Irrigation Allocations - July 2010
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Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)
G-MW made the first allocation announcement for the 2010/11 season on 1 July. The allocations for high-reliability water shares opened at zero for all systems, and remained on zero during July. The next allocation announcement will be made on the 2 August 2010.
Irrigation Allocations across Northern Victorian
| Allocations as of 15 July 2010 | Allocations as of 1 July 2010 | |
|---|---|---|
| Goulburn | 0% | 0% |
| Murray | 0% | 0% |
| Broken | 0% | 0% |
| Campaspe | 0% | 0% |
| Loddon | 0% | 0% |
| Bullarook | 0% | 0% |
However, a record volume of water was carried over from the 2009/10 to the 2010/11 irrigation season on G-MW’s systems, and on 15 July G-MW announced that carryover would be deliverable on the Murray and Goulburn systems from the 16 August (the start of the irrigation season on the channel networks) and could be ordered for delivery on the smaller systems, from the same date.
The high volume of carryover has been attributed to late season increases in allocation on some systems in 2009/10, along with the introduction of Spillable Water Accounts and improved carryover rules on the Murray, Goulburn and Campaspe systems.
G-MW has declared that the probability of spill this season at Lake Eildon, Dartmouth Reservoir and Lake Eppalock is low. This means water held in customers’ Spillable Water Accounts will be made available in their Allocation Bank Accounts immediately.
Carryover Volumes across Northern Victoria
| Volume of Water Shares carried over to 2010/11 (GL) | 2010/11 carryover expressed as % HWRS | Volume carried over to 2009/10 (GL) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goulburn | 338 | 34% | 104 |
| Murray (GMW & LMW) | 457 | 38% | 174 |
| Broken | 4 | 22% | 2.5 |
| Campaspe | 1.1 | 3% | 1.3 |
| Loddon | 0.9 | 4% | 0.3 |
| Bullarook | 0.1 | 14% | 0 |
| Total | 875.43 | 282.1 |
Temporary qualification of rights to water remain in place in the Murray, Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe and Loddon systems this season to ensure there is enough water available for essential urban and farming needs. The qualification of rights to water on the Bullarook system has been revoked, as new bulk entitlements were created for this system in 2009 which include rules for managing water resources when storage levels are low.
Seasonal Allocation Outlook for Northern Victoria – 2010/11
G-MW released the latest seasonal allocation outlook for the 2010/11 season on 15 July 2010. The outlook is based on observed inflows in seasons following similar early winter inflows. G-MW has produced outlooks for dry, average and wet inflow conditions to illustrate the range of possible allocations – refer to the tables below.
Wet inflow conditions = highest 10 percent of seasonal inflows over the historical record. Average inflow conditions = the median seasonal inflows over the historical record. Dry inflow conditions = lowest 10 percent of seasonal inflows over the historical record.
Outlook at 15 July 2010 (percentage of high-reliability water share)
Outlook for 16 August 2010
| Inflow Conditions | Murray | Broken | Goulburn | Campaspe | Loddon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wet | 31% | 11% | 39% | 38% | 46% |
| Average | 14% | 0% | 23% | 0% | 0% |
| Dry | 2% | 0% | 6% | 0% | 0% |
Outlook for 15 October 2010
| Inflow Conditions | Murray | Broken | Goulburn | Campaspe | Loddon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wet | 83% | 100% | 90% | 100% | 100% |
| Average | 51% | 77% | 51% | 21% | 37% |
| Dry | 40% | 8% | 34% | 0% | 0% |
Outlook for 15 December 2010
| Inflow Conditions | Murray | Broken | Goulburn | Campaspe | Loddon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wet | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Average | 87% | 100% | 79% | 32% | 52% |
| Dry | 56% | 44% | 41% | 0% | 0% |
| Inflow Conditions | Murray | Broken | Goulburn | Campaspe | Loddon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wet | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Average | 100% | 100% | 87% | 87% | 71% |
| Dry | 59% | 54% | 43% | 43% | 0% |
Coliban Rural System
Coliban Water will announce the 2010/11 allocation for the Coliban Rural System on 15 September.
The Minister for Water has qualified rights to water in the Coliban rural system to allow Coliban Water to provide a 30% emergency supply to eligible commercial customers in the event that the general allocation is zero.
Wimmera Mallee Supply System
All towns and rural customers connected to the pipeline are on Stage 1 restrictions.
The official completion date of the pipeline was 28 May 2010 when all pipelines had been completed. Taylors Lake pumping station was still to be completed. These remaining works will be finished in August 2010.
The irrigation allocation was 0%.
Southern Rural Water
Macalister Irrigation District (MID)
At the end of July, Lake Glenmaggie, the main source of water for the MID, was at 68.3% of capacity.
On 1 July, Southern Rural Water announced an opening allocation of 55% for high reliability water shares. This was increased to 65% on 27 July. Customers in the Macalister Irrigation District cannot access their allocation until 15 August, however, they can trade their allocation. Customers on the Thomson and Macalister Rivers and Rainbow Creek could access their allocation from 1 July 2010.
No spill entitlement has been made to date in 2010/11.
The current volume in the Thomson/Macalister irrigators’ Thomson drought reserve is 16,369 ML.
Latrobe System
At the end of July, the storage level in Blue Rock Lake was 81.5% of capacity, which is considerably higher than the same time last year.
The irrigation share of Blue Rock was 1,792 ML. SRW licence holders downstream on the Latrobe and Tanjil Rivers can pump up to their licence volume, but this is subject to the availability of unregulated river flows (which normally contribute approximately 70% of entitlements).
Werribee Basin
SRW’s share of the Werribee storages was at 10% of capacity at the end of July.
Southern Rural Water announced a 6% opening allocation against high-reliability shares for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh districts. This was increased to 8% on 27 July. This is significantly better than previous years. Although rainfall and river flows are still well below average, there has been relatively regular rainfall in the catchment to date which has produced minor river flows.
As in recent irrigation seasons, irrigators in the Werribee area continue to rely on the recycling scheme as their main water source while the river flows remain low. The recycling scheme is providing about 65 ML/day shared between 90% of Werribee growers. The ban on groundwater use from the Deutgam Groundwater Management Area continues in 2010/11.
The Government announced on 16 March that Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigators would be able to access up to 5 GL of Melbourne’s water as a drought contingency measure. Metropolitan water will be offered to customers in the coming season.
In Werribee, this could help reduce salinity levels in the recycled water. SRW expect that recycled water will continue to be the main source of supply for Werribee irrigators, unless there is a significant improvement in river water availability. Bacchus Marsh irrigators will rely heavily on carryover of allocation from last season, as well as emergency and metropolitan water supplies.
Maribyrnong Basin
The storage volume in Rosslynne Reservoir remained very low at 4.6% of capacity at the end of July. Licensed diverters will begin another season with zero allocation.