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Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW)

 

G-MW made allocation announcements on 3 March and 17 March. Allocations were increased on the Murray, Broken, Goulburn and Campaspe systems, but remain low on all systems. 

As of 17 March, allocations for high reliability water shares were as follows:

Low delivery rates and efficient operations allowed increases in the Broken and Campaspe systems during March. Modest inflows to Lake Eildon and continued loss-savings were sufficient to increase allocations on the Goulburn system. The increase in the Murray system was a result of Snowy River release management, Darling River inflows and Victorian tributary inflows.

The seasonal allocation in the Loddon system remained unchanged.

There was not enough water in the Bullarook system for an irrigation allocation in March. No irrigation allocation is likely this season. Bullarook Creek customers continued to have access to water for domestic and stock purposes only. 

G-MW continued to work towards minimising losses in its irrigation systems to reassign as allocations in March.

G-MW will announce the final 2007/08 seasonal allocations on 1 April 2008. Water resources improvements received after this date until the end of June 2008 will be used for system operations and allocations during the 2008/09 season.

Pumping of Waranga Basin (under the Government’s Drought Relief Package) is expected to commence in early April to manage anticipated high demand for irrigation water in the coming months. The date was pushed back due to high levels in the basin resulting from a cut-back in demand for irrigation. 

In June 2007, the Minister for Water temporarily qualified rights to water in the Murray, Goulburn, Broken, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook systems to make sufficient water available for essential urban and farming needs.

Normal allocation rules resumed on the Goulburn, Murray and Broken systems when allocations on these systems reached 20%. The qualification on the Loddon, Bullarook, and Campaspe systems will remain in place until allocations on these systems reach 50%.

G-MW issued a water quality alert for Tullaroop Reservoir and Tullaroop Creek downstream of the Tullaroop Reservoir on 24 January after monitoring detected high levels of potentially toxic blue-green algae. G-MW is continuing to monitor the situation closely and will advise the public and water users of any changes in the blue-green algae alert status. 

On 15 February G-MW released the outlook for seasonal allocations at the start of the 2008/09 season using the most recent trends and historic data.

• Average inflow conditions would not provide enough water to allocate water for irrigation on 1 July 2008. All systems would begin the 2008/09 season with zero seasonal allocations. 
• By 15 August 2008, average inflows are expected to allow non-zero allocations in the Murray, Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems. The Broken system will remain at zero allocation. 
• The outlook for the 15 August 2008 seasonal allocations (% of high-reliability water share) is summarised in the table below.

Inflow Conditions	Murray	Broken	Goulburn	Campaspe	Loddon
Wet	100%	100%*	90%	100%	100%*
Average	17%	0%	31%	22%	100%
Dry	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%

* Low-reliability water shares allocated

Significant winter and spring inflows are the key elements to overcoming a potential water shortage. Next season's irrigation allocations will rely almost entirely on the inflows between July and November. G-MW will update the allocation outlook for 2008/09 on 15 May 2008. The first seasonal allocations for 2008/09 will be announced on 1 July 2008.

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Coliban Rural System

Coliban Water increased its rural season allocation to 35% on 14 December and remained at 35% throughout March.

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Wimmera Mallee Domestic and Stock Supply System

 

Supplies to all customer groups are being made available in accordance with the restriction schedule contained in the Wimmera-Glenelg bulk entitlements. Restrictions are as follows:

• towns are on Stage 4 restrictions;
• domestic and stock supply to farms is limited to one dam per enterprise in most areas, with limited pipeline supply in areas where the pipelining is completed, and carting of water around Berriwillock and Culgoa; 
• irrigation supplies are zero;
• no supply is available for irrigation diversions on the Wimmera River;
• supply to recreation lakes has been nil since 2000.

At 31 March 2008, storages in the Wimmera-Mallee domestic and stock supply system had reduced to 3.5% of capacity. This was a reduction of 0.2% since February.

All farms in the Supply System 1 area are now able to access water from the Wimmera-Mallee Pipeline once their meter has been installed. Pressure testing of the pipeline servicing the Dooen, Pimpinio, Dimboola, Jeparit, Rainbow and Yaapeet districts is almost complete. Practical completion is estimated for the end of April 2008.

Pressure testing of the Supply System 5 pipeline servicing the Berriwillock, Culgoa and Nullawil districts was completed during March. All farms serviced by Supply System 5 are now able to access water from the Wimmera-Mallee Pipeline once their meter has been installed. The tapping and metering program is continuing and is due for completion in April.

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Southern Rural Water

Macalister Irrigation District (MID)

 

At 31 March, Lake Glenmaggie, the principal source of water for the MID, was at 70.7% of capacity. 

Allocations remained at 200% for all irrigators within the MID, and for diverters on the Thomson River, Macalister River and Rainbow Creek during March. The allocation is in addition to the 46,000 ML (equivalent to 32% of water right volume) delivered during the off-quota period up to 20 November 2007.

The outlook for the Macalister Irrigation District remains positive.

Latrobe System

 

Water availability on the Latrobe system decreased throughout March with storage levels in Blue Rock Lake falling 3.8% to 72.9% of capacity. Although this level is well above that of the same time last year, the irrigation share of Blue Rock as at 31 March was just 17.3%. This is a result of being heavily drawn upon last season.

In March, SRW licence holders downstream on the Latrobe and Tanjil Rivers could pump up to their licensed volume, however availability was limited by unregulated river flows (which normally contribute some 70% of entitlements).

Werribee Basin (Bacchus Marsh and Werribee Irrigation District)

SRW’s share of the Werribee Basin remained at approximately 8.5% of capacity during March.

The seasonal allocation remained at just 8% of water right and licensed volume for the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts in March.

SRW continues to implement its Western Irrigation Contingency Plan which includes:

• accessing dead storage from Pykes Creek reservoir;
• transferring 2,000 ML of water from SRW’s Macalister Irrigation District drought reserve in the Thomson Reservoir to Werribee and Bacchus Marsh; and
• extending Government approval to make 800 ML of water available to irrigators from the unallocated share of Lake Merrimu.

Irrigators in the Werribee area continue to participate in the recycling scheme. This continues to be of major benefit to participating growers in the area (approaching 90% of the growers).

The ban on access to groundwater within the Deutgam Groundwater Management Area remains in place. SRW continues to monitor levels in the aquifer. Access to the resource will resume when the risk of salt water intrusion has diminished.

Maribyrnong Basin

The storage volume in Rosslynne Reservoir fell to 3.8% of capacity. With inflows well below average, SRW diverters face another season of low, possibly zero, allocations.

The allocation remains at 0% of licensed volume.

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