REBUFFED once, Bathurst Regional Council is making another attempt to buy water from Oberon Dam.
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The Bathurst council is arguing that it should be able to get access to the water from the dam - which has the Sydney Catchment Authority as a licence holder - because of the significant rain that fell on the coast earlier this month.
Bathurst Regional Council applied for a water allocation from Oberon Dam last year, but found out in October its request would not be supported.
The NSW Government advised then that the water would be required to meet the critical supply needs for other customers, including the Blue Mountains, and it was unlikely there would be a surplus to help Bathurst.
Bathurst Regional Council general manager David Sherley said a new request, which is looking to buy some of the Energy Australia entitlement out of the dam, has been made now that the circumstances in parts of NSW have changed.
"There's been significant increases in the Sydney basin water storages and on that basis we're going to see, through the state government, if there may be an option to again revisit the purchasing of that water," he said.
The council is prepared to spend around $4 million on buying the water, which would give Bathurst's supply a big boost.
"We believe that purchasing this will give us around six months of extra water," Mr Sherley said.
As of Tuesday, Bathurst's Chifley Dam sat at 29.5 per cent, down 0.1 per cent from the previous week. Oberon Dam is at 26.44 per cent.
Oberon Dam is owned by Water NSW.
Oberon has a water allocation of 1064 megalitres per annum as a licence holder, Sydney Catchment Authority has an allocation of 3650ML, Lithgow City Council 1778ML, Energy Australia 8184ML and minor consumers 200ML.
