All members of the corporation are advised that an annual general meeting of the members of Inland Rivers Network will take place as follows:
Time: 2pm
Date: Friday 27th November
Place: via zoom link
Please contact inlandriversnetwork@gmail.com for details.
MEDIA RELEASE
No reason to fast-track Wyangala Dam project
Friday 2 October 2020
The NSW Government is commencing preparation work for the construction of an enlarged
storage at Wyangala Dam on the Lachlan River without a business case or planning approvals.
Inland Rivers Network and the Upper Galari Traditional Owners Group condemn the undue
haste when Wyangala Dam is currently over 60% full.
‘There is no need to rush this very large, expensive project that will have significant cultural
heritage, environmental, social and economic impacts in the Lachlan Valley,’ said Bev Smiles,
President of Inland Rivers Network.
‘There is enough water for everyone, with more flowing in.’
The area of the project, Wyangala Dam, is located on Wiradjuri Country.
‘Traditional Owners, elders and the local community from the Upper Bila Galari (Lachlan
River) have always held strong cultural ties to our connection to country and the cultural
significance of our rivers,’ said Isabel Coe, Traditional Owner
‘The plans to ‘fast track this project’ without the culturally appropriate knowledge holders of
the project area is detrimental to our culture and heritage. As Traditional Owners we do not
support the decision by proponents to attempt to engage with interested parties who do not
speak for country. Organisations involved in the cultural heritage assessment report have no
right to allow parties who do not come from Wiradjuri to speak on our behalf,’ said Isabel
Coe.
‘This whole landscape is sacred to the Traditional Owners and clan groups of the Wiradjuri
Nation with over 329 identified sites to be desecrated by the proposed inundation along the
Lachlan River.’
‘The water flow of the Abercrombie and Lachlan river running into Wyangala will be
disrupted with water being pushed back upstream causing major stagnation and water
pollution to the freshwater ecosystem. Downstream of the Lachlan river – the Belubula,
creeks and further down wetlands environmental flow will also be impacted as water and
floods help flush and replenish the waterways,’ said George Coe, Traditional owner.
Both Inland Rivers Network and the Upper Galari Traditional Owners Group are critical of the
poor consultation with community groups in the region.
‘This rush to start work is based on political announcements and National Party promises. It is
without proper assessment or clear communication about the economic impacts, or even the
need for more water to be captured from the Lachlan River,’ said Bev Smiles
Contacts: Isabel Coe 0412 239 256
George Coe 0413 282 464
Bev Smiles 0428 817 282
Final Report – September 2020
From late January to the end of April 2020, widespread rain fell across various parts of northwest New South Wales (NSW) and southern Queensland, with some parts receiving more than
200 mm of rain in just a couple of days. This rainfall created significant inflows
to the Northern Murray-Darling Basin Border Rivers, Peel, Namoi, Gwydir and Macquarie
valleys and along the Barwon-Darling River, for the first time in several years following an
extended record drought.
A series of temporary restrictions on water extractions (including by floodplain harvesting)
across the northern NSW rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin were introduced in January-March
2020 under the provisions of the NSW Water Management Act 2000 (WM Act), to responsively
manage the first flows and prioritise water security for critical human and environmental needs
which had been exacerbated by the extreme drought. This became known as the 2020 Northern
Basin First Flush event. It was the first time that NSW managed a first flush event in this way.
In March 2020, the NSW Government commissioned an independent assessment into the
management of the 2020 Northern Basin First Flush event following the 2018-2019 drought in
the Northern Murray-Darling Basin.
By Declan Gooch and Christopher Testa
Landholders frustrated over a controversial plan to store less water in the Menindee Lakes have suspended talks with the NSW Government.
Key points:
The Menindee Lakes Water Saving Project proposes changes to rules and infrastructure at the lakes to reduce the level of evaporation.
The changes would have the effect of reducing the usual capacity of the lakes, which opponents say would result in longer periods of no flow in the Darling River below them.
Published in the Sydney Morning Herald 20th July 2020
The Murray Darling Basin Plan came into effect on June 30, 2019. One year later there is still a shortfall of 46.7 billion litres in water recovery, mainly in the Northern Basin that feeds the Darling River (“Department failed taxpayers with water buyback program”, July 17). The auditor-general report found private deals with irrigators is not the best value for taxpayers. The cheapest, most effective way to get water back into our rivers, to prevent catastrophes like the fish kills in the Darling, is to run voluntary, open tender buyback programs. Combine this approach with targeted investment in regional communities to assist economic diversification and improved services, then everyone wins.
Bev Smiles,
President,
Inland Rivers Network, Pyrmont.
Letter to the Editor, Northern Daily Leader: Phil Spark, Tamworth NSW.
“I agree with Barnaby the government does face annihilation, but not because it hasn’t built dams, rather because it hasn’t acknowledged the climate emergency and is out of touch with people who fear for the future of more frequent and extreme weather events.
People can see that building more dams would be a waste of money, and would only lead to increasing water use and more degradation of river ecosystems.
It is 1950’s thinking that building dams will solve our problems. It is that thinking that got us into this problem; more dams would only be digging us into a deeper hole.
The reason we have a water crisis is because water use is over allocated and there is less of it to go around because the weather is getting hotter and drier. There is not a single drop that is not already committed to providing for agriculture, towns and the environment.
Building dams is not going to make it rain anymore, just further degrade the already dying rivers that are predicted to have a fish armageddon this summer.
The weather we are experiencing is the result of 1 degree of global warming, by some miracle we might halt warming to 1.5 degrees but more likely 2 degrees. The point is this is no natural disaster and we are not going back to normal or average weather conditions for a long time if ever.
This is a new scenario requiring water plans based on the predictions of climate science not based on what is politically acceptable as was the case for Murray Darling plan. The current water crisis clearly demonstrates current use is unsustainable. It is the sign of the end of the era of limitless and unsustainable growth, and a new era requiring innovative ways to keep everyone in a job.
With diminishing water resources comes the potential for increasing conflict. No town or industry can be allowed to increase its water use at the expense of other users; all users will need to do more with less water and work cooperatively to share the limited resource.
The future is going to be very challenging; we need futuristic leaders who up to that challenge and not dinosaurs whose thinking is 50 years out of date, and out of touch with the people who are really worried about climate change.
If they don’t step up the government will face annihilation at the next election.
The Saturday Paper – Margaret Simons 4/7/2020
“When you’ve got 60 or 70 per cent of the activity in that market with prices that are zero or non-commercial, then you know that technically the market isn’t real,” says Loch. “I’ve spent years studying water prices and I came home after reflecting on all this and said to my wife last night, ‘Ask me how much the price of water is’, and when she did, I responded, ‘What do you want it to be?’”….
“Australia leads the world in commodifying water. The Murray–Darling Basin markets were created by a series of reforms from the 1980s and ’90s in which water licences were separated from the ownership of land.” ….
“It’s impossible for ordinary citizens to find out who owns water, or who has made a trade. Trading data is collected by the states, with variations and inconsistencies between jurisdictions, and then is aggregated by the Bureau of Meteorology – which “cleanses” the data, excluding low- and high-priced trades before calculating average water prices.”
Read the Lifeblood Alliance submission to Murray-Darling Basin water markets inquiry
“Our key concern relates to the water market policy that seeks to appropriately manage the third party hydrological and environmental impacts of changes in the timing and location of water use that arise from water trading activities.
There are a number of legal requirements in regard to protecting the environment from the impacts of water trading. The current increase in water trading to downstream developments in the Murray southern connected Basin is causing significant environmental impacts that are not being adequately addressed.
Under the Commonwealth Water Act 2007 Schedule 3 restrictions to water trading are required when:
Recommendations:
1. Seasonal flow limits must be assigned to rivers at risk similar to the limits on the Barmah Choke.
2. Establish a National Water Trading Exchange to increase transparency and improve capacity to better manage third-party and environmental impacts.
3. Increase Federal responsibility for the alignment of State regulations and polices. Many of the third-party and environmental impacts are the result of, or enhanced by, state divisions and misalignment of policies.
Lifeblood Alliance consists of environmental, Indigenous and community groups committed to keeping the rivers, wetlands and aquifers of the Murray-Darling Basin healthy for the benefit of current and future generations.
Australian Conservation Foundation, NSW Nature Conservation Council, Conservation Council of South Australia, Environment Victoria, Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations, Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations, River Lakes and Coorong Action Group, Environmental Farmers Network, Inland Rivers Network, National Parks Association of NSW, Goulburn Valley Environment Group, Healthy Rivers Dubbo and Central West Environment Council.
Environmental Defenders Office
The NSW Government is poised to sign off on plans for the Murray-Darling that will lock in inadequate volumes of environmental water for the next decade.
The Water Sharing Plans set out how water in the river system is shared between irrigators, other farmers, communities and the environment. They also put limits on what can be extracted from the rivers and groundwater.
These plans are the most important part of the water reform process. They set in stone rules that govern water sharing for the next 10 years.
EDO lawyers have identified multiple flaws with the proposed Water Sharing Plans, including some which could give rise to legal action by our clients.
The Guardian New plans for Barwon-Darling river system still prioritise irrigation over environment
Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Hannam 6/2/2020
Billions of dollars in water licences and infrastructure in the Murray-Darling Basin hinge on complex and opaque rules that vary greatly between rivers, with downstream communities and the environment often losing out.
Those are the findings of researchers from the University of NSW who studied how different rules affected water allocations for irrigators and wetlands on two rivers, the Macquarie and Gwydir.
Human intervention rather than actual water availability played a big role in outcomes, especially in dry periods.
The Macquarie was treated as a “credit” river, with allocations based on historic records of rainfall and run-off into the main Burrendong dam. During the recent drought, the river’s water-sharing plan was suspended.
“The credit rule is essentially allocating clouds – water that hasn’t even fallen in the catchment yet,” said Celine Steinfeld, lead author of the paper published in the Journal of Hydrology, and also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. “It was clear that water in the Macquarie had been overallocated.”
Sydney Morning Herald By Harriet Alexander May 29, 2020
Floodplain graziers and environmental groups are considering legal action against the NSW government if it signs off on controversial water sharing plans, arguing the plans do not adequately take into account the needs of downstream users and the environment.
The Australian Floodplain Association, Macquarie Marshes Environmental Landholders Association and Inland Rivers Network have not ruled out litigation in the Land and Environment Court or the Federal Court if the plans are not amended to more evenly share the pain of a drier climate.
Grazier Stuart Le Lievre, who lives on the Darling River between Louth and Tilpa in northwest NSW, said the connectivity of the system meant that unsustainable extraction under one plan had consequences for every catchment.
“The whole essence, which everyone knows, is the bucket of water is nowhere what it used to be,” said Mr Le Lievre, vice president of the Australian Floodplain Association.
Emma Carmody, special counsel for the Environmental Defenders Office, said that if the upper catchments were governed by plans that did not adequately consider the downstream impact of extraction, there may be not be enough water in the system to supply the lower part of the river.
This ran counter to the water sharing principles set out in legislation – that water sources and their dependent ecosystems needed to be protected first and foremost, followed by basic landholder rights. Town water and stock and domestic use also took precedence over irrigation.
Dr Carmody argued in a piece published in the EDO bulletin on Friday that this left the plans open to a challenge in the Land and Environment Court or Federal Court.
“That’s why mandatory rules in water sharing plans that protect first flows after drought, low flows and all environmental flows from extraction are absolutely vital. There are also legal obligations under both state and commonwealth laws that can only be properly satisfied if these rules are in place.”
Water sharing plans set out how water is divided between irrigators, towns and the environment in each catchment and set limits on what can be extracted from the rivers and groundwater for the next decade.
Water Minister Melinda Pavey wants them signed off by June 30, when the water resource plans that they underpin are due to be submitted to the federal government under the Murray Darling Basin Plan. But the old water sharing plans have not expired and there are calls for the drafts to be amended before they are signed.
Chairman of the Macquarie Marshes Environmental Landholders Association Garry Hall was on the stakeholder advisory panel for the Macquarie water sharing plan. He said it was hamstrung by a ministerial requirement that no third party could be adversely affected.
“We couldn’t restrict take, so to me it was just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Mr Hall said.
“The solution was deemed to be out of scope. It was very much influenced by a large representation from the irrigation community.”
“People down there say that northern irrigators have got their hands around the neck of the National party MPs and it’s just not true, because otherwise where’s the 100 per cent general security allocations?” Mr Simpkins said.
“It’s just not happening and these conspiracy theories are just a distraction from the main event.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/legal-action-looms-over-water-sharing-plans-20200526-p54wkn.html
