Safety upgrades are already under way at Winburndale Dam which provides raw water for the city’s gardens and playing fields, while again raising the dam wall at Ben Chifley Dam is back on the agenda as the region’s population approaches the key 50,000 mark.

Upgrading the dams has been highlighted as an “economic enabler” for the region in Bathurst Region Economic Development Strategy 2018-2022 to go before Bathurst Regional Council on Wednesday night.

At the same time, a report tby engineering services director Darren Sturgiss has looked at the benefits of raising the Chifley Dam wall as part of a discussion about water security in the region.

Mr Sturgiss notes that raising the dam wall by five metres from 1999-2001 effectively doubled the capacity of the dam, but says raising it again would require the spillway and spillway outlet to be enlarged as “it is currently at maximum capacity”.

“For maintenance and management purposes, council owns the land bordering Chifley Dam up to the level of the probable maximum flood,” the report states.

“A larger dam would require more land to be purchased from land owners and relocate the cabins, recreation facilities, amenities and waste water pumping infrastructure. The discharge pipework valves and scour capacity would also need to be enlarged.

“Council currently releases 4.5 megalitres per day under current licence conditions. Should the dam capacity be increased this will increase and council may be required to provide a ‘fish ladder’.”

The report says the dam’s capacity would increase by about 10 per cent with each one metre the wall was raised.

“To obtain a 50 per cent increase in capacity the wall would need to be raised by approximately five metres,” the report states.

“Preliminary costs for increasing the dam wall height have not been investigated, however, costs would be in excess of the previous dam wall raising. That was $30 million in 2001.”