Farmers fear the wake of poor flood planning
Farmers near the Blowering Dam in southern New South Wales will be feeling their worry level rise, as flows from the Tumut River pushing the Dam to its limits.
One farmer says he is terrified at the potential damage that could be caused by an overflowing dam. Local landowners have battled three floods in the last three years alone, but Blowering no longer has the percentage allowance previously used for flood mitigation.
Peter Luders from the Tumut River Landowners' Association says: “There's always been an agreement that there should be 12 per cent of the dam kept free as airspace which would have some effect on flood mitigation... over the past three years the CEO of the NSW Office of Water has decided that this shouldn't apply... We are quite frankly terrified about this situation.”
With Blowering Dam reaching capacity the Primary Industries Minister is being urged to respond to the flood of concerns, Mr Luders says.
“We've attempted to contact the Minister, we've made submissions, lots of submissions to the Tumut River Advisory Council who have or have attempted to contact the minister we're getting no response from this minister,” he said.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority began pre-flood releases into the Murray River from Hume Dam last week, but locals say no such effort has begun for the Blowering Dam.