Mr Wettin, who has 30 years’ experience in water management, attempted to highlight what he perceives as the negative environmental and financial impacts of the pipeline during question time at an Orange Business Chamber meeting on Tuesday.

While he was denied the opportunity to address the chamber he was told he may be able to make a presentation at the next members only meeting later this month.

The chamber’s president Tony Healey said Tuesday’s meeting was designed as an information session with the presentation from Orange City Council staff Chris Devitt and Wayne Beatty not intended to be “a for or against” about the controversial topic.

Mr Wettin said he was concerned the council didn’t provide all the information regarding water security at the meeting including council’s existing contract with Cadia Valley Operations that sees the mine take all waste water from Orange at no cost.

Orange City Council’s Chris Devitt said council staff didn’t have time to cover every aspect of water management at the meeting.

“The presentation we did usually takes an hour,” he said.

“You could pick out 1000 things we didn’t say.”

While water security is the number one priority for Mr Wettin and the alliance, he believes the shortfall between the current yield and the amount of water required for Orange could be met with the stormwater harvesting scheme and the expansion of Suma Park Dam.

However, Mr Devitt said all options would be considered and justifications for discounting any alternatives would be included as part of the environmental assessment for the pipeline.

Mr Wettin said the council had not considered the impact of rising electricity prices on the operating costs of the pipeline which he believes will increase by around 70 per cent.