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Snowy Mtns cloud seeding 'paying off'

A big cloud seeding trial is being credited for a positive turn-around in lake levels in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.

For the first time in five years, water storages are rising after back-to-back droughts that have seen lake levels fall to their lowest levels since the opening of the Hydro Electric Scheme in the 1950s.

Snowy Hydro spokesman Paul Johnson says the expanded cloud seeding program is paying off.

"Preliminary data indicates that you could be seeing up to about a 10 per cent increase in snow over a 10 year period on average," he said.

The Jindabyne and Eucumbene Lakes are benefiting from the spring snow thaw and are at 14 per cent capacity.

But Snowy Hydro warns that it is going to take at least a decade of above average inflows to restore the dams to capacity.

- ABC

© ABC 2008

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Minister not surprised Wivenhoe accounts differ

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