24 June 2010
ONE YEAR ON FROM DAM LOW
- 1 year anniversary of storage low and Tarago Reservoir reconnection
- Storages now 145 billion litres higher
- Major projects, water saving and rain-assisted recovery
Melbourne's water storages today marked 12 months since hitting a record low that authorities are working to avoid reaching again.
On 24 June 2009, dam levels slumped to 25.6% after a persistent and unprecedented drop in the amount of water flowing into them. They have since recovered to 33.2%.
Manager of Water Supply, John Woodland, said the storage low point marked the start of a new era for how the city's water supplies were managed.
"Melbourne's water resources were in a very different state a year ago," he said.
"The decline in rainfall and inflows had broken a string of records, including the worst two autumns back-to-back.
"Our main drought reserve, the Thomson Dam, was just 16% full and special pumps were required to make sure it could continue supplying water if its levels fell any further."
Mr Woodland said the reduced yield from dams in the face of climate change was driving the need for more sources of water and smarter ways of using them.
The storage low coincided with the reconnection of Tarago Reservoir, which was the first of the Victorian Government's major water projects to come online.
Tarago ceased supplying Melbourne in 1994 due to water quality problems, but a new treatment plant built by Melbourne Water in response to drought enabled it to be reconnected on 24 June 2009. The $97 million plant also turns one year old today.
"Building a treatment plant at Tarago was a relatively fast way to supply an average of around 15 billion litres a year into the Melbourne system, and without it storages would have fallen even further – below one-quarter full."
Mr Woodland said new sources of water had been instrumental in helping storages gradually recover, but that a complete turnaround would take years.
"Better rainfall in the past 12 months has certainly helped storages recover, but about half the additional 145 billion litres we now have in the bank has come from Tarago Reservoir, the Sugarloaf Pipeline and people simply using less water," he said.
"Storages are still only around 33%, so we still haven't seen a complete reversal of fortune. But with two new sources of water now in place, and the desalination plant on-schedule for the end of 2011, we are in a much better place to deal with population growth and any further climate shocks compared with a year ago."
Media Contact: Andrew McGinnes +613 9235 7277 +61 (0)403 930 846