Rain lifts water availability
SIGNIFICANT FALLS LEAD TO INCREASED ALLOCATIONS
Recent rainfall has improved the outlook for irrigators, with both the Campaspe and Broken River systems reaching 100 per cent of high-reliability water shares.
The Murray system has increased from 57 per cent of high-reliability water shares to 77 per cent and the Goulburn and Loddon systems increased from 71 per cent HRWS to 85 per cent.
Goulburn-Murray Water resource manager Mark Bailey said recent rainfall provided a welcome increase in water availability.
“The catchments responded well to the rain in early September,” Dr Bailey said.
“The volume of water in storage increased and higher tributary flows downstream of the storages met demand, which allowed for the increased allocations.”
Dr Bailey said the MurrayDarling Basin Authority was also managing Lake Hume close to the full supply level, which was reducing the volume of rules-based accounts in the Murray system, and could cause deductions from spillable water accounts if releases continued for some time.
“Any deductions from spillable water accounts will be determined in early October and included in the October 15 seasonal determination assessment,” he said.
The latest Bureau of Meteorology seasonal outlook continues to favour above-average rainfall across northern Victoria for the three-month period from October to December.
The negative Indian Ocean Dipole has weakened but continues, and the bureau has also issued a La Nin˜ a watch, meaning the chance of a La Nin˜ a forming is about 50 per cent.
A negative Indian Ocean Dipole and La Nin˜a each increase the likelihood of above-average rainfall totals in south-east Australia.