Blue Mountains Dams Booklet
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BLUE MOUNTAINS SYSTEM MOUNTAINS BLUE DAMS OF GREATER SYDNEY AND SURROUNDS Blue Mountains 1 Sydney’s drinking water is collected from five catchment areas, occupying 16,000 square kilometres. Water is stored in 21 dams, holding over 2.5 million megalitres of water. The Blue Mountains System comprises three small catchment areas feeding six dams, which provide water for about 41,000 people living in the Blue Mountains region. < BLUE MOUNTAINS CATCHMENT AREA Introducing WaterNSW WaterNSW is Australia’s largest water supplier. We provide two-thirds of the water used in NSW and develop infrastructure solutions for water supply security and reliability. We operate and maintain 42 large dams and we deliver water for agriculture and drinking water supply customers. WaterNSW also protects the health of Sydney’s drinking water catchment to ensure highest quality drinking water is consistently available. 1 Blue Mountains Catchments Greaves Creek Dam Woodford Sydney’s Medlow Dam Dam Cascade Dams drinking water Lithgow C o er x iv s R R y i r v u e b r s e k w a H Katoomba Prospect catchments Reservoir Warragamba Dam Pipelines Prospect Water Filtration Plant Sydney er iv anal Nepean R Lake ver wmung R Ri Burragorang Upper C a Ko or n o iv r er o W Woronora Dam Broughtons Pass Weir Pheasants Nest Weir Na ttai R Nepean Dam Cataract Wing iv e er Dam c a r r Avon Wollongong ib e Cordeaux e R Dam Crookwell iver Bowral Dam Wingecarribee Reservoir er Riv Fitzroy Falls illy nd lo Reservoir ol Bendeela Pondage Goulburn W Lake Yarrunga Tallowa Nowra Dam er iv R Canberra n e v a lh a o h S Braidwood Sydney’s drinking water catchments Pumping station Canals and pipelines Dam Cooma 2 The catchments A catchment is an area where water is WaterNSW helps protect five catchment areas, collected by the natural landscape. In which provide water to greater Sydney and a catchment, all rain and run–off water local communities. eventually flows to a creek, river, lake or ocean, They are: or into the groundwater system. • Warragamba Catchment Natural and human systems, such as rivers, • Upper Nepean Catchment bushland, farms, industry, homes, plants, • Woronora Catchment animals and people can exist alongside one • Shoalhaven Catchment another in a catchment. • Blue Mountains Catchment The catchments occupy about 16,000 square kilometres in total. They extend from north of Lithgow and Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains, south to the source of the Shoalhaven River near Cooma, and from < BLUE MOUNTAINS CATCHMENT Woronora in the east to the source of the Wollondilly River near Crookwell. 3 Blue Mountains Catchment The Blue Mountains catchment comprises three smaller catchments: Katoomba (5 square kilometres) Woodford (9.8 square kilometres) and Blackheath (7.2 square kilometres). A total of six dams are located within these three catchments. Katoomba Catchment: the Lower, Middle and Upper Cascade dams on Cascade Creek Blackheath Catchment: Greaves Creek Dam on Greaves Creek and Lake Medlow Dam on Adams Creek Woodford Catchment: the Woodford Dam at the junction of Bulls Creek and Woodford Creek Together these dams supply water to about The Katoomba and Blackheath catchments are classified as Special 41,000 people, from Mt Victoria to Springwood. Areas, so access is restricted to protect water quality. Woodford Dam Residents living between Mt Victoria and is not currently used for water supply and the Blue Mountains National Medlow Bath depend solely on the dams in the Park in the previously restricted Woodford Catchment area is now open Blackheath catchment for their water supply. for limited recreational access including walking and cycling. There is still no access to the dam wall or Lake Woodford. These are protected as possible future water supply options for the Blue Mountains. 4 Supplying water to the Blue Mountains When Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson The re–routing of the road and the reached present–day Hazelbrook on 20 May introduction of the rail link to Bathurst marked 1813 they achieved the first successful crossing the end of these camps. Between 1867 and over the Blue Mountains. The following year 1876 the railway was extended from Penrith to Governor Macquarie commissioned a cart road Bathurst.However inadequate water supplies to the west and soon staging posts were built for the steam locomotives led to the damming where permanent water was found. of Bulls Creek near Woodford in 1884. The construction of the six dams that serve the Blue Mountains region spanned many years – from the construction of Middle Cascade Dam in 1905 to the building of Greaves Creek Dam in 1942. Ownership of these dams was transferred from the Blue Mountains City Council to the then Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board in 1980 and are now part of WaterNSW’s assets. 5 Cascade dams The three dams on Cascade Creek, Lower Cascade Dam was completed in 1926. supplemented by water from Greaves Creek It lies downstream of the other Cascade dams. Dam and the Fish River Scheme, provide the It is an earthfill embankment dam with a bulk water supply storage for Sydney Water’s central concrete core. Cascade filtration plant. This plant provides < Height: 26 metres filtered water for the communities from SYDNEY WATER’S CASCADE Length: 128 metres Springwood to Mount Victoria. During drought FILTRATION PLANT Total capacity: 320 megalitres water from Warragamba Dam is available for Catchment area: 3.2 square kilometres supply, but only for communities as far west as Wentworth Falls. Upper Cascade Dam is another earthfill embankment dam with a central concrete The first dam, Middle Cascade Dam, was built core. It was built in 1938. in 1908 and upgraded in 1915. It is a concrete arch dam. Height: 30 metres Length: 247 metres Height: 15 metres Total capacity: 1,700 megalitres Length: 105 metres Catchment area: 1.7 square kilometres Total capacity: 160 megalitres Catchment area: 2.1 square kilometres < MIDDLE CASCADE DAM 6 Woodford Creek Dam In 1916 the Public Works Department proposed a dam on the junction of Woodford Creek and Bulls Creek. Designed in 1927 and built in 1928 by the NSW Railways, Woodford Creek Dam is a concrete arch structure. The dam was used to supply water, treated at Linden water filtration plant (WFP), to communities from Linden to Emu Plains. Additional water was supplied to this area from Warragamba Dam when necessary. Sydney Water no longer draws water from Woodford Creek Dam, and the region is now supplied from Cascade WFP or Orchard Hills WFP. Height: 16 metres Length: 114 metres Catchment area: 9.8 square kilometres > WOODFORD CREEK DAM 7 Lake Medlow and Greaves Creek dams Water from Lake Medlow and Greaves Creek A concrete arch dam, Greaves Creek Dam was dams is pumped to Cascades dams to constructed in 1942 and upgraded in 1993. The supplement supply. dam supplies water to Greaves Creek filtration plant, which in turn supplies the communities Lake Medlow Dam, initially known as Adams from Medlow Bath to Mt Victoria. It can also Creek Dam, was constructed in 1907 on Adams supply water to top–up Cascade Dams. Creek. Used to top–up the Greaves Creek Dam in emergencies, it is the first concrete thin arch Height: 19 metres high stress dam built in NSW. With a thickness Length: 67metres of only 274cm at the bottom and 106cm at the Total capacity: 310 megalitres top, it is reputedly one of the thinnest dams in Catchment area: 7.4 square kilometres the world. The Institution of Engineers Australia placed an ‘Historic Engineer Marker’ on the dam on 24 July 1994. The National Trust and Blue Mountains City Council have registered < the dam on their heritage list. LAKE MEDLOW DAM Height: 20 metres Length: 38 metres Total capacity: 300 megalitres Catchment area: 4.8 square kilometres 8 Pride and workmanship A time capsule is believed to be hidden in the centre line of the wall at the top water level of Greaves Creek Dam. Placed by the workers on 22 January 1941, the capsule contains a parchment listing all their names. It includes this dedication: “All (the workers) are happy in the knowledge that the materials and their combination in the concrete are sound. All have a deep personal satisfaction that the wall is true to shape, that the concrete is well and truly placed, and that the whole of the construction to the smallest detail has been carried out in the most faithful manner. All are confident that, because of their loyal attention to their duties, the wall will remain stable and be durable and will impound the rains which fall on the catchment, for centuries to come. Thus by the efforts of all will future generations be served.” 9 Fish River Scheme As well as providing water to supply the Blue Ensuring dam safety Mountains region, WaterNSW also sources water from the Fish River Scheme, which It is essential that all WaterNSW dams meet originates at Oberon. the requirements of the NSW Dams Safety Committee (DSC) under the NSW Dams Safety The Fish River Scheme comprises a dam Act (1978). The DSC, the State’s regulator for and a weir for raw water supply, as well as dam safety, develops and implements policies reservoirs, 236 kilometres of pipelines, four and procedures for effective dam safety pumping stations, a tunnel, chlorinator, and management in order to protect life, property clarification plants for water transfer and and the environment from dam failures. reticulation to customers. Water can be used either to replenish the To ensure compliance with its operating Upper Cascades Dam, or go directly to Sydney licence, WaterNSW has adopted a structured Water’s filtration plant at Cascades Dam.