Much of the Northern Rivers could be on water restrictions by Christmas unless there is significant rain.
The Rous County Council says it will introduce level one water restrictions when Rocky Creek Dam reaches 70 per cent capacity.
The threshold is a change from the usual trigger for level one restrictions of 60 per cent.
The dam is the primary source for around 100,000 people connected to town water in the Byron, Ballina, Richmond Valley and Lismore Local Government Areas, except in Mullumbimby, Wardell and Nimbin.
Water carters servicing off-grid customers in the same LGAs also rely on the dam for supply.
The dam was at 81 per cent capacity as of the latest update on Monday but Rous says if current consumption rates continue alongside forecasts of continued hot and dry weather, level one water restrictions are expected to be enacted before Christmas.
Why not bring in Level one now? It is clear from science that this is highly likely to be record low rainfall and high heat over summer, and it is unlikely we will have enough rain to replenish Rocky creek dam. So why wait for 70% The restrictions are not very onerous.
According to their website, Rous has three major water sources (Rocky Creek Dam (RCD), Emigrant Creek Dam (ECD) and Wilson River Source) and two smaller water supplies (Alstonville and Woodburn groundwater). It appears that (until recently (they may now be using ECD) they have only been using RCD as a water supply because the Wilsons River pump station was damaged in the floods 18 months ago and apparently the ECD Water Treatment Plant (WTP) needed maintenance. It is also Rous’s practice that the smaller supplies are not used until RCD drops below 60% capacity.
It would have been prudent for a temporary pumping system to have been implemented at Wilsons River in the 18 months since the flood and any required maintenance at ECD to have been completed when RCD was full in order to ensure security of supply. Not withstanding that, if those two major supplies where not available, the two smaller supplies could have been started up long before now to reduce the drawdown of RCD.
If ratepayers suffer from water restrictions impacting their businesses or households in the next 18 months, you would hope that Rous apologises for their poor performance in maintaining water security.