Water Kit - Hunter Water

1.4 the lower hunter’s water supply
hunter water’s role in water
supply
Hunter Water is responsible for supplying
the Lower Hunter community with a
reliable and healthy supply of water. This
includes urban residents, the commercial
sector and industry in the Newcastle,
Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock and
Port Stephens local government areas.
Rural communities generally manage their
own water supply by collecting rainwater
in tanks, pumping from groundwater
bores, or pumping from local creeks and
rivers. The water supplies of some towns
are managed by their local council.
Dungog Shire Council, for instance,
purchases bulk drinking water from Hunter
Water and then manages the delivery of
this water to its customers, who pay for a
reticulated water supply.
Hunter Water operates five water
treatment plants (WTPs), 4,270km of
pipes, 77 reservoirs and 74 pump
stations to supply water to homes,shops,
factories, schools and hospitals. A
strategic control centre provides 24hr
monitoring of system performance.
Where are our water SOURCES ?
Chichester Dam
Chichester Dam is the oldest
operational dam in the Hunter and was
completed in 1926. It was constructed
on the Chichester River below the
junction of the Wangat and Chichester
Rivers. The catchment covers an area
of 197km2 and includes extensive
forests and high mountains. The
catchment area is relatively unaffected
by pollution caused by human activities.
The dam was constructed using
hundreds of interlocking units of
concrete. Once one block was finished,
the framework was raised ready for
the next, until its final height of 40
metres was reached. The dam can hold
21,500 megalitres of water.
Grahamstown Dam
Grahamstown Dam has been operating
since 1960 and is the Lower Hunter’s
major urban water supply. It is an off
river storage with water supplied from
both its own catchment through runoff
and by pumping fresh water across
from the Williams River along the
Balickera Canal. It is the largest water
storage facility in Hunter Water’s area of
operations and can hold 152,000
megalitres of water.
Tomago Sandbeds
Tomago is a local Aboriginal name
for ‘sweet water’. Since 1939 the
Tomago Sandbeds has supplied water
to the Lower Hunter.
The sandbeds retain water, which seeps
through the sand, allowing it to
accumulate in the sand as a layer of
water known as an aquifer. The
catchment area covers130km2 and can
hold 60,000 megalitres of water.
Tomaree Sandbeds
The Tomaree Sandbeds consist of an
unconfined aquifer about 15km2 in
area and exceeds a depth of 6.0 metres
in some places.
The Tomaree Sandbeds
are located between Nelson Bay,
Shoal Bay, Fingal Bay and One Mile
Beach. The sandbeds can hold 16,000
megalitres of water. A pipeline was
built by Hunter Water in 2002 from
Tomago WTP to supplement supply
from the Tomaree aquifier.
HOW TO MEASURE WATER
VOLUMES
Hunter Water’s water sources are
Chichester Dam, Grahamstown Dam,
and the Tomago-Tomaree Sandbeds
- all located in either the Williams River
or Port Stephens catchments
Management and protection of these
catchments is vital to safeguard the
quality and quantity of the water supply.
MEASUREMENT SYMBOL VOLUME EQUIVALENT
Millilitre ml 20mls 1 dessert spoon
Litre L 1000ml 1 litre of milk
Kilolitre kl 1000L 1 very full bath
Megalitres ML 1000kl 0.5 olympic pool
Gigalitre GL 1000ML 500 olympic pools
CHICHESTER DAM GRAHAMSTOWN DAM TOMAGO SANDBEDS TOMAREE SANDBEDS
MAXIMUM CAPACITY 21,500 ML 152,000 ML 60,000 ML 16,000 ML
AVERAGE DAILY SUPPLY 90 ML 60 ML 45 ML 7 ML
MAXIMUM DAILY CAPACITY 90 ML 270 ML 140 ML 24 ML
AVERAGE YEARLY EXTRACTION 33 GL 22 GL 16 GL 3 GL
AREA OF STORAGE 180 hectares 2600 hectares n/a n/a
AREA OF CATCHMENT 197km2 99km2 100km2 16km2
AVERAGE DEPTH 35m 7m 20m 35m
HEIGHT OF WALL 43m 10m n/a n/a
LENGTH OF WALL 254m 4.8km n/a n/a
LENGTH OF SPILLWAY 112m 160m n/a n/a
COMMISSIONED 1925 1960 1939 1949
Water kit . ssS . 001 . april 2010
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