Tamworth Regional Council water restrictions: Level 5 drops to Level 4 as recent rainfall buys more time on emergency water supply plan

Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) will drop restrictions to Level 4 at the end of the month, which will afford residents an extra 50L of water per day.

The garden still won't get a drink and the council's water and waste director Bruce Logan said the city is far from over the hump.

"I think that we deserve, the people of Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal deserve to have restrictions eased whenever they can be," he said.

"I don't think moving from Level 5 to Level 4 really projects that we are out of the woods as far as water restrictions go.

"I think no-one can claim that at the moment, the dam can fall just as easily as go up so we are still certainly in severe water restrictions at Level 4."

The move will take place from Monday next week and will see individual consumption targets moved from 150L per person, per day to 200L.

Chaffey Dam is at 25.3 per cent full, a welcome relief for council staff who were at the ready with an emergency water supply plan to sustain the city if it hit Day Zero.

Stage one of the plan was initiated immediately and focused on short-term gains and improvements to the city's existing supply.

Recent rainfall has bought the council time before it has to look at a major emergency pipeline to Copeton, Split Rock or Keepit dams.

Mr Logan said the second phase of the emergency water supply plan is not expected to kick off anytime soon.

"Stage two of the plan doesn't start until we felt we were 18 months away from Day Zero, when Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal were going to run out of water," he said.

"My message is pretty clear, we are on Level 4 water restrictions, which in anyone's book is very severe water restrictions.

"There's still no use of outdoor treated water and I would encourage everyone to continue to conserve water indefinitely - there's never the right time to not conserve water."

Under the new restrictions, residents are still barred from using potable water outdoors unless it's for health, safety, hygiene or welfare needs.

Recycled, greywater and rainwater can be used and car windows, windscreens, number plates and mirrors can be washed with buckets only.

There's still no irrigation of outdoor industrial or commercial green space and pools cannot be filled or topped up using the town water supply.

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Mr Logan said he is hopeful if the rain continues that residents could be moved to Level 3 restrictions sooner rather than later, when Chaffey Dam hits 30 per cent capacity.

Asked why Level 5 restrictions would not continue considering residents had adapted well to the change, Mr Logan said he felt the conditions were seriously tough.

"That's particularly onerous in my view and I think we should be relaxing those restrictions when there's water available to do that," he said.

"We do need to watch the water we use but as long as people exercise restraint and conserve their water when given the opportunity to do so, then we'll be fine."

The new water restrictions have been signed off by TRC and will come into play on August 31, more information is on the website.

Water for Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal is currently sourced from Dungowan Dam, the Peel River Pump station and two of the drift wells at Scott Road.