A plan to pipe water from Keepit Dam to Tamworth has sparked a fight over the Namoi, with Member for Barwon Roy Butler warning downstream communities should not pay the price for the city’s growth.
Tamworth Regional Council is proposing a pipeline to Keepit Dam to secure the city’s water supply during drought.
Mr Butler said that would be fundamentally unfair, and that Tamworth should take any growth in its water use from its own local irrigators, rather than from communities downstream.
“Keepit Dam on the Namoi River is a key resource that provides critical human needs, keeps crops irrigated and maintains strong communities downstream,” Butler said.
Tamworth currently gets its water from Chaffey Dam, through releases down the Peel River.
“Chaffey Dam currently supplies Tamworth via water releases down the Peel River, much of which are lost to seepage,” Butler said.
“There is a pipeline from Chaffey that doubles the amount of water that arrives in Tamworth during low-flow releases, but it is currently only used during drought.”
Mr Butler believes the answer is already in the ground.
“The obvious solution, which doesn’t require construction of any new infrastructure, is for Tamworth to use the Chaffey pipeline much of the time,” Butler said.
“This would have the effect of doubling the amount of water that can be delivered from Chaffey Dam.”
He also wants irrigators closer to Tamworth to have the option of selling water back.
“Peel Valley irrigators should be offered a voluntary buyback with this water being redirected to Tamworth’s town water supply,” Butler said.
Under the Namoi Water Sharing Plan, any growth in water use by the city of Tamworth needs to be offset by irrigators in the Namoi Valley.
“Why should irrigators in the Lower Namoi be forced to subsidise Tamworth, when the impacts could be confined to Tamworth’s own Peel Valley?” Mr Butler said.
Butler said he raised the Chaffey pipeline with the NSW Government earlier this year.
“Earlier this year, I asked Water Minister Rose Jackson to consider the Chaffey pipeline as an option,” Butler said.
“I’m disappointed that we still don’t have any clarity on this issue, which is causing unnecessary alarm in downstream communities.”
Downstream towns such as Narrabri do not draw their drinking water from the river, but Mr Butler said the stakes for the district were still high.
“While towns such as Narrabri rely on sub-artesian bore water rather than river water, the district’s irrigators are major contributors to the local economy,” Butler said.
“A growing Tamworth is good for the region, but not at the expense of downstream irrigators and downstream economies.”
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