An unusually wet winter and spring had seen the dam’s level at more than 100 per cent since last winter, but summer has brought a different story.

The latest data posted by Bathurst Regional Council shows the dam is now sitting at 96.6 per cent capacity, with 29,000 million litres of water in storage.

That’s the lowest level the dam has seen since last June but it’s still in a much healthier position than 12 months ago.

Council says there is no longer any inflow into the dam and daily consumption of filtered water hit an average of 28.2 megalitres over the past week as the worst of summer took hold.

That’s the equivalent of 11.3 Olympic-size swimming pools of filtered water being used each day and is about 50 per cent greater than the region’s average use.

Treated water being returned to the Macquarie River is averaging 7.3 megalitres a day. The dam stood at around 81 per cent capacity this time a year ago.

Ben Chifley Dam is at The Lagoon, about 20 kilometres south of Bathurst.