Council provides a high quality sustainable water supply to the community for domestic use and has three water treatment plants providing reticulated water supplies for Gulgong, Mudgee and the area covered by Rylstone, Kandos, Charbon and Clandulla.

To meet community aspirations the focus is to supply high quality water. Council will continue with a water main replacement program that ensures a high quality of infrastructure and continues to deliver high quality water.

A major focus for Council will be to educate everyone on water conservation. Water is no longer the freely available commodity that has been enjoyed in the past. Council needs to think about tomorrow’s communities and their need to enjoy the same level of service as we have today. Council believes firmly in voluntary water conservation rather than imposed restrictions; however, if State Water demands restrictions then Council will be left with no options.

 

Charges

In 2008/09, Council adopted a water charges structure that complies with State Government’s Best Practice Guidelines. This requires an access charge based on capacity (water meter size) and a two-step pricing system for water consumption for resident customers.

Under the Best Practice Guidelines, Council must generate at least 75% of its income from residential customers via usage charges. Therefore, high volume water consumers will pay more than those who consume a lower volume of water.

In accordance with Best Practice Guidelines, business customers will be charged a flat rate per kilolitre without any step increase. To view the current Fees and Charges applicable to water usage, please click here.

Some financial relief may be available to residential property owners when water is lost due to an undetectable leak. Click here to view the policy.

 

New Works

These are the major works planned for this year:

• Replacement of old and failing water mains.
• Continuation of installation/improvements to the telemetry network to improve monitoring of our system.
• Metering of parks and reserves to improve management of Council water usage will continue.
• The raw water scheme is being extended to Gulgong to extend the life of the Water Treatment Plant and reduce the demand on the town's reservoirs.

And in future years:

• A new reservoir is proposed in Mudgee in 2012/13
• Upgrades to both Gulgong and Mudgee Water Treatment Plants to service future development.
• Augmentations will also continue at Rylstone including construction of a new rising main, pump station and reservoir.
• The Rylstone Dam requires safety upgrades and these are proposed in 2014/15 after detailed investigations are undertaken to determine requirements.
• The mains replacement program will continue.