It's not a new idea either. Increasing the height of the dam wall has been on and off the agenda since the 1990s

When Lake Rowlands was first designed the dam wall was meant to be three metres higher than it currently is.

However when Forbes Council pulled out of the supply network agreement in the 1940s, the decision then was made to build it to its current height.

The dam though can be brought back to its original height, says the chairman of Central Tablelands Water, Councillor David Somervaille, albeit with a few issues that have arisen in the past seven decades.

"Lake Rowlands full capacity at the moment is 4.5 gigalitres," Cr Somervaille said.

"The smallest proposal would almost double it and take it to approximately eight gigalitres."

This smallest proposal would involve adding an extra 2.5 metres to the height of the dam wall and Cr Somervaille said that it was certainly the most straight forward of the three on the table.

"At this point there wouldn't be any need for any land acquisitions because all the land surrounding the footprint of the dam is owned by CTW," he said.

"It also wouldn't impact on the Neville Road and the Darrington Bridge.

"When it would come to gaining approvals and things like that, it's certainly the least complex."

Taking the dam wall up to the original three metres however does create several issues.

"It would give us 10 gigalitres or storage as it was originally designed to do," Cr Somervaille said.

"We think though that it would involve some additional land acquisitions and some quite considerable civil works."

Some of those engineering works would include the raising or realignment of Neville Road and the raising of the Darrington Bridge.

The third, and most contentious plan, Cr Somervaille said is to not only increase the dam by 2.5 metres, but also to build another dam downstream.

"That involves building another wall about 2.5 kilometres downstream of the existing wall and the estimate there is 26 gigalitres would be stored."

CTW general manager Gavin Rhodes said that they were constantly lobbying the state and federal governments to fund additional storage.

"We need to plan and put strategies in place for both the short and long term to increase water security for the region," he said.