Rejected Lake Coolah Feasibility Study

The NSW Government has rejected an application to fund a feasibility study into transforming Lake Coolah and Lake Mejum near Narrandera into a water storage site, which advocates say could “drought proof” the region.

The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water assessed and rejected the application that has the potential put a stop to buybacks.

Lake Coolah could be a 450 gigalitre (possibly up to 600 gigalitres) online storage solution that can tick all the boxes if designed correctly.

It would provide some flood mitigation for North Wagga, protection of the Murrumbidgee River that is being over-taxed with summer river flows, creation of a wetland for water birds, small scale hydro power, effectively a 900 gigalitre solution.

It would also free up 450 gigalitres of head space in Burrinjuck Dam.

What do you think about Lake Coolah as a storage solution?