Projects

Lake Rowlands Augmentation Proposal

In August 2019 and during the worst drought on record, Central Tablelands Water developed a briefing paper on the augmentation of Lake Rowlands. The briefing paper was based on a three (3) staged approach, being: Stage 1 – Raising of Lake Rowlands dam wall increasing storage capacity from 4.5GL to 8GL; Stage 2 – Pipeline linkage between Lake Rowlands & Carcoar Dam, to transfer and store surplus water from Lake Rowlands into Carcoar Dam; and Stage 3 – New Dam 2.5km downstream of existing Lake Rowlands Dam increasing storage capacity from 4.5GL to 26.5GL.

This staged approach was presented by a delegation from Central Tablelands Water to the NSW Minister for Water, Property and Housing, the Hon Melinda Pavey MP on 6 August 2019 at Parliament House in Sydney, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon Michael McCormack MP and the Federal Member for Calare, Hon Andrew Gee MP on 16 October 2019 at Parliament House in Canberra.

After continuous lobbying by Central Tablelands Water and with the support of the Central NSW Joint Organisation of Councils, Minister Pavey in November 2019 announced funding of $1 million for the completion of a feasibility study into the Lake Rowlands dam augmentation as part of its emergency response to the drought in regional NSW.

The Lake Rowlands Augmentation feasibility study will investigate three augmentation options being:

• Option 1 – raise the height of the existing dam wall by 2.2 metres which will increase the capacity from 4.5GL to 8GL. This will help shore up the water security needs of CTW’s existing consumers now and well into the future;
• Option 2 - construct a new dam 2.5km downstream to complement Lake Rowlands Dam – increasing the total storage capacity of the combined dams to 15.5GL, and
• Option 3 - construct a new dam 2.5km downstream to replace Lake Rowlands Dam – increasing the total storage capacity of the combined dams to 26.5GL.

Options 2 and 3 will provide regional water security benefits via existing pipeline interlinkages and new potential pipeline linkages.

The augmentation of Lake Rowlands also has a strong nexus with the linking of Lake Rowlands to Carcoar Dam Pipeline project of which a final business case is currently underway by Water Infrastructure NSW (WINSW), the new central agency under the Department of Planning Industry and Environment (DPIE) for delivering critical Water infrastructure projects in NSW.  The Lake Rowlands to Carcoar Dam Pipeline option aims to enable the bi-directional transfer of a quantity of surplus water from the Central Tablelands Water operated Lake Rowlands to Carcoar Dam, operated by WaterNSW.

The spills from Lake Rowlands have environmental and downstream user benefits, of which the impacts will be considered during the proposed augmentation study.

By combining these vital water security projects during the assessment and final business case stage, and if approved to proceed with full project delivery, it will enable the maximisation of benefits to be realised whilst improving water security for the region.

The Lake Rowlands Augmentation feasibility study is expected to be completed by mid-2022 and will be submitted to the NSW Government for approval to proceed with augmentation construction.

CTW logo

30 Church Street BLAYNEY NSW 2799
Postal Address: PO BOX 61, BLAYNEY NSW 2799
Ph: (02) 6391 7200
email: water@ctw.nsw.gov.au

QUICKLINKS

FOOTER-WATERMARK-LOGO-91X150

© 2019 Central Tablelands Water | Website by Ready Marketing