THE city's water supply will soon be boosted by around three megalitres a day - enough to satisfy just under one-third of the total daily household use - thanks to a new connection at the Bathurst Water Filtration Plant.
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Bathurst Regional Council is still working on the planning for and construction of a new pipeline from Winburndale Dam to the filtration plant.
In the meantime, though, a pipeline is being built to join the existing wood stave pipeline from Winburndale Dam, east of Bathurst, to a lagoon at the plant.
It will allow council to supplement the existing water supply from Chifley Dam, or the Fish River, with around three megalitres per day from Winburndale (whose water has until now been used primarily for irrigating council parks, gardens and sporting fields).
According to council, Bathurst households' water use is now averaging less than 10 megalitres per day compared with 17 megalitres at the same time of the year in 2019.
Bathurst households were using 22 megalitres a day in 2018.
Mayor Bobby Bourke inspected the progress on the new connection at the filtration plant recently.
"The Winburndale Dam is now around 85 per cent, so it would be good to use a bit of that water sooner rather than later," he said.
He said the connection to the wood stave pipeline would relieve some of the pressure on the Chifley Dam supply while council worked on its other water security projects.
Site manager Jack Goddard, from the construction company Eodo, said water from Winburndale may be flowing into the lagoon at the filtration plant as soon as this week.
Council says the water will then be transferred from the lagoon into the filtration plant for treatment.
As well as the planned new Winburndale Dam pipeline, council is working on a stormwater harvesting project - in which urban runoff will be collected, treated and then used to supplement the town water supply - to improve the city's water security.
Council has received $12 million in funding from the NSW Government for water security projects.
