A HOT, dry end to summer in the Bathurst region hasn't affected Chifley Dam, which remains in rude good health.
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Bathurst Regional Council says the dam, at the latest reading, was at 100.1 per cent.
It comes after a February in which the city regularly recorded temperatures in the early 30s and when rainfall was down on the long-term average - a far cry from the flooding back in November and the cool temperatures that prevailed well into late December.
Given the latest reading, council says Chifley Dam has now been spilling for 29 months - going back to around September 2020.
It's a remarkable run made all the more noteworthy by the fact Chifley Dam had been below 30 per cent only about six months before.
Not only that, but things were so dire in the region at one stage in 2020 that the Macquarie River stopped flowing just outside Bathurst.
Asked by the Western Advocate about the dam still being above 100 per cent despite the weather in February, Bathurst Regional Council said it did not come as a great shock.
"Council is not surprised that the usually productive Chifley Dam catchment of almost 1000 square kilometres has continued to provide water for the dam to keep spilling," council told the Advocate.
"Rain events across some or all of the catchment has generated ongoing stream flows."
Elsewhere in the region, Burrendong Dam, further down the Macquarie from Bathurst, is at 96 per cent; Wyangala Dam, on the Lachlan River south-west of Bathurst, is at 98 per cent; and Oberon Dam, on the Fish River at Oberon, is at 100 per cent.
When Burrendong dropped below 100 per cent recently, it was the first time in 15 months.
The dam went over its capacity in November 2021, peaking at over 130 per cent last year.
"Burrendong has a flood mitigation zone, a designated airspace to capture excess water for the purpose of flood mitigation, meaning water can be held above full supply level and released when downstream tributaries have reduced," Water NSW executive manager of operations Ronan Magaharan told Dubbo's Daily Liberal recently.
"The news of the dam falling below full supply level follows a difficult period in the Macquarie Valley. Operation staff has been centred on flood operations for many months now, with our expert planners working to manage unprecedented volumes of water.
"I'm incredibly proud of Water NSW staff who have worked closely with local communities over this testing period.
"With the storage moving out of FMZ [flood mitigation zone], our dam operators are now focused on maximising the resource available for customers and the environment."
