Southern Rural Water declared a spill in the Macalister Irrigation District (MID) on Tuesday 5 September that will be reviewed until Tuesday, 20 September.
Declaring a ‘spill’ means the water ordered and used from the start of the season through to the 20 September is considered over and above the customers’ 100% allocation.
After 20 September, we will continue to review spill entitlement on a regular basis and let customers and the community know if it gets extended.
The spill will be a welcome boost to MID customers. We announced 100% allocation at the start of the season, to give customers the confidence to plan their irrigations in advance. Customer demand has not been as high as usual for this period due to the conditions. With a few warm days, this will increase.
Lake Glenmaggie, the storage facility supplying the water entitlements for farms in the MID, is currently 89.9% full (158,638ML) and rising.
When the volume levels trigger our release management plan, we make controlled releases to protect the dam and minimise the risk of flooding for communities downstream.
The above-average inflows over winter at Lake Glenmaggie and predicted rainfall for the rest of spring has underpinned our decision to declare spill entitlement for all Macalister Irrigation District customers.
Lake Glenmaggie daily storage levels can be found here.