IT COULD be another month before the Peel River pump station is operating on its full suite of motors.
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The facility went into meltdown last week after a suction line was allegedly broken by a contractor carrying out refurbishment works and saw the three pump station motors damaged by water.
One pump was returned to service less than 48 hours after the major failure, while the city and Moonbi-Kootingal were placed on emergency level three restrictions.
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Tamworth Regional Council’s acting director of water and waste, Dan Coe, a second pump will be back in operation from Friday.
“The pump returned to service last Thursday has been operating without any issues,” Mr Coe said.
“Yesterday the motor for the second pump was returned and reinstalled.
“All going well, this second pump should be operations today or tomorrow.
“This means we will have a back up pump, ready to use if needed.”
The third pump will be out of action for at least another month.
Council water director Bruce Logan said, last week, compensation was being sought from the contractor blamed for the damage and estimated “$20,000 would probably be the ceiling” for the repair costs.
“The third pump at the station will be out of service for a month or so,” Mr Coe said.
“This was always going to be the case as the incident which put the pump station out of action took place when this pump was being removed for preventive maintenance/refurbishment.”
The pump station had a “major failure” last Wednesday morning and council enforced immediate level three restrictions and banned all outdoor watering.
Tamworth, Moonbi-Kootingal, Barraba and Attunga are now on permanent water conservation measures.
Bendemeer is on level one restrictions, Manilla was recently lifted to level two, while Nundle is on level three.