macquarie River have allowed Council to pump 213 megalitres of water from the pipeline.

And during this same period, 140 megalitres has been harvested from the city’s stormwater system.

“During a time when there’s been no natural run-off inflows into Suma Park, that’s made a significant difference to our storage levels. Those two water sources have added 353 megalitres into our storage,” said Mr Waddell.

“When we do the sums comparing what’s come in compared to what we’ve used, that lets us push the date of the worse-case scenario introduction of Level 6 all the way back to 6 July.

“Mr Waddell said that date is the worst-case scenario, where there are no inflows from any source.

“The great news from this last set of figures is that when we also take stormwater and the pipeline into consideration, we’ve now got a realistic scenario that we might not even reach the Level 6 mark,” he said.

Orange mayor Reg Kidd said the council is continuing to work on a number of major infrastructure projects to further help drought proof the city.

“While these two water sources are good news, we’re not resting on our laurels,” Cr Reg Kidd said. “We’re getting on with the job of developing our water infrastructure, by working on projects which help us get through the next drought.”

“In recent weeks we’ve made progress to secure the pipe we’ll need to construct a new pipeline from Spring Creek dam to the water treatment works.

“We’ve also begun the process that will see an environmental review of the proposed new wetlands to extend our storm water harvesting system.”