Water security boost for the New England

Water security boost for the New England

Plans are progressing to boost water security in the New England. Armidale and Uralla Councils are banding together for a project designed to prepare the region for future dry conditions.

$500m-plus plan to drought-proof New England takes major step as renewable zone pressures mount

Armidale Regional Council's half-billion dollar water security project begins formal planning. See how it aims to drought-proof the region after "Day Zero" fears.

In 2025, scientists drilling beneath the Atlantic off New England pumped up about 50,000 litres of remarkably fresh groundwater. It appears to belong to a vast buried system stretching from New Jersey toward Maine, potentially containing enough water to equal centuries of New York City’s consumption — and researchers are still determining whether some of it entered the ground only centuries ago or was trapped there during the last Ice Age.

In the summer of 2025, an international team lowered drill pipe through the Atlantic off Massachusetts and into layers of sand and mud beneath the seafloor. During nine pumping tests, the researchers brought up more than 50,000 litres of formation fluid. Some of the groundwater had salinity around or below one practical salinity unit, compared with roughly 35 for seawater. That is remarkably fresh water to find tens of kilometres offshore, under…