Farming disaster ‘a matter of dam timing’
FLOODED farmers along the Murray River have accused the national water management authority of making a natural disaster worse by delaying releases from the Hume Dam upstream of Albury-Wodonga.
FLOODED farmers along the Murray River have accused the national water management authority of making a natural disaster worse by delaying releases from the giant Hume Dam upstream of Albury-Wodonga, despite warnings of a looming deluge, The Australian reports.
Richard Sargood, chairman of the Murray River Action Group, said the Murray-Darling Basin Authority promised farmers downstream of the Hume Dam at an August 18 meeting that it would soon start gradual water releases from the vast dam once storage levels reached 83 per cent.
The promise of bigger releases came after Bureau of Meteorology predictions of a wet August and September ahead and sudden increases in water levels in Lake Hume of 10 per cent a week.
“But they didn’t,’’ Mr Sargood said. “Everyone knew it was going to be a very wet spring but they didn’t make any pre-releases in August to create the air space (in the dam) in case of big sudden inflows.
“So when we had our (first) big rains (September 14), the ground everywhere was sodden already, the dam was nearly full at 97 per cent and there was nowhere for the water to go except for the gates to be opened in a rush.
“They didn’t make room early enough; it’s no wonder you have talk of class actions and compensation from those who have been hit by these big floods downstream that didn’t have to have been as bad as they were; management could certainly be improved.”
The filled Hume Dam has been spilling water from massive concrete gates for most of the past month. Its biggest releases — 70,000-80,000 megalitres per day for six days from October 3 — caused a “wall of water” to swamp the downriver towns of Corowa and Tocumwal a few days later.
Read more at The Australian
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