Shoalhaven Transfer Scheme
The NSW Government is looking to balance the water supply needs of the Sydney, Illawarra, Blue Mountains, Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands communities, while protecting the health of the Shoalhaven River and rivers in the Southern Highlands.
Tallowa Dam on the Shoalhaven River was planned and designed to supply water to Sydney. Water is able to be transferred from Tallowa Dam to Warragamba, Nepean and Avon Dams when their storage levels are low.
On 7 November 2008, the NSW Government announced a three year moratorium on the transfer of water from the Shoalhaven River to augment Sydney’s drinking water. This announcement was made as a result of dam levels holding steady at around 65 percent for some months, the great effort by water users of Sydney, major recycling projects and the commissioning of the new desalination plant in summer 2009/10.
Future transfers of drinking water from Tallowa Dam will be assessed under the review of the Metropolitan Water Plan.
New infrastructure is being built at Tallowa Dam to allow native fish passage, and to allow water of a quality that best matches the needs of the river downstream to be released from the dam.
In addition work will proceed on upgrading visitor facilities at Bendeela Camping Ground and Tallowa Dam Picnic Area.
To find out more visit the Department of Water and Energy and the Sydney Catchment Authority websites.
The Shoalhaven Transfer Scheme could increase water availability by up to 30 billion litres each year.