WEIR RAISED TO BOOST WATER SUPPLIES 

A weir on Lower Mangrove Creek has been temporarily raised to further boost Central Coast water supplies. This is another step in the work by Gosford City and Wyong Shire Councils to increase the capacity of the region's water supply system during the current drought.

The latest project, which cost around $30,000, took three months to complete from planning through to construction including the time needed to obtain the necessary approvals from the NSW Department of Natural Resources.

The actual construction work involved increasing the height of the weir by about 450mm by building a thick block wall across the lower spillway. This can easily be removed when the current drought breaks.

The higher weir will help to capture and store more water in Lower Mangrove Creek, particularly during high flows resulting from heavy rain events. The storage capacity behind the weir has been increased by about 50 million litres. 

“This work could potentially deliver about 200 million litres of additional water a year,“ explained Gosford City Council's Mayor, Laurie Maher.

“This project is just one of many capital works and other measures being implemented by the two Councils in response to the Central Coast's worst drought on record.

“Many of these works are now coming to fruition. They are designed to prevent our total dam storage levels from dropping below 10%.” 

Wyong Shire Mayor Bob Graham added: “One of the most significant projects, the Hunter pipeline link, is also nearing completion. Other projects include building a temporary weir on Porters Creek and reducing bypass flows on Ourimbah Creek.

'Between them these projects, including the temporary raising of the Lower Mangrove Creek weir, have the capacity to deliver close to one third of the Central Coast's total demand for town water.”

According to Laurie Maher, work is also progressing well on establishing two new groundwater borefields in Woy Woy and Narara. 'Pipe laying at Narara is now complete while in Woy Woy the installation of more than 6.5 kilometres of underground pipes is progressing well,' he said.

'By April 2007, these two borefields will be on line, boosting our groundwater production levels to approximately 9 million litres a day, up 6 million litres a day from current levels.'

Media contacts:            Janet Saunders (Gosford) on 02 4304 7075 or 0438 191 328

                                      Lisa McDermott (Wyong) on 02 4350 5705 or 0438 980 445