Heavy rainfall and floods across NSW have led to a rapid rise in dam levels, with some storage volumes increasing by more than 20 per cent since March 23.
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The current storage volumes are now a stark difference from this time last year, where some dams' volumes were under 10 per cent of capacity.
Murrumbidgee storage Burrinjuck saw the biggest jump in the past week and was 85pc full on Tuesday, moving from a total volume of 659 gigalitres to 879GL in a week, with flows peaking at 82,665 megalitres a day.
The Macquarie Valley catchment also saw heavy inflows, with Burrendong Dam moving to 55pc full. The dam was sitting at just eight per cent full in March 2020, its levels increasing by a huge 85pc in a year.
Northern Basin catchments also saw significant increases, Gwydir Valley storage Copeton Dam moving from 23pc full to 39pc in a week, while Namoi storage Keepit Dam went from 46pc full last week to 61pc on Tuesday, while Split Rock dam is now at 28pc.
Floods were equivalent to 2012 for some in the Gwydir Valley
The Gwydir Valley, centered around Moree, was the inland valley most impacted by floods and Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association executive officer Zara Lowien said most areas had seen between 100 to 200 milimetres of rain during the event.
Gwydir water users now have access to 100pc of their supplementary licences and 100,000ML have been accessed so far, including environment orders.
"Since the start of March, more than 190,000ML has flowed into the Barwon because of the good steady river flows and now the flood in our region," Ms Lowien said.
"Unregulated access has also been wide-spread throughout the valley."
Ms Lowien said with the NSW government's floodplain harvesting licence program not rolling out until July, there was currently no requirement to measure floodplain harvesting take.
"But we together with many stakeholders can see there would be great benefit in knowing what share of the flood can be accessed from floodplain licences in events like these," she said.
Ms Lowien said some people were experiencing more than one flood, with initial rainfall and localised flooding compounding with flooding from the main regulated river source as well.
"They're dealing with a lot of water, for some it's in excess of the 2012 flood waters," she said.
Ms Lowien said the floods had led to infrastructure damage on farm and had waterlogged summer crops such as cotton and sorghum.
"Some crops will struggle to survive but on the flip side we now obviously have very good soil moisture across the valley and in terms of winter crop planting, that's advantageous for everybody," Ms Lowien said.
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