Council wants to modify Winburndale Dam conditions after Supreme Court ruling

In 2019, a disagreement arose between council and the NSW Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) as to the correct interpretation of the operating licence conditions for the dam, north-east of Bathurst.

Bathurst has a raw water supply, used for parks, gardens, open space and some key and significant businesses in town which employ a large number of workers.

This supply, coming from Winburndale Dam, has also historically been relied upon to provide critical potable supply during drought of up to 1000 megalitres, or circa three months' supply.

According to council, the "secure yield" from Winburndale Dam has historically been of the order of 1030ML, but NRAR's interpretation of the operating conditions sees the secure yield drop to 28ML.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of NRAR's interpretation of the operating conditions in June, 2022.

READ MORE: Supreme Court orders council to keep dam releases equal to daily inflows

In a new report from council's director of Engineering Services, Darren Sturgiss, council states the matter was considered to have been "close and complex".

The Supreme Court judgement included the following comment: "The practical operation of the Dam may require an agreement between the council and the regulator."

Mr Sturgiss said the depth of the discussion in the judgement appeared to accept that the conditions for the flow rules were unclear.

"It also now appears that when the condition was put in place in 2004 that, while there was a desire to see increased releases to the rivulet, there was not much analysis about the extent of the flows that would arise from the conditions, with no specific targets or performance outcomes identified or analysed to justify the extent of the conditions," he said.

"Had the extent of the flows and impacts on the yield of the dam been understood at the time it is likely the challenge to the operating condition would have occurred then."

He said the current operating conditions render Winburndale Dam "ineffective and the impact on the city's overall water supply will significantly exacerbate the supply gap".

"This is viewed as a catastrophic outcome for the Bathurst water supply and an unacceptable risk precedent to town water supply dams statewide," Mr Sturgiss said.

Dam applications and modifications have recently been shifted from NRAR and placed into the jurisdiction of the DPE Water.

Mr Sturgiss said it is intended that a modification to the dam operating conditions will be undertaken and submitted to DPE Water, with those discussions already occurring.

"Going forward and picking up on elements of the judgement, particularly 'The practical operation of the dam may require an agreement between council and the regulator', both council and DPE Water will need to interact effectively to achieve a reasonable and practical resolution of the matter," he said.

"To that end, council staff and DPE Water staff have met recently and are progressing the application, looking forward to what is to be done to complete the analysis and look for best ways to get to a reasonable and practical outcome.

"There appears to be some scope to modify the conditions.

"It is intended that council continue to seek to resolve this matter to a reasonable and practical resolution through an application to modify the existing conditions to the NSW Government."

Mr Sturgiss said councillors will be kept updated and further consultation will be undertaken with other water users.

Council is also investigating a range of medium term and regional projects to ensure a good reliable water supply for Bathurst into the future.

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