A war of words has broken out between Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and the Queensland Water Minister Glenn Butcher over dam levels heading into what's predicted to be another wet summer.
Cr Schrinner said he raised the issue of whether dam operators would start releasing some of South East Queensland's water supply with the Minister on Tuesday and expected to hear back from him soon, adding that the Mr Butcher had been "reasonable" to work with in the past.
The Lord Mayor said Enoggera Reservoir was at 100 per cent and both Wivenhoe and Somerset dams were also close to capacity.
"We saw last year and in the lead-up to the 2022 flood, the dam levels went from below 60 per cent and, in a few days, went up to 180 per cent," said Cr Schrinner on ABC Radio Brisbane.
"Right now if you look at South East Queensland water supply, most of the dams are full.
"What I'm asking is; should we be looking at proactively releasing some water from dams given there's talk about another La Nina?
"There hasn't been the investment we'd like to see in new water supply as the population grows.
"I'm not the only person asking this question at this point in time."
Cr Schrinner likened dam operators' situation to Russian Roulette and said they were in a "really difficult position" preparing for drought but also preparing for possible floods.
Minister 'confident' plans are in place
But Mr Butcher, who spoke on the topic from Thursday Island where a community cabinet was being held, said he would "take the expert's advice, not advice from the Lord Mayor of Brisbane".
"The mayor should be looking after what the mayor does in Brisbane," Mr Butcher said.
"We're coming into a pretty wet season and we will take advice from dam experts and seqwater experts.
"We know that all these rain events were different — the one in February was a rain bomb.
"We'll do some pre-works before the wet season comes just to see where we're at. We currently have all dams with 100 per cent of flood compartments empty and ready for these type of events."
Mr Butcher said the government was "confident" with the measures in place and was "ready to go". He also said strategies may change as the summer season unfolded.
In particular, the need for water releases would be reviewed regularly and compartments that hold extra water in times of flood could be increased in size, Mr Butcher said.
"We don't know if we have to release water at this moment," he said.
"We will work through the systems we have in place with the experts to get an understanding of where we need to be before a rain event.
"The dams are quite full and the catchments are quite wet."
Water pushing through dams
An seqwater spokesperson said after rain in early September, the operator was "passing water through Somerset into Wivenhoe and out into the Brisbane River to maintain 100 per cent flood storage compartment availability".
"Water is not being stored in the flood storage compartment, we are simply passing this through the system.
"We publish real time figures on our website and you will see these fluctuate based on rainfall and our operations.
"Now that our drinking water storages at Wivenhoe and Somerset are full, it won't be uncommon to see the water level push slightly into the flood compartment when there is rain.
"We are required to maintain our dams at the drinking water supply level and ensure the flood compartments are fully available for severe weather events."
