Dam flood releases cease but weather on watch

6 October 2011

Precautionary releases from Burrinjuck Dam in response to predicted significant rainfall have ceased for the time being.

However State Water is continuing to monitor the progress of another significant weather system predicted to arrive later this weekend.

On Saturday State Water increased releases from Burrinjuck Dam to allow the storage to hold any major inflows that resulted from a rain event predicted for the catchment area.

As of Tuesday (4 October) the purpose of releases returned to serving growing irrigation demand downstream, State Water CEO Brett Tucker confirmed today.

“Releases commenced as a precaution in response to information State Water received from the Bureau of Metereorology about a forecast weather event in the Burrinjuck Dam catchment,” Mr Tucker said.

“Those releases were modest (4000Ml/day) and below what would occur during peak irrigation demand for example.

“A fundamental aspect of State Water’s role as dam managers is to work closely with the Bureau of Meteorology to utilise the best available weather prediction technology to calculate dam inflows and downstream tributary behaviour,” he said.

"Storage releases for flood mitigation need to fully take into account dam safety, prevailing and forecast weather conditions and security of downstream supplies."

Burrinjuck and Blowering Dams are operated by State Water in line with formal regulations which include a requirement that the dams maximise the availability of supply at the commencement of the irrigation season.

In the Murrumbidgee valley flow monitoring and management capabilities will be further enhanced by the introduction of new technology currently underway.

The computer-aided river management (CARM) system is expected to be operational in 2012.

-ENDS-

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