Member for Hawkesbury Dominic Perrottet MP welcomed the installation of a new satellite modem for the Macdonald River river gauge at Howes Valley.
“Concerns were raised by the Macdonald Valley Association as readings were no longer shown on the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) or The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) web services.” Mr Perrottet said.
The river gauge was operational during the flood in 2015, however a fault occurred at the local area BOM repeater responsible for the data transmission. This meant that data was prevented from reaching stakeholders.
“The river gauge is a very important indicator for the Macdonald River system and residents in Macdonald Valley rely on this data to take action to keep themselves, their property and stock safe.” Mr Perrottet said.
DPI Water installed a new satellite modem to provide a secondary data feed to assist the community of Howes Valley during any future repeater faults.
Data from the river gauge is now available online on both DPI Water and BOM web services. The data can be accessed at DPI Water’s site at www.realtimedata.water.nsw.gov.au