No releases from Wivenhoe, Somerset dams as treatment plants shut down

There are no plans to release water from Brisbane’s main drinking water reservoirs – Wivenhoe and Somerset dams – despite ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred drenching the city with rain.

Water is being released from North Pine Dam, pictured in January 2024. Picture: Richard Walker

There are no plans to release water from Brisbane’s main drinking water reservoirs – Wivenhoe and Somerset dams – despite ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred drenching the city with rain.

Late on Sunday, 11 of South East Queensland’s 22 ungated dams were overflowing into the rivers and creeks they were built on, as the region received widespread heavy falls.

But flood water was only being released from one of the water grid’s three dams – North Pine, near Joyner, north of Brisbane – after 170mm of rain fell on the North Pine catchment in 24 hours.

Seqwater chief executive officer Emma Thomas said that by Sunday afternoon there had still only been relatively small flows of water into the Wivenhoe and Somerset catchments, 31mm and 41mm in the previous 24 hours.

“We have no plans to open the Wivenhoe and Somerset gates at the moment with the rainfall that we can see on the ground at the moment,” Ms Thomas said.

But she said the authority was maintaining “an active watch” on the weather.

“We respond to the water on the ground because weather systems can be really uncertain, and it’s really important that we don’t inadvertently put water into much higher storm surges and water coming in from other areas that may create other impacts,” she said.

She said two water treatment plants – Moreton Bay’s Dayboro and Canungra, in the Scenic Rim – were shut down due to power outages and water quality, but both had very full reservoirs, so drinking water supplies had not been affected.