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Water shortage |
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NORTHERN Rivers residents will be on Level One water restrictions within two months without new rains.
Rous Water voted yesterday to introduce restrictions early, amid
concern Rocky Creek Dam had missed its usual autumn top-up rains.
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NORTHERN Rivers residents will be on Level One water restrictions within two months without new rains.
Rous Water voted yesterday to introduce restrictions early, amid
concern Rocky Creek Dam had missed its usual autumn top-up rains.
Under the changes, which were foreshadowed last month, residents will
be asked to tighten their water usage when dam levels reach 65 per
cent. Formal water restrictions will be introduced when dam levels hit
60 per cent, up from the previous trigger of 55 per cent.
Rous councillors also voted to introduce Level Two restrictions sooner, moving the trigger up from 45 per cent to 50 per cent.
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the dam currently at 68 per cent of capacity, and falling at the rate
of about one per cent each week, according to Rous operational services
manager Wayne Franklin, we have about three weeks before voluntary
restrictions are introduced; and about eight weeks before mandatory
restrictions are introduced, unless usage levels change or we get good
rain.
Under Level One restrictions, residents will be allowed to water
outdoors only from 6am to 10am, and from 3pm to 7pm. All hoses are to
be fitted with an on/off nozzle and cleaning of driveways, paths, paved
areas, windows and external walls is only allowed under certain
circumstances, or with a high pressure water cleaner using less than 10
litres per minute.
Those measures are technically in place already, left over from restrictions introduced during the 2002-03 drought but no longer enforced.
Lismore is effectively already operating under Level Two water
restrictions, thanks to the city council’s Odds ‘n’ Evens policy, which
it says has cut water usage by 12 per cent.
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