Glen Innes Council’s infrastructure services director Keith Appleby was confident of Glen Innes’ water security, as the announcement for almost $1 million in grant funds was confirmed last year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The funding will mean water restriction would be implemented much later into a drought period, Mr Appleby said.
The funds have been eartagged for improving the town’s water security and ensuring water restrictions would become less onerous in the event of extended drought conditions in the future.
“Ultimately, when this stage is completed we will have 14 months of water after the Beardy is emptied,” Mr Appleby said.
“In a repeat of this current drought, we would not have implemented water restrictions.”
Level four water restrictions were implemented in Glen Innes in October last year and were enforced for a 76 days under severe drought conditions. After significant rainfall over the New Year period, the Beardy weir, was replenished and water restrictions were officially lifted on January 6.
“It is a significant change. It satisfies the drought proof criteria that the stage government applies, allowing for population growth for 30 years.”
Mr Appleby said the 365 mega litre northern pit at Glen Innes Aggregates is currently filling naturally, and owing to its significant depth, will ensure a low evaporation rate.
“Evaporation is the thing that costs water in a drought,” he said.
“The Beardy Weir is 480 mega-litres, but only get to use 200 mega-litres of that. With this new storage we will get to use 90 per cent of the storage, plus 100 per cent of the bore water that comes in and the bores will give us more than half our flow on their own.”
Mr Appleby said the upgrade of the Red Range Road bores has been completed and are currently recording pleasing flow rates, with plans for another bore to be drilled at the off-stream storage site, as well as a 100kW solar system to address electricity costs.
