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Water resources - Overview - Tasmania

Specify a region: -- select region -- Arthur River Coal River Derwent River East Coast Flinders - Cape Barren Islands Forth River Gordon River Huon River King-Henty Rivers King Island Kingston Coast Mersey River Pieman River Piper-Ringarooma Rivers Rubicon River Sandy Cape Coast Smithton-Burnie Coast South-West Coast Tamar River Tasmania (13SF2) Tasmania (13SF3) Tasmania 1

Basin & Surface Water Management Area: King-Henty Rivers

Introduction

The King - Henty Rivers SWMA is located in western Tasmania. The catchment are is approximately 1813 square kilometres.

The King catchment covers an area of approximately 809 square kilometres, about 650 square kilometres of this area drains into the King River Power scheme. The catchment covers an area of the Western Ranges which run parallel to Tasmania's west coast.

The estimated average annual rainfall, in the upper region of the catchment, ranges from 2500 mm to 3500 mm.

The land uses in the area include forestry, wilderness activities, mining and hydro- electricity generation.

The major storage is Lake Burbury . Water is channelled from the lake to a power station through a 7km tunnel located below Mt Jukes.

Vital Statistics:

Area:	1,813 Km2
Total storage volume:	756
Total surface water use:	4,370 ML/yr
Development category:	HIGH DEVELOPMENT
Mean annual run-off:	2,205,297 ML/yr

A four-class classification system was developed to provide a simple method to communicate the status of the use and allocation of Australia's water resources in relation to sustainable water management.

It is important to recognise that adequately quantifying a sustainable flow regime or sustainable yield and consequent operating rules is a complex matter. State, Territory and scientific agencies continue to develop and apply methods and measures for determining sustainable flow regimes and sustainable yields.

This categorisation provides a general guide only. Please refer to the State and Territory Overview and Technical reports for detail on the analysis methods used.

	Category	Development status
1	<30%	Low development
2	30 - 70%	Moderate development
3	70 - 100%	Highly developed
4	100%	Overdeveloped

* Water use as a percentage of sustainable flow regime (surface water) and sustainable yield (groundwater)

PLEASE NOTE:

Sustainable Yield:

Not provided for this SWMA as a satisfactory environmental flow estimate could not be agreed on in time for the Audit.

This SWMA is occupied by a Hydro Electric Corporation Water District. The current general position of the HEC in relation to environmental flows is that it must be based on the best scientific information available ie be scientifically defensible. The time in arriving at an amount for environmental flow is outside the timeframe for Audit completion.

PLEASE NOTE:

Categorisation:

Not available in time for Audit.

How saline are the surface water resources in the King-Henty Rivers surface water management area?

Table: Surface water resource by salinity class.

	Total Volume, Divertible Yield (ML/Yr)
Total volume (ML/yr), DIVERSION	1,786,000
<500 mg/l (ML/yr)	no data
500 mg/l (ML/yr) - 1500 mg/l (ML/yr)	no data
1500 mg/l (ML/yr) - 5000 mg/l (ML/yr)	no data
5000 mg/l (ML/yr) - 14000 mg/l (ML/yr)	no data
> 14000 mg/l (ML/yr)	no data

Major water storages

Table: Major water storage areas:

Storage name:	Capacity (ML)
Conglomerate Creek Dam	252
Reservoir Creek Dam No 1	63
Reservoir Creek Dam No 2	63
Reservoir Creek Dam No 3	126
South Dam No 2	63
Roaring Meg Creek Dam	126
South Dam No 1	63
Total	756

Further Information

• View the Tasmania Water Resources Assessment 2000 Report
• View the Tasmania Water Resources Assessment 2000 Technical Report
• Link to data available for download on the:
• Surface Water Management Areas
• Data from the 1985 Review of Australia's Water Resources and Water Use
• Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.
• For more information about water and other natural resource issues link to www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au