Water
Where is the water for EDF’s huge reservoirs coming from? Will your water be safe?
The water users of Dungowan Creek are worried about the impact the proposed Dungowan Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) power station would have on the quality and quantity of water in the creek. We use the water to drink, to water our livestock, to irrigate our crops and for recreational fishing and swimming. The water in our creek is clear and pristine. It is home to native fish, turtles, platypus and many other plants and animals. We are concerned about run-off from the construction site polluting and silting up the creek downstream.
The Dungowan Creek is on western fall country, part of the watershed of the Great Dividing Range which feeds the aquifer, flood plain and surface water of the Namoi River system, and which eventually feeds in to the Darling River and Menindee Lakes. Locals know that, unlike on the coast, our water is neither regular nor reliable. We have great concerns that the 4.3 gigalitres required to run the Dungowan pumped hydro scheme will be taken from Dungowan Dam.
One big unanswered question is: where is the water for EDF's reservoirs coming from? EDF told the community on 12 March 2025 that they would not be collecting the run-off from the land and hills to fill their reservoirs. They also said they will not pump water from Dungowan Creek. That leaves only one credible source for the gigalitres of water they need: the water in Dungowan Dam. The dam is owned by Tamworth Regional Council (TRC), which has a licence to use 5.6 gigalitres in the dam for town water, environmental flows and agriculture. To the best of our knowledge, TRC does not have permission to sell the water to a pumped hydro power scheme.
EDF remains evasive about where their water is coming from. It's not just the initial fill of 4.3 gigalitres of water that's concerning. Based on a non-drought evaporation rate estimate of 12%, the Dungowan PHES would need to top-up its reservoirs around 500 megalitres every year.[1] That's 500 megalitres that will not flow into the Dungowan Creek and the Murray-Darling river system.
EDF have also offered to store one gigalitre of water in their top dam for Tamworth Regional Council to use in times of drought. While that might sound good, we shouldn't forget that dams are not full during droughts. Using a conservative estimate of a 15% annual evaporation rate during a fierce North West Slopes drought, one gigalitre of water will have evaporated from EDF's dams in just over one and half years.[1] The remaining water will be just enough to run the pumped hydro power station - at a time when demand for electricity at night will be high for things like air conditioners. The promised water won't be there when TRC needs it.
Surely Tamworth Council won't sell out the people of Ogunbil and Dungowan on a promise that will literally evaporate in a drought.
Dungowan Creek Alliance opposes the Dungowan PHES project because it is full of vague promises, it takes precious water away from our valley and the Murray-Darling Basin beyond, and EDF remains evasive about where it is sourcing the water it needs to fill and regularly top-up its reservoirs.
[1] EDF says that the annual evaporation rate on its reservoirs will be between 5 and 10%. Those figures are questionable, especially in a drought. A study performed by CSIRO on nearby Chaffey Dam between September 1995 and October 1997, found an average annual evaporation rate of 12%. See: CSIRO Australia, Estimating open water evaporation for the Murray-Darling Basin (January 2008) at ResearchGate. The authors found an average daily evaporation of 3.6mm. Chaffey Dam at the time had a capacity of 61GL and a surface area of 5.42km2. That results in a loss of 7.12GL over a year due to evaporation, or 12%. The 1991-1995 drought ended with heavy rainfall at the end of 1995, so this study period was mostly undertaken in non-drought times. In other words, during drought you would expect the evaporation rate to be higher than 12%.