Shoalhaven residents are warned that while no water restrictions are currently in place, continued dry weather is having an impact on river flows.
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If flow rates continue to drop Shoalhaven Water will be forced to introduced water restrictions across the region.
That was according to information made public by Shoalhaven Water via their website on Friday, December 15.
It read: “Although there are currently no water restrictions in place in the Shoalhaven, the continued dry weather is having an impact on river flows. Unless significant rainfall is received in our catchment area this can affect our capacity to pump water from the Shoalhaven River and water restrictions may be necessary. Customers are encouraged to monitor and self-limit their water usage.”
In October, the region’s director of water, Carmel Krogh, warned that inclement weather conditions would not be enough to save the Shoalhaven from water cuts, which were due to start on Monday, November 13.
At that time, despite a period of rainfall, Ms Krogh said: “At this point in time the storage-dam level is 89 per cent, so it’s trending the way we expected it would.”
According to the Shoalhaven Water website, the storage-dam level measured 93.9 per cent on Monday, December 11.
Rain forecast Ulladulla: http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/ulladulla.shtml
South Coast Rainfall and River Conditions: http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/flood/southcoast.shtml
Water cuts have been looming for some time now, and their introduction would mark a return to restrictions not seen by the Shoalhaven, since the big dry seven years ago.
Water for the northern Shoalhaven is pumped from the Shoalhaven River at Burrier – approximately 47km upstream of Shoalhaven Heads – to a 3,800 megalitre off-river storage dam at Bamarang, west of Nowra.
The water is then pumped to the Bamarang Water Treatment Plant, which supplies treated water to Berry, Shoalhaven Heads, North Nowra, Bomaderry and Cambewarra via the Pitt Street Reservoir. Residents of Greenwell Point, Culburra, Callala, Currarong and Huskisson/Vincentia also receive water from Bamarang via a pumping station at Brundee.
Further south, residents of St Georges Basin, Sussex Inlet, Berrara, Manyana and Bendalong receive their supply from Bamarang via Bewong or Vincentia, Sussex Inlet and Berringer reservoirs.
A pipeline beneath Lake Conjola supplies water to Fishermans Paradise and Lake Conjola residents from reservoirs in this area.
The urban areas of Nowra, Bomaderry and Terara are supplied with water from the Flatrock and Bamarang Water Treatment Plants, which also supply water to the Manildra factory.
The southern Shoalhaven water supply scheme supplies filtered water to the residents of Milton, Ulladulla, Narrawallee, Kings Point, Burrill Lake and Tabourie Lake.
Water gravitates from Porters Creek Dam through a dual pipeline system to the Pointer Mountain balance tank and then passes to the Milton Water Treatment Plant where it undergoes filtration and treatment. Water from the treatment plant passes into Milton reservoir and then gravitates to Narrawallee, North Ulladulla, West Ulladulla and Burrill Lake reservoirs on demand.
The distribution system extends south from Burrill Lake reservoir with a pipeline to Tabourie Lake.
“Our main (water) supply is from the Bamarang Water Treatment Plant and Burrier River. However, because there are rules relating to water storage plants and what we can extract and when we can extract ... when it gets to 90 mega litres per day we have to stop pumping because Bamerang is an off-creek storage dam … so it has very little or no catchment. It’s not designed to be filled from a catchment so when we stop pumping it will draw that water down.”
Ms Krogh likened the process to “topping up a bucket that is full from a tap".
“In good times we keep it full but we are always pumping out of it,” she said.
“When we stop pumping that level will keep drawing down and we will need to implement stage one water restrictions. There are about four levels of water restrictions.”
Read more: https://www.ulladullatimes.com.au/news/