THE mighty Murray River had been hit with unprecedented levels of toxic
blue-green algae as the drought continued to ravage the nation's main river
system, experts said.
Without major inputs from water storages and dams along the system, the
Murray would have stopped flowing by now half way between its source and
the sea at Swan Hill, they said.
Already parts of the Murray's biggest tributary the Darling River had
stopped flowing, with blue-green algae back to high levels in many parts of
that river.
Alerts for blue-green algae have been common for the Murray River closer to
its mouth in South Australia.
But now for the first time they have been issued for vast sections at
Tocumwal, the nearby Edward and Wakool tributary rivers, The Hume Dam, and
as far upstream as Albury-Wodonga and Lake Mulwala.
Chairman of the Murray Regional Algal Coordinating Committee, Alastair
Buchan, said the combination of the drought, high temperatures and low dam
levels had contributed to unusually high levels of the algae.
"It's the first time that we've had to issue blue-green alerts this far up
the river," he told AAP.
"This is the second time in a decade that we've had a high alert in Hume
Dam, but the last time we had much higher levels of water in it."
High alert levels of blue-green algae make the water unusable for stock and
unsafe for drinking and swimming.
Towns which take their drinking water from the Murray, such as
Albury-Wodonga, Corowa and Yarrawonga, are able to treat it for use.
Mr Buchan said blue-green algae scum was unlikely to form on the surface of
the river, but the algae was abundant in the water.
Blue-green algae had also been detected at alert levels in the Macquarie
and Namoi rivers, and in the Copeton Dam at Inverell, the Keepit Dam at
Gunnedah and the Split Rock Dam at Manilla, all in NSW.
Hume Dam, the second largest dam on the Murray, is at just five per cent of
capacity.
Other major storages for the Murray-Darling system are also at record lows,
with NSW dams Burrinjuck at 16 per cent of capacity and Blowering at four
per cent, while Victoria's Eildon dam is at 15 per cent.
The Murray-Darling Basin Commission said without storages such as Hume and
Burrinjuck, the Murray River would already have stopped flowing.
Meanwhile, another rural town has run out of water because of the drought.
Residents of the western Queensland town of Stonehenge now have to rely on
a road train that will deliver 60,000 litres of water daily.
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