AN ambitious plan to flush Lake Albert with treated water remains a long way from reality.
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A recent visit from Water Minister Melinda Pavey has left a clear message that the council's plan to top up Lake Albert's notoriously low water levels was far from a quick fix.
"I'm just making it clear that it is hard," she said.
Wagga council made its request to the state government seven months ago, which sought to recover a volume of council-treated water, diverted into the Murrumbidgee River, to be used to refill the lake in early spring each year.
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It is an unprecedented request which Ms Pavey said required her agency to create a new policy to deal with this one-off situation. And with "many rules" surrounding water to navigate, she said it was not an easy task.
"I'm being upfront with you and telling you that it's not easy. It will require a special policy and when you're devising water policy it is difficult and the agency doesn't support special projects," she said.
Although there were other solutions, Ms Pavey said the council has been explicit that there are some ways that they are not prepared to consider including buying the water.
"That's a very easy solution from my perspective, but the council have said they don't want to take water away from the productive sector and it would be a significant cost burden to the people of Wagga," she said.
Ms Pavey has not given a time frame on when the council's request will be answered.