Council to consider emergency water supply options

Emergency water supply measures will be discussed at an extraordinary council meeting next week.

Desalination plant employees demonstrate the loading of a Reverse Osmosis Filter at a Desalination Plant in Sydney. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)

Emergency water supply measures will be discussed at an extraordinary council meeting next week.

Bellingen Shire Council moved to Level 4 water restrictions on November 20 due to low rainfall and falling river levels.

And now, with recent rain providing no long term relief, council is in talks with the state government about installing a temporary desalination plant to treat river water taken from east of the town, in the tidal zone.

Council has written to the Minister for Water Property and Housing, Melinda Pavey and the Cross Border Commissioner and Regional Town Water Supply Coordinator James McTavish seeking emergency funding to establish a “temporary membrane reverse osmosis treatment module on the Bellinger River to feed the towns of Bellingen and the coast”.

The Bellinger River.

Bellingen Shire Council could not provide any details of where these discussions are at but confirmed an extraordinary meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday (December 11) at 9am to: ‘consider a report about processes and funding re emergency water supply for Bellingen’.

The agenda will be published on council’s website by close of business Friday.

Under Level 4 water restrictions the use of sprinklers, soaker hoses and hand-held hoses are banned and there should be no washing of cars or filling of pools or washing of houses or driveways.

In previous years when Bellingen Shire Council has implemented restrictions water use has increased so council has been performing patrols to try and minimise this form of ‘panic buying’.

Coffs Harbour City Council this week announced it would be implementing Level 1 restrictions from December 16.

“The trigger level for introducing Level 1 water restrictions is when the calculated combined storage of Karangi and Shannon Creek Dams falls to 80%,” council’s Director Sustainable Infrastructure Mick Raby said.

“Currently, it is slightly above the 80% mark.”