Beleaguered Burrendong Dam is set to supply Dubbo with water for another year.
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Recent rain is understood to have helped extend the forecast for outflows to February 2021.
Storms and showers have boosted the previously diminishing contents of the dam and delayed the need to initiate emergency measures aimed at keeping water flowing into the city.
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The emergency measures have been put in place to give Dubbo Regional Council time to boost its groundwater supply, given the prospect of the dam running dry in the drought.
The planned bulk transfer of water from Windamere Dam to Burrendong Dam next month was aimed at giving the council time to undertake projects such as the cross-city pipeline.
The transfer is now "unlikely to take place before September" with subsequent pumping of remnant storage water in the dam also set to be rescheduled.
About 30,000 megalitres (ML) of water have flowed into Burrendong Dam in recent weeks, only 13 ML less than the 43,000ML it received across 2019.
On Wednesday the dam was at 4.2 per cent capacity after previously falling to 1.6 per cent.
The dam inflows have coincided with tributary flows in the Bell and Little rivers, and more recently two major flows down the Talbragar River and into the Macquarie River.
They have helped provide water for stock and the domestic needs of landholders.
State Member for the Dubbo electorate Dugald Saunders reports of the flows reducing demand on the dam and allowing WaterNSW to scale back releases, potentially adding "four months to water security, even under a return to a zero-inflow scenario".
"As a result of the inflows and the welcomed increase of storage in the dam, the planned transfer of water from Windamere to Burrendong via the Cudgegong River, previously scheduled for March, is unlikely to take place before September," he said.
"Other drought contingency measures, such as the installation of pumps to access remnant storage in Burrendong Dam should it fall to zero per cent, will also be rescheduled."
In June 2019 the state government gave the council $30 million for projects which would ensure the city did not run out of water.
The cross-city pipeline will provide the means to replace groundwater being used for the irrigating of open spaces with recycled water from Dubbo Sewage Treatment Plant.
The council's multifaceted water for the future strategy includes the purchase of more groundwater.
Burrendong Dam has not experienced its so-called "fill season" for an unprecedented three consecutive years.