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| Wivenhoe Dam |
WATER will not be released yet from Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam to help protect the city from potential wet season flooding.
Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle says although the dam is 96.5 per cent full, its dedicated flood mitigation compartment, which can hold 1.42 million megalitres of water, is empty.
The dam's operation was the focus of the final sitting of the Queensland Flood Commission of Inquiry, when the former government's water utilities minister was grilled on why water wasn't released before the devastating 2010-11 floods hit.
Mr McArdle said the latest advice from the weather bureau is that this summer's wet season will not see the strong La Nina conditions that led to the 2010-11 flood disasters.
The decision not to lower the levels at Wivenhoe and North Pine Dam, north of Brisbane, was also based on water supply security, dam operations, public safety, downstream impacts, the public interest and the extent to which a potential flood impact could be mitigated.
Mr McArdle said he would continually review the decision.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully said the dam should be lowered to 75 per cent and Mr McArdle should stop listening to highly paid, out-of-touch bureaucrats who didn't know what it's like to live through a flood.
"This is a shortsighted decision which adds more risks to residents in flood-prone areas of Ipswich and Brisbane," he said in a statement.
Mr Tully lost his family home at Goodna, along with 600 other families in the area, in the 2011 flood.
Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle says although the dam is 96.5 per cent full, its dedicated flood mitigation compartment, which can hold 1.42 million megalitres of water, is empty.
The dam's operation was the focus of the final sitting of the Queensland Flood Commission of Inquiry, when the former government's water utilities minister was grilled on why water wasn't released before the devastating 2010-11 floods hit.
Mr McArdle said the latest advice from the weather bureau is that this summer's wet season will not see the strong La Nina conditions that led to the 2010-11 flood disasters.
The decision not to lower the levels at Wivenhoe and North Pine Dam, north of Brisbane, was also based on water supply security, dam operations, public safety, downstream impacts, the public interest and the extent to which a potential flood impact could be mitigated.
Mr McArdle said he would continually review the decision.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully said the dam should be lowered to 75 per cent and Mr McArdle should stop listening to highly paid, out-of-touch bureaucrats who didn't know what it's like to live through a flood.
"This is a shortsighted decision which adds more risks to residents in flood-prone areas of Ipswich and Brisbane," he said in a statement.
Mr Tully lost his family home at Goodna, along with 600 other families in the area, in the 2011 flood.
9.11.12
