Orange is in the most fortunate situation whereby almost all the runoff from our urban areas is concentrated into two creeks; Blackmans Swamp and Ploughmans.

Both drain to the north of town and in the case of Blackmans swamp it flows right past our water treatment infrastructure.  Ploughmans Creek it is not that far away and is already linked to the central water infrastructure by the purple pipe, (non -potable), system installed in new developments around the Northern distributor Road. This makes for very economical collection and treatment.

Obviously water supply is fundamental to the growth and amenity of any town. As Orange has grown, water storages were built at Gosling Creek 1889, Lake Canobolas 1918, Spring Creek 1931 and Suma Park 1962. With a rapidly expanding city by 2000 we were running out of water and easy options.  Minds were mightily concentrated with the onset of the 2001-2009 droughts.

 The stormwater harvesting and Macquarie River pipeline schemes grew out of this dilemma between 2007 and 2010 and although much earlier construction took place, it is only this year that they have become fully operational with all approvals in place. 

There are very stringent conditions protecting environmental flows downstream and quality of the stormwater returned after treatment to our main storages.

As Orange grows, development directly increases the amount of impervious surface giving near 100 per cent runoff with it the obvious potential for further stormwater harvesting. Fortunately this effect is most pronounced in dry times when the water is needed most and runoff from grassed areas is nil or greatly diminished.

Four constructed wetlands have been built as a vital part of the stormwater harvesting scheme. These add to our open space and considerably enhance our city’s environmental amenity.

To put this into perspective some approximate statistics:

Annual water consumption in Orange: 5000 - 7000 megalitres per year

Expected yield from stormwater: 2100 - 2400 megalitres per year

Potential yield from Macquarie Pipeline: 1600 - 2500 megalitres per year

Treated effluent to Cadia Valley mine: 3000 megalitres per year

Total capacity of our water supply dams: 22,000 megalitres

 l On Saturday September 12 there will be a very interesting tour of the scheme hosted by ECCO and Orange City Council beginning from the Civic Centre car park at 2pm.

Our guide and speaker for the occasion will be water treatment manager Jon Francis. Inquiries to Nick King 0490 087 424