Clarence Valley Council - On Exhibition
Water Restrictions V5 (draft)
Outlines the triggers that we use to introduce or revoke water restrictions.
Purpose
To introduce or revoke water restrictions on the use of reticulated water in the Clarence Valley as required in accordance with the triggers nominated in the procedures and in compliance with relevant Acts.
This policy applies to all properties using water supplied by Council’s water supply infrastructure. The policy does not apply to the use of water from sources that are not part of Council’s water supply infrastructure such as farm dams, watercourses, bores, and rainwater tanks on properties that have no connection to Council’s water supply.
The Draft Water Restrictions policy is available here.
Council welcomes submissions to this policy. Submit online by 11:00 pm on Friday 25 June 2021 by clicking on the Make a Submission button below.
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| https://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/cp_themes/metro/make-a-submission.asp |
Alternatively, comments can be made in writing to the General Manager, Clarence Valley Council, Locked Bag 23, Grafton, NSW 2460 and clearly marked “Draft Water Restrictions Policy".
For further information about the draft policy, please contact Chris Hellyer, Environmental Officer, Education; Water Efficiency < Christopher.Hellyer@clarence.nsw.gov.au >.
NOTE: A major change in Water Restrictions V5 is that the trigger for imposition of Level 1,2, 3 & 4 water restrictions will no longer be the volume of water remaining in the Shannon Creek Dam, but the combined water volume in Shannon Creek and Karangi dams. This in effect will allow water extraction (without accompanying Level 1 water use restrictions) to continue after Shannon Creek Dam water levels have fallen below the current trigger point of 80% of this dam's water storage capacity.
On 17 June 2021 Shannon Creek Dam was 84% full and Karangi Dam was 99.2% full. This means that Permanent Water Conservation Measures are in place for the Clarence Valley - the use of sprinklers and unattended hoses is banned permanently between the hours of 9am and 4pm every day when evaporation is at its highest. However, there are no restrictions on handheld hoses or micro-sprays and drippers/sub-surface irrigation.
Given that Coffs Harbour City LGA contributes little to water storage in Karangi Dam (water supplied by Orara & Nymboida Rivers & Shannon Creek Dam) and nothing to storage in the Shannon Creek Dam (water supplied by Nymboida River) and, with no backfeed to Clarence Valley LGA according to Karangi Dam's daily data, it will be the higher water use of Coffs Harbour, with an est. resident population 33 per cent larger than Clarence Valley's population, which will all but guarantee that a return to Level 1 restrictions will likely occur before Spring arrives - even though the entire north-east region of NSW is now drought free and expecting more rain.
However it is not just the size of Coffs Harbor City's population which makes its water extraction levels potentially problematic. It's the fact that the resident population does not live in the Clarence River catchment area which leads to widespread misunderstanding of: (i) the boundaries of the actual catchment area; (ii) the highly variable nature of rivers within the system; the actual volume of freshwater flows; and (iii) the point at which the 394km long Clarence River itself - from its rising near Rivertree to its emptying into the sea at the tidal estuary mouth - starts to become saline and increasingly unfit for human and animal consumption as well as unfit to use for irrigation. That point is approximately at the end of the first 286km of its journey to the ocean. The combined average annual flow from the freshwater tributaries as this flow enters the Clarence River tidal pool appears to be in the vicinity of 3,072,884ML, which is perhaps a better indicator than the annual water exchange that occurs between the ocean and the estuary.
Clarence Valley residents will recognise these basic misunderstandings in this quote on Coffs Harbour City Council's website:
“Regardless of whether the water supplying Coffs Harbour City Council residents comes from the Orara River or the Nymboida River, our water all comes from the same catchment.
The mighty Clarence River catchment is 22,716km2 in size, making it the one of the biggest river systems on the east coast of Australia.
The Clarence River catchment headwaters are found around Dorrigo to the south, near Glen Innes in the west, the NSW/QLD border near Woodenbong in the north and along the Richmond Range to the south of Whiporie out to the coast where the Clarence River empties into the Pacific Ocean at Yamba. It is estimated that the average annual flow of water in the Clarence River at Yamba is 5 billion litres.”
