The water we store in Karangi and Shannon Creek Dams to supply our drinking water is sourced from the Orara and Nymboida Rivers. There are two vital aspects to river water in these catchments which Council assesses to ensure our community has a safe and secure drinking water supply – water quantity and water quality.

Following heavy rain events, quantity may be well above minimum licenced environmental flow levels but quality issues can arise which prevent the extraction of this water into our dams for a period of time. Council monitors the water quality including turbidity levels – a measure of how much dirt is in the water - and will begin pumping once the quality tests indicate the river water is clean enough to take water from the rivers into our storage dams for our drinking water supplies.

Shannon Creek Dam is a storage dam built in the Shannon Creek catchment but only water pumped from the Nymboida River is permitted to be stored in Shannon Creek Dam. 

The water licence from the NSW Government for Council to operate the Shannon Creek Dam requires that any rainfall which falls within the Shannon Creek catchment be released from the dam to continue its normal flow through the Shannon Creek catchment. This is to ensure that Shannon Creek Dam has minimal impact on the local Shannon Creek environment. 

Even if we are on water restrictions at the time, releasing the water from the dam is a critical process to minimise the environmental impact of the dam and comply with our licence requirements.

Water Restrictions are based on the combined storage level of both Shannon Creek and Karangi Dams and will remain in place until all quantity and quality conditions are met to allow pumping from the Orara and Nymboida Rivers to re-fill our storage dams to adequate levels.

Council is constantly monitoring quality and quantity of water in the rivers, dam levels and community water consumption. We may also consider climate forecasts to ensure lifting of water restrictions is the best option for the long-term security of our drinking water supplies to avoid situations where restrictions are re-introduced shortly after lifting them.