Low reliability irrigation water from the Murray River might be available in northern Victoria this year, for the first time in a decade.
Goulburn-Murray Water resource manager Mark Bailey said while it was too early to tell whether or not low reliability water would be made available to irrigators, he was hopeful allocations would be made.
“We have 100 per cent of high reliability water shares and the fact is that we are still getting really good inflows,” Dr Bailey said.
“We will be looking at it, there is a chance, but we haven’t really got a scale on it at the moment.
“Certainly, it’s been a long time since it’s been available and we would certainly like to make it available.”
He said the first objective would be to get 100pc high reliability water, in both the Murray and Goulburn systems.
“The Goulburn should be at 100pc, within the next month.
“I haven’t seen it allocated in the Goulburn system in nearly 20 years, because of the change in rainfall patterns.”
He said the last time low reliability shares were allocated in the Murray system was in the 2005-2006 irrigation season.
Consistent rainfall over the last few months had meant G-MW’s storages would have good water resource availability for at least the next two years, he said.
In the north-west, four of the reservoirs managed by Grampians-Wimmera-Mallee Water were full.
By late last week, the two biggest dams in G-MW’s network – Dartmouth Dam (65.8 per cent full) and Lake Eildon (68.1 per cent) continued to climb, but were still well below capacity.
Lake Eildon, an important tourist drawcard and source of irrigation water, was expected to keep rising for weeks.
"We expect it to continue to go up, certainly over the next month at least," Dr Bailey said.
"How close we get to capacity is a bit difficult to tell at this stage, but we don't expect it to fill to 100 per cent at this point."
Meanwhile, Dr Bailey said there was no change in the ‘risk of spill’ in the Murray or Campaspe systems.
He said the risk of spill remained above the 10 per cent threshold needed for a declaration to be made.
“Lake Hume and Lake Eppalock are spilling”, Dr Bailey said.
“Seasonal rainfall outlooks issued by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) suggest it will be some time before a low risk of spill is declared.
“All of the water held in spillable water accounts in the Murray system has been deducted, due to the volume of water that has spilled from Lake Hume in recent weeks.
“No further deductions will occur unless a seasonal determination against low-reliability water shares is announced for the Murray system and Lake Hume is still at risk of spilling.”
