BATHURST Regional Council is looking to again consolidate the city’s water supply by raising the Ben Chifley Dam wall a second time.
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And council believes the Local Government Fit for the Future Fund could be just the avenue on which to base a campaign to tackle the initiative.
It was back in the late 1990s that council first moved to raise the dam wall at the local impoundment at The Lagoon.
That $30 million initiative came to fruition in early 2000 when the then premier Bob Carr officially opened the upgrade on February 13.
The initiative added around five metres to the height of the dam wall, doubled the capacity from 16 million litres to 30.8 million litres, and set the region in good stead on the eve of a decade-long drought that many people described as the worst in living memory.
Mayor Gary Rush and Bathurst MP Paul Toole believe the project is viable, claiming it ticks all the boxes to qualify for cheap finance in a Fit for the Future Fund loan.
“Let’s go up again,” Cr Rush said yesterday.
“The dam’s at 100 per cent of capacity at the moment, and heading into summer the region is in great shape when it comes to a safe and secure water supply.
“But, we should never rest on our laurels. There is always the concern that at some stage we will need more water for our growing population.
“Projections are that by 2031 there will be about 52,000 people living here. That’s 30 per cent growth on what we have now.”
Cr Rush said going up just a metre or two would lead to substantial gains in capacity at the dam.
A council engineering department spokesperson said yesterday a one metre increase in the dam wall would pick up an extra 3000 million litres, or a gain of 10 per cent, while a two metre increase would pick up 25 per cent, or just over 7000 million litres.
“I can’t think of a better time than around our Bathurst 200 celebration to start talking about this project,” Cr Rush said. “And with moves to reform local government to make it viable long term, the Fit for the Future Fund offers cheap finance that could fund something of this magnitude.
“So long as we can show our debt repayment ratios are in order, there is every good reason the money should be there for us,” he said. “But, we need to start investigating this now, so we get the job done and when water is in short supply it hasn’t been left too late.”
Mr Toole said the dam wall project would be something he would back through his role as the Minister for Local Government.
“It ticks all the boxes for the Fit for the Future Fund,” he said.
“This is the type of project we would be committed to supporting through the State Borrowing Authority which allows councils to borrow at a much lower interest rate.
“And on top of that, there is money put aside to target water security across many regions. This is a great opportunity for Bathurst to explore its options at Chifley Dam now and show the kind of foresight it did back in the late 1990s.
“I was on Evans Shire Council back then and we believed it was a great decision. Post amalgamation, when I was mayor of Bathurst, a big selling point with investors wanting to come to our area was our water security.
“There were some dry times and they all wanted to know what our water supply was like. The fact Bathurst never had to have water restrictions was a big selling point.”
Cr Rush said that since the dam wall was raised in 2000, it had been at capacity in October 2000, December 2007, August 2010 all the way through to August 2012, August 2013 and October 2014.
