THE curious case of NSW Office of Environment sending water down the river from Burrinjuck dam during a significant rain event is driving calls for an “urgent review” of water regulations.
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Downstream locals were bemused to learn that more than 30,000 megalitres in environmental flows were released by government early last week, to boost river health, as they watched tributaries swell the Murrumbidgee and heavy rain blanket the landscape, which delivered 110 millimetres around Burrinjuck to date in June.
Irrigators want an “urgent” review of the state’s Water Sharing Plans, which include translucent flow rules that empower Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) to release water to mimic natural river flows.
“Water Sharing Plans should be halted now, until there is a full review,” said NSW Irrigators chief executive Mark McKenzie.
Water Sharing Plans were set in 2004 – prior to the Murray Darling Basin reforms. With the Basin Plan now in place, the federal river health manager the Commonwealth Environment Water Holder and NSW’s OEH both oversee flow releases.
“This isn’t about reducing OEH’s water,” Mr McKenzie said. “But its appropriate to conduct a review now that the Commonwealth and state both hold water.
“We need to understand where and how those flows work.”
Inflows into Burrinjuck hit 60,000 megalitres a day, triggering the translucent flow to ramp up over several days to peak at 13,000ML per day for two days. At the time of writing environment water was still outward bound.
Burrinjuck lay at 40 per cent capacity when rain first fell and outflows meant it stayed below 50pc. The water season will kick off in July and irrigators are again facing prospects of low general security allocations.
Local media buzzed when news flowed though and politicians were incredulous.
Murrumbidgee MP Adrain Picolli told The Area News “I’m really angry about this and it leaves irrigators in an unacceptable position.”
NSW Government remains tight lipped about the prospect of a review.
“NSW government is always looking to improve water sharing arrangements that balance the needs of water users with the environmental needs of our rivers and aquifers.
NSW Farmers conservation and resources committee Helen Dalton, “West Merribee”, Binya said the allocation for OEH’s environmental watering was drawn from a voluntary contribution from irrigators entitlements, who still pay the fees and charges.
“These contributions were only meant for be in place for a short time, then reviewed,” Ms Dalton said.
“But they’ve were rolled into the Water Sharing Plans and now the Murray Darling Basin Authority is going off doing its own thing with little consideration of what went before.”
Ms Dalton argued that farmers stand to make $250 from 1ML of entitlement, equating to an opportunity cost of more than $3 million in foregone farmgate profits for each day of peak outflows.
”You can apply a multiplier of seven times the farmgate value to spending in regional economies, which would come to $23m per day,” she said.
