Melbourne Water

Weekly Water Report Archives

19 June 2009

No rain to make most of wetter catchments

Virtually no rain fell over the major catchments in the past week, failing to capitalise on the good falls of the previous week.

The catchments received just 2.3 mm of rainfall, much lower than the long-term average for the period, 22.3 mm.

Consequently, the 3.6 billion litres of streamflows into the major reservoirs was well down on the average for the period (8.6 billion litres).

With catchments wetter from 40 mm of rain a week prior, the dry week was a missed chance to boost storages.

However, low consumption continued to slow the decline in storages, which dropped by 0.1 % (2.4 billion litres) of total capacity.

Storages are now 25.8% (456.6 billion litres) full, compared with 29.4% (522.1 billion litres) at the same time last year.

Melburnians achieved the Target of 155 litres each a day for the 15th week in a row, using an average of 136 litres each a day.

More information on restrictions and tips on how to reach the target are available from Target 155 or by contacting the government water retailers.

Stage 3a restrictions and Target 155 are currently in place.

Daily residential water use for Melbourne

   PREVIOUS WEEKS
   CURRENT WEEK
   TARGET 155

All figures include non-metropolitan supply for Western Water (supplied since March 2000), which are not included in annual Melbourne metropolitan consumption figures.

Melbourne's water storages

View interactive storage graph for 1997-2009 (opens in a new window)

   2006     2007     2008     2009  
100% capacity = 1773 GL

Total system storage (as of 18 June 2009)

Reservoir	Capacity at full supply (ML)	Volume (ML)	% Full
Thomson	1,068,000	175,534	16.4%
Upper Yarra	200,000	82,976	41.5%
O'Shannassy	3,000	2,631	87.7%
Maroondah	22,000	7,439	33.8%
Sugarloaf	96,000	15,296	15.9%
Yan Yean	30,000	5,643	18.8%
Greenvale	27,000	19,697	73.0%
Silvan	40,000	36,691	91.7%
Cardinia	287,000	110,691	38.6%
Total	1,810,500	456,598	25.8%

Rainfall recorded at the reservoirs

Catchment	12 Jun - 18 Jun 2009	Average for the period*	Variation	12 Jun - 18 Jun 2008
Thomson	4 mm	20 mm	80.0% below	30.8 mm
Upper Yarra	0.8 mm	22.6 mm	96.5% below	44.8 mm
O'Shannassy	1.8 mm	32.6 mm	94.5% below	42.6 mm
Maroondah	0 mm	19 mm	100.0% below	21.8 mm

* Average (30 year mean 1979-2008)

Stream flow for the major catchments

Catchment	12 Jun - 18 Jun 2009	Average for the period*	Variation	12 Jun - 18 Jun 2008
Thomson	1525 ML	3760 ML	59.4% below	1775 ML
Upper Yarra	608 ML	1960 ML	69.0% below	433 ML
O'Shannassy	866 ML	1500 ML	42.3% below	1030 ML
Maroondah	628 ML	1460 ML	57.0% below	874 ML
Total	3627 ML	8680 ML	58.2% below	4112 ML

* Average (30 year mean 1979-2008)

Note: These results are preliminary and are validated at the end of the month.

Yarra Catchment
Report for period 11 June - 17 June 2009 (inclusive):

• Current seven day rolling average flows for Yarra River @ Yarra Glen = 555.1 ML/day (down 17.1 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Yarra River @ Warrandyte = 288.4 ML/day (up 2.0 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Little Yarra River @ Yarra Junction = 52.8 ML/day (up 7.5 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Woori Yallock Creek @ Yellingbo = 80.5 ML/day (up 25.9 ML/day from the previous week)
• Total rainfall at Upper Yarra Reservoir for June is 46.98 mm (long-term monthly average for June is 103.9 mm)
• Total rainfall at Silvan Reservoir for June is 60.6 mm (long-term monthly average for June is 118.5 mm)

Maribyrnong Catchment
Report for period 11 June - 17 June 2009 (inclusive):

Rosslyne Reservoir
Melbourne Water's Capacity Share of the storage as at 15 June 2009 was 20 Megalitres (ML)

• Current release from Rosslyne (as at 15 June 2009) to meet bulk entitlement demands = 0.51 ML/day
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Jacksons Creek @ Sunbury = 0.7 ML/day (up 0.1 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Deep Creek @ Bulla = 0.9 ML/day (up 0.1 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Maribyrnong River @ Keilor (Brimbank Park) = 1.3 ML/day (no change from the previous week)
• Total rainfall at Rosslyne Reservoir for June is 22.6 mm (long-term monthly average for June is 59.9 mm)

Note: Passing flows at Keilor, as per the bulk entitlement agreement, require 5.0 ML/day or natural, whichever is the lesser, to be passed at Keilor. Natural flows are based on flows at Deep Ck @ Bulla gauging station.

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