"Even if we had a winter that was only half as dry as last winter, we'd still be in a very poor situation come the end of spring and start of summer at the end of this year."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Those were the words of councillor Jess Jennings, who fears that Chifley Dam won't get the recharge it needs to keep Bathurst out of dire straits next summer.
Bathurst Regional Council's latest dam reading, which was taken on Tuesday, found that the water level had dropped by one per cent to sit at 43.1 per cent.
The new figure followed what was an extremely dry April, where just 0.6 millimetres was recorded across the entire month, making it the second-driest on record.
The dam is also now 14 per cent lower than the same time last year and 37 per cent lower than in 2017.
Cr Jennings said his "biggest concern" was the degree of recharge Chifley Dam ends up with over winter.
If Bathurst's dry conditions continue, Cr Jennings feels harsher restrictions would be inevitable.
He said Bathurst Regional Council was looking closely for a way to address the dwindling supply of water.
"It's clearly getting increasingly desperate with every percentage that drops in the dam," he said.
"Council is marshaling serious resources together now to develop its longer term response, which is the drought management strategy, and conducting a working party to review all the factors that feed into water restriction regulations."
The working party is likely to look at is the trigger for level four/five (extreme) restrictions, currently when the dam hits 29 per cent.
Although he believes his fellow councillors are now more receptive to water saving measures, Cr Jennings doesn't expect the trigger points will change.
When council initially voted to adopt water restrictions, on October 17 last year, one of the councillors that was vehemently against the idea was deputy mayor Bobby Bourke.
At the time, he was frustrated that the trigger point for level three (high) restrictions was going to be increased to a dam level of 75 per cent.
As the dam has continued to fall, Cr Bourke said he is in support of measures to improve the situation, including utilising water from Winburndale Dam.
He also said he wouldn't stand in the way if the director of Engineering Services deemed it necessary to impose extreme restrictions.
"I'm going to support that decision. We've got to conserve water," Cr Bourke said.
