page_title: Somerset Dam
section_title: Location and features
hierarchical_section_title: Somerset Dam / Location and features
context_page_description: The Somerset Dam is a mass concrete gravity dam with a gated spillway across the Stanley River in Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Somerset Dam in the Somerset Region in South East Queensland. The main purpose of the dam is the supply of potable water for the Brisbane, Gold Coast and Logan City regions. Additionally, the dam provides for flood mitigation, recreation and for the generation of hydroelectricity. The impounded reservoir is called Lake Somerset.
  The dam, lake and surrounding village of Somerset are named in honour of Henry Plantagenet Somerset, a local grazier and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland who represented the seat of Stanley from 1904 until 1920.
context_section_description: The dam is located approximately 115 kilometres (71 mi) northwest of Brisbane in the Somerset Region and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Ipswich.
  The concrete dam structure is 50 metres (160 ft) high and 305 metres (1,001 ft) long. The 203-thousand-cubic-metre (7.2×10⁶ cu ft) dam wall holds back the 904,000-megalitre (199×10⁹ imp gal; 239×10⁹ US gal) reservoir when at full capacity. However, only 380,000 megalitres (84×10⁹ imp gal; 100×10⁹ US gal) is used for water supply and the remainder used for flood mitigation.  From a catchment area of 1,330 square kilometres (510 sq mi) that includes much of the western slopes of the D'Aguilar National Park, the dam creates Lake Somerset at an elevation of 108 m (354 ft) above sea level, with a surface area of 4,350 hectares (10,700 acres). The gated spillway has a discharge capacity of 4,650 cubic metres per second (164,000 cu ft/s). Built under the supervision of the Bureau of Industry, management of the dam was transferred to SEQ Water in July 2008 as part of a water security project in the South East Queensland region, known as the South East Queensland Water Grid. A small 4 megawatts (5,400 hp) hydroelectric power station is located adjacent to the dam wall.
  A water level of 90% is the optimum capacity for keeping evaporation rates to a minimum. Dam operators discharge water into the Wivenhoe Dam downstream to hold Somerset at this level when inflows are occurring.
caption: Camping near Lake Somerset.
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