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Waternsw.Com.Au Regional Drought Update 25 June 2019…

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Waternsw.Com.Au Regional Drought Update 25 June 2019… Regional drought update 25 June 2019 waternsw.com.au Key customer messages The drought impacts are continuing with a drier than usual winter across regional NSW with the Northern valleys, including Tamworth, already in deep drought, and conditions in the Southern valleys worsening. Significant rainfall is required to break the drought and initial losses of 100-150mm can be expected before significant runoff will occur in most catchments. Large shortfalls in reserves in all systems need to be captured in storage for high security before general security can receive any allocations. The BoM’s outlook indicates for July to Sept remains drier than average. Recent rainfall events have not improved the overall outlook but have produced small flows in the Barwon-Darling. While these flows will improve supply for stock and domestic uses and towns water supply along the river, only a small volume is likely to reach as far as Menindee. This week’s rain for coastal NSW is not predicted to reach the ranges or inland catchments. Flows resulting from environmental releases in the Gwydir and Border Rivers for native fish refuge have reached the Barwon River at Walgett. These flows are also providing stock and domestic supplies in these rivers, and are likely to extend to Brewarrina in July, but may not reach Bourke. A previously gazetted temporary pumping restriction remains in place in the Barwon Darling The order limits extraction of the river flows to stock and domestic use, the environment and critical supplies including town water. The restriction will remain in place until 30 August 2019. Water allocations for the coming new Water Year are forecast to be reduced for some high security, carryover water and conveyance licences due to reduced supplies and delivery constraints, while all inland systems are forecast to have zero general security allocations on 1 July 2019. Regional Weekly Drought Response Water Report 2 Last week’s weather: Parts of the Central and Southern Tablelands regions of the state receive up to 15mm for the week. The coastal regions, the Northern Rivers and the Illawarra received up to 25mm. Negligible rainfall fell across the Riverina and the Lower Western parts of the state. The rest of the state remained dry. This week’s forecast: A high pressure system over southeastern Australia will shift into the southern Tasman Sea in the early parts of the week, and is forecast to continue to move slowly east over the next several days, generating showers east of The Divide, mostly along the northern half of the coast. For the first part of the week, rainfall is predicted along the coastal regions of the state only with falls of up to 25mm being forecast. The rest of the state is again predicted to remain dry. As the week progresses the entire state apart from the far north regions (which is predicted to remain dry) is predicted to receive 1 – 5mm with higher falls of up to 15mm being forecast in the Snowy Mountains region. Longer-term outlook: The BoM’s three-month outlook indicates that • A drier than average three months is likely for much of NSW. Chances of a drier July to September are highest across the southeast of NSW where chances of a drier three months exceed 75%. Regional Weekly Drought Response Water Report 3 Operational Update • Flows from the environmental releases from Copeton Dam have reached the Barwon River at Collarenebri and filled and overtopped the Walgett Weir on 12 June. These flows are forecast to cease towards the end of July, downstream of Bourke. • Flows in the Barwon-Darling system continue moving downstream after isolated rainfall events on; 4 May, Easter, and late March. o 1,800 ML flowed into Walgett Namoi Weir pool in April o Brewarrina weir pool had risen to 1.8m and some water is trickling through the fishway o Flows from the Nebine/Culgoa River entered the Darling River upstream of Bourke since 9 May and Bourke weir has risen about 1.2 metres since 23 May. o Inflows from the Warrego over the last month had reached Louth and Tilpa and flows filled and overtopped the Wilcannia Weir pool on 15 June. Water Quality There are currently Red Alerts at 7 monitoring sites within the state. • Darling River at Wilcannia and Pooncarie, • Macintyre River at Bogabilla Weir, • Gwydir River at Copeton (Wonulla and Northern Foreshore), • Mardi Dam, and • Bogan River at Gongolgon Please visit https://maps.waternsw.com.au/AlgalAlerts/?mobileBreakPoint=300/index.html for more detailed information. Regional Weekly Drought Response Water Report 4 Incident Response Guide Criticality Level Please visit https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water/allocations-availability/allocations/summary for more detailed information. Drought heat map Please visit https://edis.dpi.nsw.gov.au for more information Regional Weekly Drought Response Water Report 5 Rural Dam Levels: 21 June 2019 Cap- River Valley Current Status Comments Allocations for 2018/19 acity Likeli- Weekly hood % of Est change active Active of fill High Gen. Carry- Storage Dam, Nearest Town (GL) (GL) Supply Issues cap- (GL) and spill Security Security over @ acity 1/7/18 Border Rivers Glenlyon Dam, Stanthorpe 254 8% 21 0 Releases ceased <20% 100% 2.7% 53% Pindari Dam, Inverell 312 5% 16 -0 Minimum releases <20% 100% 2.7% 53% Gwydir Valley Copeton Dam, Inverell 1346 9% 122 -3 Environmental releases <5% 100% 0% 22% Namoi Valley Keepit Dam, Gunnedah 419 1% 4 0 Releases ceased <20% 100% 0% 19% Split Rock Dam, Manilla 394 2% 9 -0 Regulated releases <5% 100% 100% N/A Chaffey Dam, Tamworth 98 24% 24 -0 Regulated releases <50% 100% 38% N/A Macquarie Valley Burrendong Dam, 1154 5% 61 -1 Regulated releases, <20% 100% 0% 52% Wellington restricted c/over Windamere Dam, 367 33% 120 -0 Regulated releases. BWT <5% 100% 0% 102% Mudgee ceased Lachlan Valley Wyangala Dam, Cowra 1216 27% 328 -4 Regulated releases <20% 100% 0% 62% Carcoar Dam, Carcoar 36 21% 8 -0 Regulated releases 10% 100% 0% 67% Murrumbidgee Valley Burrinjuck Dam, Yass 1025 30% 311 0 Min Planned eWater 40% 95% 7% 22% Blowering Dam, Tumut 1604 41% 662 37 Min Planned eWater <10% 95% 7% 22% Murray Dartmouth, Mitta Mitta 3837 63% 2412 -4 Transfers to Hume N/A N/A N/A N/A Hume Dam, Albury 2982 21% 624 70 Low releases <25% 97% 0% 31% Lower Darling Menindee Lakes, Broken 1633 1% 15 -0 Releases ceased N/A 100% 0% 15% Hunter Valley Glenbawn Dam, Scone 750 51% 386 -1 Regulated releases 20% 100% 100% 21% Glennies Ck Dam, 282 53% 149 -1 Regulated releases 20% 100% 100% 21% Lostock Dam, Gresford 20 83% 16 -0 Regulated releases 100% 100% 100% N/A Coastal Area Toonumbar Dam, Kyogle 11 66% 7 -0 Regulated releases 100% 100% 100% N/A Brogo Dam, Bega 9 98% 9 -0 Regulated releases 100% 100% 65% N/A Total 17748 29.9% 5304 90 WaterNSW has water resources in Dartmouth, Hume and Glenlyon Dams. TWS = Town Water Supplies 1 Gigalitre (GL) = 1,000 Megalitres (ML) 1 ML = 1,000,000 litre Regional Weekly Drought Response Water Report 6 Details – Valley Overview Valley Storage Weekly Releases GS AWD Inflows Volume inflows Comment ML/d % AWD Required (GL) (GL) Valley Dams Minimum releases from Pindari. CEWH releases Pindari 16.5 0 10 Border from Glenlyon to provide a fish refuge event in 2.7 31 Glenlyon 21.3 0 0 the Barwon-Darling ceased on 13 May. Copeton CEWH and OEH are releasing water from Gwydir 121 0.06 121 Copeton to provide a fish refuge event in the 0 36 Barwon-Darling. Split Rock 9.0 0 14 Split Rock bulk water transfer complete – current Keepit 4.1 0.4 0 releases are for Upper Namoi needs. No further Namoi 0 80 releases from Keepit into the Lower Namoi until inflows occur. Chaffey Dam releases for Tamworth with very Peel Chaffey 23.9 0 49 little irrigation demand. Level 4 water restriction 38 N/A*** for Tamworth. Current releases from Burrendong Dam are for town and D&S demand. Burrendong 61 0.2 150 Macquarie 0 261 Windamere 121 0 40 Current release from Windamere Dam are for Cudgegong demand as the bulk water transfer has been deferred. Regional customer drought update 7 Valley Storage Weekly Releases GS AWD Inflows Volume inflows Comment ML/d % AWD Required (GL) (GL) Valley Dams Current releases from Wyangala Dam are for irrigation, TWS and S&D demand. Wyangala 328 0.9 785 Lachlan Current releases from Carcoar Dam are on 0 200 Carcoar 8.0 0 21 minimum. Due to drought conditions, the end of system daily environmental flow requirement is only met intermittently. 3.8 Minimum releases meeting demand for: Burrinjuck 311 640 irrigation, planned environmental water Murrumbidgee 7 75 Blowering 662 41* 577 (429ML/d at Balranald and 50ML/day at Darlot) and held environmental water to Lowbidgee. Transfers from Hume for South Australia continues Murray Hume 647 75.8** 1750 0 60 at lower rates. Cease to flow - Bourke – no flow since 27 August 2018; Barwon-Darling N/A N/A CEWO water releases from Glenlyon reached N/A N/A Mogil Mogil and Copeton releases reached Walgett. Warrego flow reached Wilcannia. Four block banks have been constructed and filled, pipes closed. Releases from Lake Wetherell ceased on 12 Feb Lower-Darling Menindee 15.2 0 Negligible 0 N/A 2019. Supply to Broken Hill is being met from W2BH pipeline. Regional customer drought update 8 * Includes inflows from Snowy Hydro, already budgeted. ** Includes inflows from Dartmouth and Snowy Hydro, already budgeted.
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