WaterNSW

11/27/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/26/2021 18:03

Inflows hit high peaks into key WaterNSW regional dams

27 November 2021

WaterNSW continues to monitor storage levels at the state's major regional supply dams, almost all of which are receiving constant inflows and are in excess of 90% of storage capacity.

WaterNSW dam personnel are on round-the-clock flood operations at several dams, with the Keepit Dam on the Namoi River and Burrendong Dam on Macquarie River the primary regional focal points overnight.

Burrendong Dam (~140%) received huge inflow volumes yesterday (Friday) which have pushed the storage to almost filling the dam's 500 gigalitre (GL) flood mitigation zone.

The storage level rose 10 percentage points in 24 hours - including a 0.5% rise per hour for 5 hours - requiring overnight dam releases that reached 30GL/day before being scaled back to 5GL/day this morning to avoid increasing downstream river levels already rising due to high tributary inflows.

Keepit Dam has cut releases almost entirely to avoid adding to a record flood peak in the unregulated Mooki River, due to reach Gunnedah later today.

Wyangala Dam on the Lachlan River is expected to capture current inflows without the need to make releases downstream.

Chaffey Dam on the Peel River continues to spill in large volumes, while WaterNSW teams are monitoring inflows into Burrinjuck and Blowering Dams on the Murrumbidgee, where successful storage operations are expected to have created sufficient capacity to capture the majority of inflow.

For several months WaterNSW has been making substantial releases between rain events to lower key dam storages and capture inflows from the next forecast rain event.

WaterNSW is working closely with the Bureau of Meteorology and the NSW State Emergency Service to monitor weather and inflows.

For more information on WaterNSW storages visit: www.waternsw.com.au

To access WaterNSW information on river heights and flow data visit: WaterInsights

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Media contact - Tony Webber 0428 613 478 or Angela Davies 0467 947 426.