Rode up there today and was astonished how empty it still is, given the amount of water that has been coming down the Derwent since the mini Ice Age ended a few weeks ago.
Or has the pumping station that fills it broken down?
Dunno to be honest.
Are you a local swadey?
Are they draining it? They periodically drain them right down to do things like inspect the dam, outfall etc.
They did Staunton Harrold a few years back and it stank to high heaven!
The rivers were high a week ago but Dec only had ~40 % of average rainfall.
The Artist etc etc - kind of local - over near Ilkeston but Carsington is a regular weekend playground either with the family or just for a piece of sticky flapjack and a warm up on a road ride! Where are you then?
Not sure about draining it - got to this level at the end of the summer, and doesn't seem to have gone up or down since. I guess December was cold rather than wet, might just not have recovered yet, but the Derwent - which I believe feeds Carsington from a pump at Whatstandwell - has been looking very high most of January
Long story!
Water has been drained back into the river (at Ambergate) to be taken out down at Little Eaton.
There has been problems with high ammonia (causes problems with the treatment process) in the river due to the salt on the roads so the water has not been pumped out of the river back to Carsington, probably will be done soon, but it takes a lot to fill the reservoir!
Ex Severn Trent employee....
even if rivers etc are high the abstraction licence for taking water from the rivers will likely limit the amounts that can be taken. Those reservoirs hold a lot of water and take a long time to fill.
You wouldnt want to fill them too fast either as the reservoir is often an integral part of the water treatment process. They are designed to take a certain amount of time between the water entering and leaving the res so as to allow sediments etc to settle out.
I'm in Darley Dale Swadey
crofts - that makes sense
artist - I like Darley Dale, some nice properties and that cafe in the shops. Mrsswadey works there one day a fortnight at the molyneux office park
I'd offer an invitation to our group rides swadey (if you'd be interested - I was a bit rude to you once - sorry), however due to working away from home I rarely get out these days.
Sounds like crofts knows far more than I do, but I was always under the impression that they didn't like pumping from swollen/flooded rivers due to the amount of silt in the water that caused the pumping station issues.
I used to live near (and sail on) Grafham Water in East Angling and that got very low during the summer but took ages to get filled again.
Whatstandwell has seven pumps, four to Carsington, three to Ogston.
There is an abstraction period; but also a tariff management period for electricity. (expensive in the winter)
Water may currently be pumped directly to Ogston, that is where the majority of the water from Carsington is used throughout the year.
It is allowed to gravitate back from Carsington via Whatstandwell to Ogston.
An amount is released back into the Derwent later in the year to be abstracted by Little Eaton and Church Wilne.
Worked in the area for a while on the stations and reservoirs!
It's a boring ride on the loop tho! Kids like it, but I usually end up towing them up the hills over on the far side, little ****ers!!!
Artist - which of the people who have been rude to me were you then?
If I refused to go riding with people I'd been rude to I'd be forever stuck just riding on my own.....oh, hang on...... 😳
Water may currently be pumped directly to Ogston, that is where the majority of the water from Carsington is used throughout the year.
My commute takes me past Ogston in a morning and it does seem to have filled up a bit from the very low levels in late December / early January.