A dam at Traveston Crossing would be full and overflowing today, with good stream flows passing the dam site. Queensland Water Infrastructure CEO Graeme Newton, who was at the dam site this morning, said the Traveston Crossing Bridge, just downstream of the location of the dam wall, was flooded by several metres. “Stream flow at Dagun Pocket, just downstream of the dam, was flowing at over 53,000 million litres per day at 10.45am today,” he said. “That’s the equivalent of a rate that would fill over 14 Olympic sized swimming pools per minute.” Since Thursday, rain across the catchment has ranged from 396mm at Baroon Boat Ramp, 334mm at Obi Lookout and 313mm at Maleny. To compare, in the Wivenhoe Dam catchment, rainfall has ranged from 69mm-87mm, and in Somerset Dam catchment from 69mm to 194mm. This is consistent with rainfall over the past 12 months, with more than 3 metres of rain recorded at Maleny, in the Traveston Crossing Dam catchment. In Linville, in the Wivenhoe Dam catchment, 0.95m has been recorded, while at Peachester in the Somerset Dam catchment, 1.78m has been recorded.* Mr Newton said the Traveston Crossing Dam catchment captures coastal rainfalls, and on average records up to 55% more rain than the Wivenhoe Dam catchment. “These flows show that a dam at this location would reliably provide 70,000 million litres per year, even after taking into consideration climate change, environmental flows, evaporation and seepage.” Summary of Good Stream Flow Events – past 12 months - 25 August 2007 - 44,500 ML/ day
- 9 September 2007 - 10,700 ML/ day
- 25 November 2007 - 2,855 ML/ day
- 5 January 2007 - 24,600 ML/ day
- 12 January 2008 - 10,267 ML/ day
- 16 January 2008 - 9,037 ML/ day
- 6 February 2008 - 22,600 ML/ day
- 14 February 2008 – 16,800 ML/ day
- 3 June 2008 – 53,000 ML/ day
(*Note: these gauging stations are generally the best performing gauging stations in each catchment). |