News

Seasonal water determinations up ... slightly

By Rodney Woods

Dec 16, 2019

High reliability water shares in the Murray, Goulburn, Loddon and Campaspe systems have all increased marginally in the final seasonal determination update for 2019.

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The Murray system moved from 52 per cent of HRWS to 56 per cent, while the Goulburn and Loddon systems increased from 63 per cent HRWS to 64 per cent.

The Campaspe system also had a slight increase as it moved from 61 per cent HRWS to 63 per cent.

Despite these increases, seasonal determinations in the Broken system remained on 0 per cent HRWS and the Bullarook system remained on 100 per cent HRWS and 100 per cent of low-reliability water shares.

Resource manager Mark Bailey said a range of factors influenced the improvements in water availability.

“Flows into the storages were slightly higher than forecast after rain in the first half of December,” Dr Bailey said.

“The rain meant evaporation and river losses were lower than estimated, which further contributed to the increased seasonal determinations announced today.”

Despite rain helping storages increase, Dr Bailey said the latest Bureau of Meteorology seasonal outlooks showed below-average rainfall across northern Victoria was likely to continue for the remainder of December and January.

The next 2019-20 seasonal determination announcement will be released on Thursday, January 2, 2020.