State Water has been left in no doubt about Oberon's anger that Delta Electricity will still be allowed to draw water from Oberon Dam even when the dam drops below five per cent capacity.
Changes which have been made to Oberon Dam allocations and restrictions were announced at Tuesday night's Council meeting in front of a packed gallery.
It was announced that instead of Level 7 water restrictions being imposed in Oberon and supplies to major users being cut off at eight per cent capacity, Level 7 water restrictions will now be implemented at five per cent and even then Delta will still be allowed to draw four per cent of their allocation.
If this wasn’t enough to get both council and the residents’ blood boiling, State Water has also admitted they are not sure what the quality of the water will be when the dam gets to five percent and lower, or how much of this would in fact be water rather than silt.
State Water said that if Oberon has absolutely no inflows, Oberon Dam will be empty by January 2011.
Water delivery manager for State Water, Sri Sritharam, said that the Oberon dam water situation was in “dire straits” and announced a number of possible actions that are being investigated to alleviate the dwindling water supply. These included making modifications to Duckmaloi Weir to harvest more water and testing for ground water supplies.
Some of the suggestions were slammed by council members. Councillor Bob O'Bernier said that Oberon ground water tests were carried out a couple of years ago and that they found there to be little water to draw upon.
This point was echoed by town water drought manager Steve Palmer, who said possible emergency long-term options for Oberon included piping water from Ben Chifley Dam, running a pipeline from the Duckmaloi River to Oberon and, ultimately, carting drinking water into Oberon, for which Oberon could get government funding.
Mayor Keith Sullivan condemned the changes to allocations and restrictions, saying Oberon wants action taken to save Oberon's water.
“We are seeking a solution that will get our dam back to an acceptable level,” he said.
Cr Sullivan questioned why Delta Electricity is drawing on Oberon Dam when dams near the power station are at least half full.
Cr Sullivan also had concerns about the fact that Delta is currently able to operate on reduced water usage.
“If they can calmly operate on restrictions, why haven't they been doing it all along?” he asked.
When Cr Sullivan asked who made the decision about the changes to restrictions and allocation, State Water replied that the Fish River Water Supply Customer Council made the decision.
“That's like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank,” replied Cr Sullivan.
“How can you just impose this on a community?” he asked.
Councillors backed the mayor's concerns, with Councillor Bob Hooper saying that Oberon assisted financially with the building of the Oberon Dam and that the understanding at that time was that the last 10 per cent of water in the dam was for Oberon only. “You've broken the original agreement once it gets below 10 per cent,” he said.
Councillor Zsuzsanna Handelsmann voiced concerns about the fact that Oberon is set to grow in the coming 25 to 30 years and that an extra 1000 households could be drawing on Oberon Dam.
Councillor Clive McCarthy said that there were plans made in the 1960s to do work on Duckmaloi Weir, and he questioned why this still has not occurred.
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