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Murray inflows improve

Posted October 2, 2008 11:13:00
Updated October 2, 2008 12:24:00

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River Murray ... improved inflows. (user submitted: Marion Cartwright)

Recent spring rain has improved inflows to the River Murray, with a September reading nearly double that for August.

The river had 405 gigalitres flow into the system last month.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission says inflows are still only a quarter of the long-term average.

Chief executive Dr Wendy Craik says rainfall in the lower lakes has improved the region's prospects.

"Our current estimates, based on the sort of levels that we're looking at at the moment for you know problems to start occurring, acidification to start occurring, it's possible that we may only need another 30 or so gigalitres to get through to next winter," she said.

"We were fortunate that we had a few rain events go through in September that you know, obviously bumped it up a bit but I think these days, the expectation's pretty low given the sort of rainfall outlooks and temperature outlooks that we're getting from the Bureau of Meteorology and given the history of the last couple of years."

Tags: irrigation, rivers, water, bega-2550, broken-hill-2880, orange-2800, tamworth-2340, wagga-wagga-2650, toowoomba-4350, sa, adelaide-5000, clayton-5256, goolwa-5214, renmark-5341, bendigo-3550, horsham-3400, mildura-3500, wodonga-3690

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