Gore's water supply wells still at record low levels

Despite recent rain, the water level in wells supplying Gore’s water is still at its lowest for several years.

The Gore District Council has been able to lift water restrictions but today issued another conserve water notice for Gore.

3 Waters Asset Manager Matt Bayliss said the flow in the Mataura River would drop to below 17 cumecs in the next day or so.

“When this happens, our resource consent from Environment Southland requires us to issue a conserve water notice for Gore, effective immediately.”

Mr Bayliss said the water level in the Cooper’s and Jacobstown wells had not lifted despite recent rain.

The level in the main bore at Cooper’s Well is below 2.0 metres, the lowest it has been since installing the bore in May 2019.

“Given the extended dry weather and low river levels, the performance of this bore has exceeded our expectations.”

It was unclear how long the 2m of water in the bore would last, though, Mr Bayliss said.

“It could drop quickly, in which case we would need to start artificially recharging the bore from the Mataura River.”

The Council has had to resume recharging the Jacobstown Well with water from the river. The water level in the well has remained at its lowest since 2014.

“Our well levels are likely to remain low until we get enough rain in the headwater of the Mataura River to lift the river level above 60 cumecs for a number of days.”

Gore residents used, on average, 4135m³ per day in the first three months of this year. This level of consumption was about 7% higher than the average for the past five years, Mr Bayliss said.

The recent rainfall has taken the pressure off the Pleura Dam.

Mr Bayliss said it was now keeping up with demand – “as long as we get the odd bit of rain over the next few weeks, we shouldn’t need to take water from the river for the Mataura water supply again this season”.