A decision to implement water restrictions divided the community, but councillor Jess Jennings has stressed that Bathurst Regional Council made the right call.
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When the vote occurred on October 17, requiring the mayor to break a tie, Cr Jennings was the only councillor absent from the chamber.
His vote would not have changed the outcome, however, as he felt the city had to conserve water ahead of what was forecast to be a very hot and dry summer.
Council's director of Engineering Services, Darren Sturgiss, had maintained that having water restrictions was about conserving water so Bathurst was in better shape for the 2019-20 summer.
This was because Chifley Dam was sitting much lower than normal heading into the current summer.
Cr Jennings has since crunched the numbers himself and found that lower than average rainfall during 2018 had pushed Bathurst into "uncharted territory".
"What I've done is looked at the graph on council's web page and graphed the average dam level for November from 2002 to 2017," he said.
"The average dam level in that 15 year period was 92.5 per cent and the lowest point in that was around 70 per cent.
"Our November [2018] recording for the dam was below 60 per cent, and when you look at the graph in those terms, you see how serious this situation is. We have never been in a scenario where we haven't had that recharge over winter."
Making the situation even more alarming, Cr Jennings said the dam could fall below 30 per cent over summer if there isn't significant rainfall in the right places.
"If you look at where we are now, which is about 58 per cent, there's a fair chance we could lose 10 per cent of the level per month over the next three months," he said.
If the dam were to drop by that much, it would also put Bathurst on level four (extreme) water restrictions.
READ ALSO: Your guide to water restrictions in Bathurst
That would mean lawns cannot be watered, watering of gardens would be limited to two days a week and only with a bucket, pools can’t be topped up and showers need to be less than four minutes.
Cr Jennings said residents had to continue to conserve water and trust that council had made the right call.
“Bear in mind, the engineer that we’ve got has personally witnessed water restrictions in Goulburn when the town virtually ran out of water, so he knows what it looks like to be in that dire circumstance,” he said.
“And what [council staff] have done is the best possible effort to maintain a stable water supply for the longest possible period.”