BATHURST’S Ben Chifley Dam is full to capacity for the first time this year.
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The water level at the catchment at The Lagoon has been rising since a heavy dump of snow hit the region last month and good rain this week finally tipped it over the spillway on Tuesday night.
It’s the first time the dam has been full since September last year and is a remarkable turnaround after the level dropped to about 70 per cent in May.
Councillor Michael Coote said it was great news going into what is predicted to be a dry spring and summer.
He said credit must be given to former mayor Ian Macintosh and the council of the day for having the foresight to raise the dam wall and keep Bathurst in water during even the driest times.
He believes it is time for Bathurst Regional Council to carry out a review of the dam wall and look at whether it can be raised again.
“In the last drought there was no need for Bathurst to go to restrictions, but with the region growing all the time we still need to have a look at it,” Cr Coote said.
He added that even though the dam is at full capacity, residents still need to be water wise going into a long, hot summer.
Bathurst Ag Station recorded 4.4 millimetres of rain on Sunday, 12.2mm on Monday, 12.6mm on Tuesday and 5.6mm on Wednesday.
However, many farmers around the region reported as much as 40mm of rain in their gauge.
“Isn’t it great?” Cr Coote said.
“It wasn’t that long ago we were down to 79 per cent capacity.”
With a few farmers in the family, Cr Coote said his eyes often turn to the sky over Bathurst to see if there is rain on the way.
He added this week’s steady rain has definitely been welcomed by those on the land.
Cr Coote said not only was it great to see the dam full, it was also great to see the manganese project, which aims to end Bathurst’s dirty water woes, up and running.
“Hopefully getting this plant working will stop the water problems we have seen in recent years,” he said.
Prior to this week’s rain, Ben Chifley Dam was sitting at 95 per cent.
The catchment area for Chifley Dam is 960 square kilometres.
The earth wall is 455 metres long and 34.4 metres high.
It has a concrete side channel spillway on the eastern side of the embankment.
There is also a six-bay, 172-metre wide emergency spillway excavated into natural material on the western side of the structure, designed to sequentially operate if the side channel spillway cannot cope with high flood flows.