THE good news flowed at the Bathurst Water Filtration Plant on Monday.
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As a holding pond at the plant received water from Winburndale Dam for the first time, Bathurst Regional Council engineering services director Darren Sturgiss also said a rise is expected at Chifley Dam when the official measurement is taken on Tuesday.
It comes after what Mr Sturgiss said was about 50 millimetres that fell in the catchment for the dam (which was at just above 30 per cent when the last reading was taken last week) in recent rain.
Mr Sturgiss said the dam was receiving inflows from the Campbells River, which hadn't been the case for some time, and he expected the dam to be at about 34 per cent when the official recording was taken - though he stressed that was approximate.
The dam has been hovering at around 30 per cent since January 21 and was last at around 34 per cent at the end of last year.
Member for Bathurst Paul Toole and mayor Bobby Bourke were at the filtration plant to mark the completion of the project to connect the existing pipeline from Winburndale Dam to a holding pond (that holds four megalitres) at the plant.
Council says the project will allow it to transfer water from Winburndale Dam for use in the town water supply while works continue on the planning for and construction of a new pipeline from Winburndale Dam to the plant.
It will mean council is able 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).
Three megalitres would be around one-third of the city's households' daily use.
Cr Bourke acknowledged there had been frustration in Bathurst as the dam dropped and restrictions tightened.
"Council was not just sitting back and doing nothing," he said. "We got out there and we said, look, we've got to start some short-term projects and, working with the state government, this is what we've done.
"We've got stormwater harvesting [in the planning stage], we've got this pipeline connected already to our filtration plant.
"The [Winburndale] pipeline is going to be renewed so we can have more pressure and water coming out there."
Mr Toole said the NSW Government had been clear that it would not allow towns and cities to run out of drinking water and "that is why we are providing support to local councils".
He said the NSW Government had placed Bathurst on the critical needs list and had provided $14 million to Bathurst Regional Council for water security projects.
Mr Sturgiss said the Fish River was still running at the moment, so council does not need to release water out of Chifley Dam except for environmental reasons.
"We'll use it [the Winburndale water] as we need. So, right now, it [the new connection to the holding pond] will be turned off until we do," he said.
Mr Toole and Cr Bourke both said it was good to see a local company, Eodo, being used for the project at the filtration plant and the project to strengthen the Winburndale Dam wall.