Pipeline and storm water boost water supply

The Macquarie to Orange Pipeline is flowing fast after rainfalls in the region over the weekend.

The pipeline coupled with the inflows from Orange’s storm water harvesting scheme is working to help maintain Orange’s water supply.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said the city was well placed to weather the drought the state was experiencing.

“People should still be vigilant and conserve water where they can,” Cr Kidd said.

“Council made the tough decisions in the past and fought hard to get the Macquarie Pipeline project off the ground and the storm water harvesting scheme constructed, and we’re now reaping that benefit.

“Our Suma Park water storage level is at about 47 per cent, and it would be a lot lower if we hadn’t used the pipeline in February to top up the dam.

“The storm water harvesting scheme is working beautifully with about 168ML in a storage pond and about 6.5 ML per day has flowed into Suma Park dam in the past 10 days.

“While these methods are boosting our supply, we won’t completely escape the effects of the drought we’re in and we need to work together to reduce our water consumption.”

Deputy Mayor and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Romano said it was important everyone in the community did their bit to reduce water usage.

“We all need to do our bit to save water and a few changes around the house will help,” Cr Romano said.

“It’s fantastic that our community is using less than 170 litres per person per day.

“If we can reduce our water usage even further and we get a few good spring and summer rains we can avoid level 3 water restrictions.

“The good news is, the water level has remained steady over the last two weeks because of the good inflows from the storm water harvesting scheme.