Cr Kevin Walker (Deputy Chairman of CTW), Mr Paul Toole MP (Member for Bathurst), Mr Sam Farraway (Nationals MLC) and Mr Gavin Rhodes (General Manager of CTW).
Central Tablelands Water (CTW) has welcomed the NSW Government funding announcement of $1 million for the completion of a feasibility study into the Lake Rowlands dam extension as part of its emergency response to the drought in regional NSW.
The Member for Bathurst, Paul Toole and Nationals MLC, Sam Farraway were at Lake Rowlands to make this important funding announcement last week.
Mr Paul Toole, said, “Preliminary studies will be completed by CTW to bring the project to the shovel ready stage. These studies will include engineering design, review of environmental factors, secure yield and cost benefit analysis.”
Gavin Rhodes, General Manager of CTW said, “This project is the first stage of the Lake Rowlands Augmentation three stage concept. Stage 1 involves raising the height of the existing dam wall by 2.2 metres which will increase the capacity from 4.5 gigalitres to 8 gigalitres. This will help shore up the water security needs of our existing consumers now and well into the future.”
“The second stage is the linking of Lake Rowlands to Carcoar Dam of which a final business case is currently underway by WaterNSW.”
“CTW has been lobbying continuously for over 20 years for the enlargement of Lake Rowlands, so it is extremely pleasing to be moving forward on this important water se- curity project,” Mr Rhodes said.
Mr Farraway said, “To ensure water security well into the future and build our econ- omy, planning must start on the necessary infrastructure. The Government has moved quickly and decisively to assist regional NSW during this drought. We know communities are doing it tough and need our support to ensure water security for residents and businesses.”
“WaterNSW is expected to release their business case for the pipeline linkage project by mid 2020 and, with the completion of preliminary studies for the Lake Rowlands Dam expansion, we can be ready to start building the infrastructure this region needs,” Mr Farraway said.