Wivenhoe remains low despite week-long deluge

Millions of litres of water is being released from Somerset Dam into the struggling Wivenhoe Dam, with Brisbane’s main water supply at its lowest level in more than a decade despite nearby heavy rainfall.

Millions of litres of water is being released from Somerset Dam into the struggling Wivenhoe Dam, to make way for even more water after heavy rain drenched areas surrounding the Sunshine Coast.

Wivenhoe Dam – southeast Queensland’s largest water storage and the main supply of water for Brisbane and Greater Ipswich – is sitting at 37.3 per cent capacity, down 0.2 per cent from Thursday and near its lowest level in more than a decade.

Seqwater engineers expect Wivenhoe Dam could increase by one to three per cent over the coming days.

Over the last week, up to 200mm hit different locations in the Somerset Dam catchment, which was at 78.8 per cent capacity yesterday when the water release began.

Water released from Somerset Dam after recent heavy rain will be used to top up Wivenhoe Dam.

More water expected to flow into the Somerset Dam from neighbouring rivers and creeks over the coming days.

Seqwater Chief Executive Officer Neil Brennan said water was being released from Somerset Dam into Wivenhoe Dam to manage additional inflows into Somerset and balance the water storage levels across both dams.

While several smaller dams along the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast are at capacity and spilling after intense falls on Monday night and yesterday, the Seqwater grid capacity rose just 0.4 per cent since Thursday to 59.4 per cent.

“Most of the SEQ dams which received good inflows were already close to, or were spilling from rain received in late March. These are the smaller dams that contribute less to our overall water supply,” a Seqwater spokeswoman said.

“It takes considerable rainfall, in the right catchment areas to move the dial on drought and sadly the catchment that needs the rainfall the most is Wivenhoe, which has not received as much rain as other parts of the region.”

Wivenhoe Dam has been at its lowest level in more than a decade.

Thirteen of the region’s un-gated dams that are spilling include Baroon Pocket Dam on the Sunshine Coast, Cedar Pocket Dam in the Wide Bay region, Enoggera and Gold Creek Dams in Brisbane.

Mr Brennan said the lake level in Wivenhoe could rise 0.5 meters over the next few days as a result of the water transfer.

No downstream impact is expected from the releases and the full flood storage compartments of both Wivenhoe and Somerset dams are available should further rainfall occur.

Visitor’s to the dam’s popular recreation areas are warned to take extra care in the coming days with the heavy rain changing the conditions at the dams and recreation areas.