There will be no fluoride in Dubbo's water by June 30, 2023

At the ordinary council meeting on March 23, chief executive officer Murray Wood admitted that it was "probably not going to happen" with the time it was taking to get the tenders signed off.

"We don't [have a timeline] until we put the choice to select tender before council...we are aiming and telling agencies that we need the report to come to the standing committees in two weeks time, then we will have that further information," he said.

Residents of Dubbo have not had fluoride in their water since January 2019 when the city's fluoridation equipment failed and remained offline until it was brought to the attention of the new Chief Executive Officer in April 2022.

Towns affected by the lack of fluoridation included Dubbo, Wongarbon, Eumungerie, Ballimore, Mogriguy and Brocklehurst.

Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson had previously said residents could expect to have fluoride back in their water by June 30, 2023 and at the September meeting Mr Wood was confident in the timeline.

"I will be surprised if we can't accelerate that process and not being able to implement tendered documentation until next year I think is overly conservative," he said at the time.

DRC's Manager of Infrastructure Strategy and Design Chris Godfrey said they were currently assessing tenders for the fluoride system.

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"It is going quite well and we are expecting an outcome very soon," he said.

In a report brought to the council, it showed that Dubbo's Water Treatment Plant wasn't the only one affected by a lack of fluoride.

In 2022 there were also nine occasions where fluoride was not added to the water supply at the Wellington WTP due to no staff with the correct certification to add fluoride to the water available on these days.

According to the report council is progressing with training for staff to reduce the likelihood of fluoride not being applied due to operator certification issues.

There were also five days where fluoride was not applied due to equipment issues. These have since been repaired.

It was revealed that in 2022 there were 16 instances where the free chlorine levels were below the critical limit of 1.0 mg/L at the Mumbil Water Treatment Plant.

Free chlorine is measured at each of the WTPs with chlorine added to the drinking water to protect drinking water supplies from contamination against harmful micro-organisms.

Operators have been manually dosing for chlorine to make sure that the target levels are achieved.

There was also one occasion where the free chlorine was below 1.0 mg/L at the Geurie WTP which occurred during the boil water alert.

The treatment team check the limits every week at Mumbil and every day at Geurie, Wellington and Dubbo.

The council voted that an annual report on the drinking water management system performance be brought forward to the April council meeting, as well as be provided to the Western NSW Local Health District and Public Health.

Deputy mayor Richard Ivey said it was a "no brainer" to prepare the report for council.

"It allows the councillors to consider it, to stay informed and act upon anything that may require attention," he said.

Mayor Mathew Dickerson said it was also important that the public can see the report.

Councillor Pam Wells was positive about the approach the council was taking in relation to the ongoing water issues.

"There's been lots of questions around Dubbo's drinking water and the turbidity levels and different things, and I think this is a positive move and the residents can see where we're going," she said.