Tamworth Regional Council water 'mismanagement': NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey hits back at council criticism

"It is astounding the council is rallying against the government that secured millions of dollars in water infrastructure to further improve water security for Tamworth," a spokeswoman said.

"The NSW Government has prioritised Tamworth through the construction of the Chaffey Dam to Dungowan pipeline and the prioritisation of the replacement of Dungowan Dam.

"Water for Tamworth was carefully managed for town use and emergency infrastructure was funded, planned and constructed in record time to ensure the town didn't run out of water."

The spokeswoman said while Ms Pavey applauded the council's goal of a 100,000 population by 2040, there are constraints that would place on a finite amount of water.

"Council's proposed plans would impact the farm gates which supply the produce and stock to the industry in Tamworth, who ultimately creates the jobs," she said.

A BARRAGE of criticism has been unleashed by Tamworth Regional Council councillors fed up with the state government's "mismanagement" of the town water supply down to a 14 per cent trickle.

A report written by water and waste director Bruce Logan detailed issues with water sharing plans, the new Chaffey Dam pipeline and the release of 3ML of water from the dam each day regardless of rainfall that he feels have not been addressed by NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey.

The councillors voted unanimously to elect Mr Logan as a representative on the Peel Environmental Water Technical Advisory Group that makes decisions in relation to the new pipeline.

Scathing in his remarks was councillor Mark Rodda who said if anything demonstrated the disregard the state government had for the community it was seen clearly in its management of Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal's water.

"With untold negative impacts on our residents, businesses and industries being a safe and faithful electorate to the government of the day has delivered no reward otherwise we would have some water security and confidence in water management," he said.

"The maddening feature of this issue is I can still remember the 2007 drought, the frustration of our community representatives talking to the Labor water minister at the time and seeing no satisfactory outcomes as we still see with no satisfactory outcomes with national water ministers.

"That was about five water ministers ago."

Concerns were raised about business opportunities that might be lost if the city could not demonstrate it had the water security to support them plus its 62,000-odd people.

The council wants the 3ML of water that runs down the Peel River each day regardless of need to be held in Chaffey Dam unless it is required for the environment.

It takes issue with the current water sharing plan that completely ignores the drought of record, meaning water allocations are based on less severe figures.

Concerns with the Scott Road drift wells, how available water is determined and the operation of the Chaffey Dam pipeline were detailed in the report.

It's clear that water management in the Peel Valley, the state and the nation is a mess, Cr Helen Tickle said, because of conflicting interests with foreign ownership and "wealthy individuals".

"There are many conflicting interests, there are many hidden agendas and we are never told what they are," she said.

"Successive governments can't fix this problem meanwhile in our region and many others in NSW are desperate for their share of water - where is the water going?

"It's time the governments listened to the people, I doubt they will we've been having the same debate for years and years and year."

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Four years ago Chaffey Dam was full at 100GL, prior to that the city only had a 62GL dam.

That's a 60 per cent increase on the water that was available before, but the industry, farming community and population has not doubled which has left Cr Tickle wondering where the water has gone.

"Sure we've had a drought, but there are a lot of questions unanswered out there," she said.

"We should never have reached the point we have."

The water level in Chaffey Dam is currently at 25.3 per cent and residents in Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal will be moved from Level 5 to Level 4 water restrictions from Monday for the first time in 11 months.