Mayor Peter Petty would love to see Tenterfield Dam opened up to recreational endeavours, but expensive upgrades to the filtration system would have to happen first to protect the town’s drinking water supply.
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Councillor Petty was responding to calls to allow fishing and other water sports on the dam, and agrees that it is a tourism opportunity going begging. The relatively small size of the dam and the age of the filtration infrastructure, however, makes that a longer term prospect.
The dam had an 827 megalitre capacity when it was constructed in 1931, increasing to 1.15 gigalitres in 1974 when the dam wall was raised by 1.83 metres. This is meagre in contrast to other nearby dams used for recreation, such as Inverell’s Pindari Dam (312 gigalitres), Toowoomba’s Cressbrook Dam (82 gigalitres), or even Stanthorpe’s Storm King Dam (2.2 gigalitres).
These dams were also constructed later than Tenterfield Dam, boasting more modern filtration systems.
“As mayor I fully support the full recreational use of the dam, and I will pursue that,” Cr Petty said.
“If we start using the dam now, however, water filtration costs would have to be budgeted.”
While Cr Petty commended Trevor Hardie for bringing the issue to the fore – via the latter’s letter in the January 11 edition of the Tenterfield Star – the issue has already been on council’s radar for some time. A strategic plan was drawn up in 2013 but advice from NSW Health and the NSW Office of Water was not to proceed without financially-onerous risk assessments and mitigation measures in place.
Other costs to be found from council’s operation budgets would include infrastructure for access points, fencing, ramps, etc; staffing expenses; and additional monitoring of water quality and chemical usage. Ongoing expenses would have to be covered on a user-pays system or even rate increases.
In his 2015 report to council, Strategic Planning & Environmental Services director James Ruprai estimated the cost of setting up additional water treatment to be in the order of $250-500,000 plus $15-20,000 a year in ongoing costs for additional testing alone, out of reach for a council striving to meet Fit For The Future goals.
Mr Ruprai said the dam is also prone to blue green algae outbreaks, which can also pose a health risk to recreational users. (Treatment at the filtration plant addresses that issue for water leaving the dam.)
Cr Petty reminded community groups that they are able to put in a development application to host a one-off event at the dam provided organisers can manage the site and activities appropriately, as Rotary did back in 2013, and council staff are happy to discuss any event ideas.
“In time I would love to see recreational use of the dam – to see the high school skulling team on the dam, for instance -- but we’re not going to make a silly decision and we’ve got take the advice of the Office of Water,” he said.
Cr Petty said he would never support the use of fuel-powered craft due to the risk of contamination, but people enjoying themselves in electric or man-powered craft would be a great sight on the dam.
“It would add another attraction to Tenterfield, but it’s one step at a time,” he said.