Lake Wivenhoe Water Release

[aussiebasser]

Just went down the Twinnies.  At 2.00pm a whole lot of nothing was happening.

[Novice]

Probably runing about 2 metres higher than normal at Heart Attack hill ( Shines Rd ) at 5pm . Twinnies was still open at 6pm. Saw a lot of surface action up at Shines.

[UBK]

Does anybody know how it is looking now? Has the water gone down since the release?
I was thinking of heading to colleges this arv for a look at how it is going..

[aussiebasser]

Twin Bridges is under water, but I've heard you can walk over it.  Savages Crossing is open, the water is touching the bottom of the bridge.

[CRAIGM1]

Was at twin bridges  yesterday arvo at 3 pm water was 500 mm over the bridge.
cheers

[2Dogs]

22 days so far this month, 22 days of no rain in Brisbane = dryest november in recorded history in Brisbane & the great wivenhoe water wastage continues

 

[Nativeman]

Yep, that's right. Every lawn in our street is dead, cracks in the ground are appearing around the place..but this time tomorrow night it will be different, they reckon...

[Editor]

Snapshot Nov 22

- 22 days without rain in Brisbane = one of the dryest Novembers on record

- 22 November 2010 Wivenhoe was at 99.99% (Source BOM) after flood gates were first opened on Oct 10 after wide spread rain events.
- 22 November 2011 Wivenhoe is at 77.3% (source BOM)

As of today, Wivenhoe is 22% lower than in 2010. No rain this month to date.

FACT - 2010 to 2011 is Chalk & Cheese

In short, 5% of FSL is really 2.5% of total capacity. 2.5% was a couple of hours worth of flow in the peak of the January floods.

Also, in January 2011 there were flood waters coming down almost every other creek & river including the Bremer, Warrill, Lockyer, Bundamba, Oxley etc, outflows from Manchester adding to the flow in the mid - lower Brisbane River. Most of these have little to no flow now. looking at the Somerset feeder creeks & Stanley River today, these have little to no flow either.

You have to feel for the folks at SEQWater, they operate under the guidelines given, then get blamed for a flood of major proportions, then get over riden by a politician who is only trying to save arse with a token release.


At the end of the day, Wivenhoe cannot be all things to all people. If its to be a flood mitigation dam, then said save arse / vote desperate politician should have made a real decision & empty the dam. If its to be a water storage, then let the experts (SEQWater) manage that & give us all a buffer against drought with room to manage all but biblical flooding as they have always done. eg the big wet of summer 1999/2000

5% appears to achieve little of practical value, however does appear to be a touchy feely vote grab by a minister under pressure; an election is looming.

If significant rain does not come in enough quantity to at least bring Wivenhoe back up to FSL, we will see a very embarrassed Minister / Premier at the recommisioning ceremony of the Tugan Desalination Plant and the resumption of the Wyralong pipleine connection to the water grid. It's a 50 / 50 pollie punt....


The fishing?? I predict the river downstream of Wivenhoe Dam will run cool & clean throughout the whole release, in fact there are some good fish being caught ATM so it's business as usual for sweetwater fishos......the turkey shoot is still on for those in the know, just alot more water flowing past right now.


What do you think?

[aussiebasser]

The release has ended

[Novice]

Yep, just drove through Twinnies , no water over the road.