LAKE TAUPO AT HIGH LEVEL

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27074, 24 June 1953, Page 6

LAKE TAUPO AT HIGH LEVEL

SPILLWAY GATES MAY BE RAISED

(New Zealand Pre Association) AUCKLAND, June 23. With the rainy season barely started and Lake Taupo little more than lOin. below the maximum control level, the spillway gates at the new Maraetai hydro-electric station may have to be lifted soon to keep the lake in check. This has caused the Ministry of Works at Mangakino.to abandon its intention of smoothing the interior of the spillway tunnel before allowing excess watery to escape from behind the huge dam. '

Under the Lake Taupo Compensation Claims Act. the lake level is fixed at 1177 ft as a basis for compensation claims from landowners in the event of flooding. For two days the water has been lapping at 1176.15 ft, 2ft higher than the readings at the beginning of May and the highest since the end of last year. Engineers are not greatly concerned, as it takes a large volume of water to raise the level of Taupo by lin. In the last six years it has never reached the maximum of 1177 ft. Last December the lake was within. 3£in of

the top, but that was at the beginning of the dry season. A Ministry of Works spokesman said today that it would be necessary to release water through the tunnel, not only because Lake Taupo was nearing the maximum control level, but because the other stations in the chain below Maraetai needed more water to cope with winter peak demands. It had been decided that the grinding work in the tunnel could wait until the .summer, when the power peaks dropped.