Water was released on January 25 until January 27 with up to 870 megalitres - or the equivalent of 870 Olympic sized swimming pools - flowing into the river on January 26.

The release was one of the recommendations from the Snowy Scientific Committee to assist poor water quality in the pools in the Snowy River below the dam and to aid stream fauna.

Barbara Bailey from the Snowy River Holiday Park in Dalgety said that by the time it reached them on Australia Day it was absolutely amazing.

“If only it could be like that all the time. The water was flowing rapidly over the weir, and spreading out under the bridge - and you could actually hear the water,” Mrs Bailey said.

Chairperson of the Snowy River Alliance John Gallard said the Snowy Scientific Committee were doing the best they could with the water allocation.

“It’s a limited avenue. We are not getting extra water. Just the allocation for the year,” Mr Gallard said.

Mr Gallard advised the Summit Sun that the problem of sediment in the deep pools was unlikely to be fixed by this release but hopefully will be improved.

In places there is a 300 to 400mm build up of black sludge in these pools and natural water flushes from storms and spring rain would normally move this sediment.

Since the Mowamba Aquaduct was re-commissioned these natural storm flushes have been missing, according to Mr Gallard.

The once gravel base of the river has been replaced by black sediment.

“The river is on life support,” said Mr Gallard.

The water flows started at 100 megalitres and after the release went lower than the starting level to 80 megalitres.

There will be another water release starting on February 22 for three days.