New airport bore supports aerial firefighting

ARC Deputy Mayor Lib Martin, General Manager - Businesses Scot MacDonald, Mayor Simon Murray, NSW Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall and the Rural Fire Service New England District Manager, Superintendent Steve Mepham.

11th Dec 2019

Rural Fire Service aerial activities in the area will be provided with water from a new bore established at Armidale Regional Airport, removing a potential need to source water from town water supplies.
The bore came on line last week, as part of test drilling to locate possible aquifers in an around Armidale and Guyra to supplement the town water supplies. Its activation came as water supplies in a regional airport dam were exhausted by weeks of aerial firefighting flights to control bushfires throughout the region.
The 114-metre-deep bore has been fitted with a pump that can extract water at 18,000 litres per hour. The bore can operate for a maximum of 16 hours per day, providing up 288,000 litres during that time.
ARC Mayor Simon Murray said that this ensures there will be enough to fill the RFS tank at the airport, which has a capacity of 172,000 litres
“We knew from previous drilling that the site would provide sufficient water, so it was a good option to provide a quick source of fight fighting water once it became evident the dam they were using could run dry.
“Unfortunately, the arrival of equipment for the bore was delayed by road closures because of the bushfires. However, we’ve still been able to keep the water supply up for RFS activities.”

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New airport bore supports aerial firefighting

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