WE have all been concerned about the worrying water situation in Oberon, but it seems the situation is not as dire as we believed.
Warwick Battye-Smith, the operations manager from Fish River Water Supply, had very consoling news about Oberon’s water supply at Council’s August meeting.
The main theme of Mr Battye-Smith’s message was that Oberon was experiencing its worst drought on record, with the lowest rain record occurring between February 2006 and February 2007- a mere 282mm - but that Oberon’s water situation would not become desperate.
Mr Battye-Smith explained that even in the driest period the inflow into Oberon Dam was still 2000 megalitres, and last year’s outflows equalled inflows.
“This must be kept in the back of our minds when we are allocating and deliberating about the Oberon water situation,” he said.
Mr Battye-Smith praised the Oberon people and surrounding users for their efforts in preserving water.
He said that since water restrictions were introduced in Oberon, water usage has dropped from an average of 900 megalitres per year to 600 megalitres per year.
“I must commend the people of Oberon for their conscience effort in saving water,” he said.
Mr Battye-Smith also noted that during 2007-2008, other users of Oberon water made large savings - Delta Electricity saved 47 per cent and Sydney saved 70 per cent of their usual water usage.
“All customers are doing everything they can, as well as expenditure, to sustain the level in the Oberon Dam,” he said.
Mr Battye-Smith said the Fish River Water Supply and the State Water Board’s main aim was ensuring that no major centre would run out of water, which includes Oberon, and listed a number of projects that were occurring in order to maintain the water level in Oberon Dam.
“We are obviously not just sitting around watching the dam go down,” he said.
Some of these projects included constant hydro benthic surveys of the water, and constant surveillance of the Oberon Dam, connection of the timber complex to recycled effluent, the development of a reverse osmosis water reclamation plant for Delta Electricity and increased pumping of water for Sydney from Orchard Hills.
The effect of pine plantations on the catchment area was also addressed by Mr Battye-Smith.
Councillor John McMahon said he had read material that stated that in the first 30 years of a pine plantation, the uptake of water by the plantations was astronomical.
“It seems that there is a substantial impact of the pines on water, and I see it as a major problem when it comes to water,” he said.
Mr Battye-Smith said he believes this is not necessarily the case.
“Our call is that the pine plantations have not affected the level of water run-off radically,” he said.
Mr Battye-Smith said there was, at the time of the meeting, 6874 megalitres in the Oberon Dam, which is enough water to supply Oberon alone for nine years, and that average rainfall will sustain the level of the dam.
He assured the meeting that the Fish River Water Supply group meet every two months, and that as the water level goes down, the restrictions will increase to attempt to save water for Oberon users, including switching off major customers of the water supply to retain the water for Oberon’s use only.
“As the water level falls, we do more and more things in the background to stop it dropping more,” Mr Battye-Smith said.
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