Council welcomes State funding to assist with cost of exploratory groundwater drilling

To assist with Council’s groundwater exploratory drilling member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall has announced funding of $500,000 from the NSW Government. Although this does not cover the full cost to Council of the exploratory drilling any funding support from the State Government is very welcome and eases the financial burden on our community.

The testing of bores is to provide emergency water to supplement existing water supplies if and when it was ever required. 

A total of 29 test bores have been drilled across Armidale and Guyra with limited success particularly in the Armidale area. In many instances across Armidale yields have not been enough to warrant the high cost of building the additional infrastructure to connect into the potable network. In Guyra however two sites have yielded excellent supply and are considered appropriate to connect subject to health tests and meeting approval for a Water Access licence.

Armidale Regional Council Mayor Cr Simon Murray said further analysis is required to determine whether the lower yielding test bores in Armidale can be funded by Council at this time.

“Council’s water fund does have reserves but the drought has placed a significant financial burden on those funds,” said Cr Murray.

“A commitment of $5.77 million from the water fund for the upgrade of the Puddledock Dam pipeline, costs already incurred for exploratory groundwater drilling and the additional costs of managing this drought have not been planned for.  “Having adequate reserves in the water fund are critical to ensure Council can manage its water infrastructure for the community in the long term, particularly if we have to deal with a water infrastructure failure.”

Published on 17 Feb 2020