That's the view of Cr Jason Hamling who has called for Orange to be able to take more water while the Macquarie River was flowing well and the city's water supply was below capacity.

The latest figures from Orange City Council show the combined storage levels of Suma Park and Spring Creek dams was 72.46 per cent.

Spring Creek is full but Suma Park is at 66 per cent.

Gosling Creek Dam, while not part of the city's water supply, has fallen from being full to 90.85 per cent.

Cr Hamling said Orange had reached its water licence limit for the 12-month period which would next be reviewed in July.

"We can't pump any water out because we've reached our allocation," he said.

"I still can't believe we couldn't pump when all that water was flying down [the river] while our dam wasn't at 100 per cent.

"Under these exceptional circumstances we should be able to fill our water supply.

"I think we could pump until we had a full dam."

Cr Hamling asked the latest Orange City Council meeting whether they would seek a larger allocation.

Technical Services director Ian Greenham said council needed to meet the conditions of its water licence to pump water from the Macquarie River.

He said it was constantly being reviewed.

"We've pretty well pumped our allocation for this year," he said.

Mr Greenham said having the city's water supply 80 per cent full was seen as a critical number.

"Whenever it's below that we generally look to turn on the pumps from the Macquarie to keep Suma Park Dam topped up.

"Generally when we get a combined storage over about 80 per cent we don't pump from the Macquarie," he said.

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