Bathurst council to prepare tentative assessment of viability of raising Chifley Dam wall

For years, numerous people have suggested that council embark on another wall raising effort to shore up Bathurst's water supply for years to come.

READ ALSO: Renewed call to raise dam wall after three years' worth of water lost

However, the anticipated cost of such a project has made council hesitant and it may very well be that the idea will finally be put to rest.

Councillor Ian North's presented a notice of motion to last week's ordinary meeting, requesting a working party to get updates on several points related to water security.

Cr Jess Jennings asked for another item be added to the list: an assessment of the viability of raising the dam wall.

"It's been bandied around quite a lot. I was one of the first to mention it, say five years ago, when the Regis water debate was on, and I like the idea of it. The more I looked into it, the more it seemed like it was pretty much impossible - and I think way off the scale impossible is the reality," he said.

"It's not a physically impossible job, but if putting an extension on an extension doesn't work, if you've got to pull the whole dam down and restart from scratch, we're talking at least, I'm guessing, say round figures $400 million."

He said it would be "unrealistic" for a city with Bathurst's population to expect to receive $400 million to raise the dam wall unless it was part of bigger project across the Central West.

With that in mind, he said it was time to finally determine its viability.

"I'd like to see us either come up with a tentative assessment that says, 'Yes, this is viable, because we think the cost is less or we can add on', and then we make it part of this council's future short to medium term agenda, or we cross it off the list and stop talking about it, because I'm kind of getting sick of it to be honest," Cr Jennings said.

Cr North agreed to add the tentative assessment to the list of items to be discussed at the working party.

The other items on that list that council staff have been asked to provide updates on includes the stormwater harvesting project, Winburndale Dam wall strengthening project, Winburndale pipeline augmentation project, Winburndale water release matter, groundwater assessment, and irrigation allocations.

Another item was also added in at the request of deputy mayor Ben Fry, which is to have a separate working party to include representatives of the Winburndale Water Conservation Group.

This working party would be an opportunity to keep those members of the community involved in the discussions and further hear their concerns, which council's director of Engineering Services said would be possible to do.

Council didn't nominate a date for the working party, but Cr North wants it to be held as soon as possible to bring new councillors up to speed as council prepares to go to court.

Council's pursuit to challenge an official caution from the Natural Resources Access Regulator for an alleged breach in its Winburndale Dam licence was transferred the Supreme Court of NSW in late 2021.

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