The draft plan for the pipeline, which would go via the Wellington Water Treatment Plant and Geurie, was adopted at the recent Western Plains Regional Council meeting, for the purpose of public exhibition.

In the report to council, technical services director Stewart McLeod said a detailed costing of the pipeline had yet to be done, but but it would be in the vicinity of $90 million.

“The pipeline would provide water security to the residents of both Dubbo, Wellington and Geurie, the major localities in the Western Plains Regional Council local government area,” Mr McLeod said.

“It could supply water if river water or bore water was not available, such as during a contamination incident, or a major algae bloom.”

The Burrendong Pipeline would be physical insurance during major droughts, Mr McLeod said.

“For example, if the water in Burrendong Dam reached very low levels, delivering water to the towns by a pipeline rather than down the river would result in much less water being removed from Burrendong Dam,” he said.

“On a normal day-to-day basis, both water treatment plants would continue to draw water directly from the Macquarie River, just as they do now.”

There are currently two suggest pipeline routes- one on the northern side of the river and the other on the southern. While not final, they’ll be used to determine a final path for the pipeline.

“The selection of the final route may not fall exclusively to either the northern route or the southern route, but some combination of these. Mapping both the northern and southern routes in their entirety allows all these possibilities to be considered,” Mr McLeod said.

Council has forwarded the route plans to Infrastructure NSW and the Department Primary Industries-Water for their comment.

After the proposal has been placed on public exhibition, the submissions will be reviewed and a further report prepared for council.