Keepit a ‘line in the sand’ on water security

The two deeply flawed options clinging to life to secure Tamworth’s water supply are outdated and short-sighted. They must be abandoned immediately in favour of the one option that gives Tamworth what it needs without draining the life from downstream communities.

The Tamworth Inter-Valley Pipelines and Off-River Storages project, with pipelines pumping water to the city from Namoi Valley’s Keepit or Split Rock dams, is not just absurd and impractical – it’s deeply unfair to those who farm and depend on water downstream, and the communities which rely on them for their local economic sustainability and viability.

Modelling confirms that a pipeline would only be required four times in a hundred years. Let that sink in—just four years out of a century. Yet in each of the other 96 years, up to 30 billion litres – 12,000 Olympic pools – must be kept aside in the dams.

That’s 30 billion litres of water less for the farmers growing our food and fibre downstream.

This is not an inconvenience. It is a direct, measurable threat that undermines irrigated agriculture, harms local economies, and compromises the very fabric of our regional communities. And for what? A pipeline that will sit idle 96 per cent of the time?

Farming families, workers, towns and service providers in the Namoi Valley are already living on the edge of viability thanks to State and Commonwealth water recovery for the environment, and increasing regulatory interference.

These two pipeline options represent a deeply flawed approach to water policy, prioritising short-term convenience over long-term regional equity and sustainability. The notion that Tamworth’s water security should come at the cost of the Namoi system and its communities is not responsible, sustainable nor justifiable, and it will face strong united opposition from across the Namoi catchment. Our communities are hardworking, passionate and tenacious – this amount to water theft, dressed up as policy. The idea that Tamworth’s solution lies in sacrificing the Namoi catchment will be fiercely opposed.

The only viable long-term solution for Tamworth’s water security is a pipeline from the Manning Valley to Chaffey Dam. This project is not just preferable – it is essential.

Unlike the already overburdened Namoi system, the Manning is much more climate-resilient, where water is more consistently available and plentiful compared to the highly variable flows in the Namoi and Peel rivers. With appropriate Water Sharing Plan amendments to ensure the Manning water is only utilised when times of excessive high flows are present, this water could be sent to Chaffey Dam.

Piping water from the Manning to Chaffey Dam would not only create a more secure supply for Tamworth, it would provide a strategic interconnection that builds long-term resilience across multiple valleys.

Pardon the pun, but this is not a pipe dream – it’s a practical, engineered solution with measurable benefits and the concept is viable. The benefits go far beyond Tamworth:

• Aquifer Recharge: Controlled releases from Chaffey Dam when it is full, or at a predetermined airspace level can replenish the alluvial aquifer, protecting groundwater stores critical to towns, farmers, and ecosystems.

• Efficiency Gains: Flows could be timed to reduce transmission losses in regulated water systems, improving efficiency for all users and revenue to WaterNSW.

• Entitlement Support: This water could lift the reliability of water allocations local government, irrigators, industries, environmental flows in inland rivers.

• Environmental Benefits: Properly managed, these flows would also support critical low-flow and baseflow regimes for rivers, wetlands and riverine habitats, contributing to long-term environmental health.

• Drought Insurance: This infrastructure could allow for flexible, critical human need water delivery transfers to mitigate the impacts of climate extremes.

• Murray Darling Basin Plan Benefits: Any contributions which deliver any triple bottom line benefits or improvements would be welcome additions to the Basin by all communities and stakeholder groups.

These benefits are real, achievable, and underpinned by long-term planning. But they will not be realised unless the NSW Government adopts a clear, direct, and measured strategy. Pursuing short-term, superficial fixes that avoid confronting water security for not just Tamworth, but wider regions, will not only delay meaningful progress – it will actively undermine the opportunity to deliver far greater, lasting benefits through proper long-term solutions.

The opposition to Namoi pipeline options is broad, informed, and united. Local councils, chambers of commerce, irrigation groups, extractive industries, environmental representatives, community organisations, fishing groups, community members

and individual landholders are all speaking with one voice: do not reduce the reliability of Namoi water entitlements. Do not build pipelines from Keepit or Split Rock back to Tamworth.

In stark contrast, the Manning to Peel option has broad-based rational support—a level of consensus rarely seen in water policy.

And rightly so: it makes clear, practical sense to move water from a wetter region during periods of surplus to a drier region with consistently higher demand. What defies logic is the alternative—stripping reliability and deliverability from a region that is already drier than the one it is meant to supplement. This is not only counterproductive; it is irrational. It sacrifices one struggling system to offer marginal relief to another, despite the existence of a far more sustainable, strategically sound, and publicly supported solution.

The NSW Government and Tamworth Regional Council must listen. The inter-valley pipeline options from Keepit or Split Rock dams must be taken off the table now, before any more time, money, or trust is wasted.

If the government wants to leave a legacy of genuine water security, regional development, and environmental resilience, then it must choose the only viable path forward: Manning to Peel. Anything less would be an unforgivable failure of leadership.

This is our line in the sand. We will not move. And we will not let our valley be drained.

Mick Coffey – Namoi Water executive officer