Level 1 water restrictions in the Lismore area could be brought in earlier than expected.

Rous County Council has called an extraordinary meeting next Wednesday about changing the water restriction ‘trigger level’ of Rocky Creek Dam to 70% of its capacity.

As of Wednesday this week, Rocky Creek Dam was at 78% and Emigrant Creek Dam at 66%.

The normal level 1 trigger level is 60% capacity, under the Council’s Regional Drought Management Plan.

Rous County Council general manager Phillip Rudd told the Lismore App the driver for the change in bringing in water restrictions was to make sure that “we stay ahead of the coming summer weather”.

“The medium-term forecast is below average rainfall and above average temperatures,” Mr Rudd said.

“We want to make sure everyone in the community does their bit to minimise water use now so we can drastically reduce usage over the next several months.”

Mr Rudd said because the fires in the local area are “quite recent”, we are not seeing any impact on water usage from fire fighting activities at the moment.

“But that information will take a while to come through,” he said.

“We’ll see over the next few weeks if water usage is trending up or down.

“It’s difficult because there are a range of factors impacting on it such as the humidity.

“It’s extremely dry and a big driver of water use is people with tanks who don’t have water and are calling on water tankers deliver water to them.”

Mr Rudd said the management of the water supply was complex and needed to consider how Rous County Council works with partner councils. 

“It’s sometimes forgotten that while we don’t supply water to Casino, which is under water restrictions, we supply water to other parts of Richmond Valley and Mullumbimby.

“We need to work in partnership and there’s a lot going on.”

Kyogle Council is on level 2 restrictions and Richmond Valley Council is on level 3 restrictions.

Pictured: Rous County Council's website shows dam levels and water restriction levels and what they mean.

At the moment, water restrictions are “every day water saving measures”, but level 1 water restrictions will include hose and irrigation restrictions, such as the banning of water sprinklers and alternate watering days for residents.

“People need to think about things like do I need to wash my car or car I leave it until next week?” Mr Rudd said.

“And not watering the garden in the middle of the day and taking a couple of minutes less when having a shower.

Mr Rudd said Rous County Council has updated its website to make water levels and restrictions information easier to access and understand.

The extraordinary meeting next Wednesday, November 20 will start at 1pm and is open to the public.

To find out more about water restrictions and dam levels, click here: https://rous.nsw.gov.au/cp_themes/default/page.asp?p=DOC-OWX-54-47-20

To find out more about what the water restrictions are for residential urban and rural premises and commercial businesses, click here: 

https://www.rous.nsw.gov.au/page.asp?f=RES-QKD-14-08-70