Googong spillway definitely and officially open

EvanJames said :

The dam did look very empty, with the little building sticking out a long way above the water.

But we are in a classic and strong La Nina. We don’t get La Nina very often, El Nino is more frequent unfortunately, which means drought. So enjoy the water and full dams, because the falling dam levels and dry land will be back with us all too soon.

Saving for VERY dry times is one of the reasons we have such large dams (relatively speaking). Even during our relatively dry times we generally have enough water to keep our dams constant. The past 3 years are testament to that. It is the very dry years like we had in 2005/2006 that cause the problems, but these are rare. So no need for scaremongering, we will be right especially when the new Cotter comes on-line.

They should have chucked the ‘minister’ in to demonstrate how well the spillway works

“The Googong Dam spillway is now able to safely pass 10,500 cubic meters of water per second, which is approximately four times the normal flow over Niagara Falls and a 1 in a million event,” Mr Corbell said.

Queanbeyan will be totally annihilated however.

“A year ago intelligent people were speculating that the Googong Dam would never fill again.”

Who were these people? I don’t think ACTEW just spent a $100 million dollars or so on something they never thought would get used again.

intaba said :

“the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD)”
Oh the things they spend taxes on…

Yeah, who cares about large dams with hundreds of thousands of people downstream. What could go wrong? *Stops and looks at Queanbeyan*

Yep there sure was a lot of water flowing through there, and to think my friends and I use to go swimming just a few hundred metres down from the wall

“the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD)”
Oh the things they spend taxes on…

The dam did look very empty, with the little building sticking out a long way above the water. But we are in a classic and strong La Nina. We don’t get La Nina very often, El Nino is more frequent unfortunately, which means drought. So enjoy the water and full dams, because the falling dam levels and dry land will be back with us all too soon.