Published 18 June, 2010

Our water storage, Windamere Dam, located 30km upstream of Mudgee (on the Cudgegong River) is currently storing about 60,000ML - this is 16% of the dam’s total capacity (one Megalitre ML is 1 million litres, think Olympic sized pool).

State Water estimates in its latest Conservative Water Storage and Usage Budget that the dam will store somewhere between 3%-17% over the next 7 years. This is the balance of inflows from rainfall run-off over its 1000km2 catchment, and usage by current water users in the Cudgegong Valley. Current water users in the Cudgegong Valley include Council (urban), stock & domestic, irrigators (with High or General Security licences) and water conservation (i.e. environmental flows).

Put in real terms this estimate means, annually, we will have somewhere between 11,000ML and 73,000ML stored water. Restrictions can be imposed by the NSW Office of Water on any/all of the water user groups but they occur in order of their licence security.
Last week, representatives from the Cudgegong Valley Water Committee (CVWC) attended the State Water Customer Services Committee (SWCSC) quarterly meeting.

The role of these quarterly meetings is to ensure that all stakeholders are represented and that Water Sharing Plans are implemented. CVWC developed our Water Sharing Plan back in 1998, based on the stakeholders present in the valley at the time.
On the agenda for the day was a presentation by consultants representing the Cobbora Coal Mine consortium – the mine being a potential new water user in the valley. The mine is not yet licensed to any private coal mining company, so essentially these consultants are representing the current ‘owners’ of the minerals, the NSW Government.

Watershed spoke to CVWC representative Trevor Crosby who attended the meeting. “The Cobbora Coal Mine consortium estimates the mine would require approximately 3400ML of high security water per year to operate” he said. “About 1000ML worth of high security water licenses are under negotiation from existing Cudgegong Valley license holders. It’s important to note however, that currently, many high security licenses in the valley are not being used to their full amount, or at all (called Sleeper Licenses). The balance (2400ML) is under transaction (transfer) from downstream catchment, Macquarie Valley, into the Cudgegong Valley. This transfer would represent additional water to be drawn from Windamere Dam supplies via the Cudgegong River (which would be extracted near Yamble Bridge). The consortium is also exploring other potential water sources including groundwater and Ulan Coal Mine”. 

Trevor continued, “Of major concern to water licence holders in the Cudgegong Valley is the effect on water allocation reliability. The Cudgegong Valley total water usage for 2009-10 was 5100ML. An additional major stakeholder could mean that existing water users would have to take a restriction in allocation. Also, the amount required by the mine does not include transmission losses when using the river as a conduit to transfer water”, he said.

There will be a community meeting in Mudgee in the near future so stay tuned.