Bligh confirms flood release contradiction

7 Feb 2012, 10:24 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Qld Premier Anna Bligh's flood inquiry statement has confirmed a contradiction by Wivenhoe Dam operators about when they started higher water releases.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's flood inquiry statement has confirmed her right-hand man was told Wivenhoe Dam operators did not start higher water releases designed to protect urban areas on the day they claimed.

SEQWater's final report written by its engineers in March last year says they went from strategy W1, which prioritises rural communities, to strategy W3, which focuses on preventing urban flooding, on January 8, 2011, the Saturday before thousands of homes in Brisbane and Ipswich were flooded.

However, the engineers have been accused of moving to W3 later than stated, causing unnecessary flooding, and creating a fictitious final report.

Ms Bligh's statement to the inquiry on Tuesday contained email evidence the engineers took more than 24 hours to transit from strategy W1 to a higher water release strategy.

The email was sent to her then department director-general, Ken Smith from the Water Grid Manager director of operations Dan Spiller on Sunday, January 9, 2011.

It said: "To date, the primary objective had been managing to prevent inundation of the Mt Crosby Weir and Fernvale Bridges", which are only a requirement under the W1 strategy.

"With the forecast volumes, this primary objective is being changed to minimising the risk of urban inundation (W2 or W3)."

"This involves larger releases now, minimising the risk of larger releases later."

Ms Bligh also said in her statement, which was more than 300-pages long, that she had no involvement in the choice or timing of the water release strategies used.

Mr Spiller's evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday also contradicts SEQWater's and the engineers' evidence.

He said he received an email from engineer Robert Drury on the Monday before the floods that said the dam was being operated under a W2 strategy.

Mr Spiller said W3 was only finally reached after midday that day; more than 48 hours after the engineers' claims.

He said he based that judgement after participating in a teleconference that day with government agencies, local councils, SEQWater and the Water Grid Manager.

He said discussions that occurred around that meeting highlighted that a "new", higher water release strategy would be required.

"I was clearly advised that the release strategy was changing and it was from that I inferred that we were going to a different operating strategy," he said.

Meanwhile, an independent consultant who reviewed SEQWater's final report into dam's operations gave evidence on Tuesday supporting the engineers' version of events.

His analysis showed that the water releases on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday in question were consistent with the W3 strategy.

"I thought they (the releases) were reasonable," he told the inquiry.

Leonard MacDonald said he was "dismayed" he had only been given four days to read and review the 1180-page report and admitted he took information at face value and had not examined all documents in the appendix.

One of those documents, the flood event log, had recorded that the dam was being operated at the top end of W1 and the bottom end of W2.

Engineers have dismissed the internal documents as either labelling errors or as an untrue account of how the dam was being managed.

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