Fish die in Darling as SA holds back enviro water for lakes’ regatta

SOUTH Australian river operators are holding back $3.2 billion of environmental flows to the Coorong and Murray Mouth to maintain Lake Alexandrina water levels for yachting regattas.

Empty: Dead fish in the Darling River on January 28; Full: Sailing on Lake Alexandrina on January 27.

SOUTH Australian river operators are holding back $3.2 billion of environmental flows to the Coorong and Murray Mouth to maintain Lake Alexandrina water levels for yachting regattas and holiday makers.

Under the South Australian Government’s own long-term Environmental Watering Plan, the lake is meant to be lowered to 0.4mabove sea level every summer and autumn, to send a pulse of water through the barrages to the environmentally sensitive Coorong and Murray Mouth, as well as drying out lake wetlands and expose mud flats for migratory birds.

But emails seen by The Weekly Times show a key member of Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club lobbied SA Government river operators on January 17 not to lower the lakes to 0.5m above sea level.

Initially SA Department for Environment and Water icon site co-ordinator Adrienne Rumbelow emailed the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Community Advisory Panel on January 16, stating: “We are releasing extra water now in line with the e-water ‘flow pulse’ to SA — we believe will get the best environmental outcomes now rather than later in the year.”

But the following day, yacht club member and former SA Government Murray Darling Basin Initiative program leader Paul Harvey, who sits on the community advisory panel, responded to Ms Rumbelow, stating “I would not be comfortable agreeing to a strategy which increases the risk of levels falling below 0.55m”.

ANALYSIS: SA RESPONSE ON FLOWS STILL CLEAR AS MUD

“It is not clear that the socio-economic impacts have been adequately considered,” Mr Harvey wrote.

“We need to remember we are seeking appropriate socio-economic outcomes, as well as ecological outcomes.”

As of this week Lake Alexandrina was still being maintained at 0.57m above sea level, following the recent Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club’s regatta week that culminated in the Milang Goolwa Freshwater Classic on January 27.

The depth of the lake can be as much as six metres.

When contacted by The Weekly Times, Mr Harvey said there needed to be an appropriate balance in managing the lakes.

“Once you get below 0.55m it’s hard for irrigators to access,” he said. “We’re in a severe drought sequence and the risk is not being able to build the lake back to an acceptable level.”

Troubled waters: Chrissy and Bill Ashby walk along the banks of the Darling River near their property Trevallyn Station at Tilpa in NSW’s west. Picture: Getty Images

Meanwhile, the rest of the Murray Darling Basin is ­battling drought, water shortages, blue-green algal blooms and fish kills.

Live river data shows SA authorities have not dropped Lake Alexandrina below 0.5m since 2011, curbing flows from the 64,900ha lake into the Coorong and Murray Mouth.

MDBA live river data shows dropping water levels, from 0.55m to the 0.4m level recommended under SA’s own plan, equates to about 100,000 megalitres of water that could have been released through the barrages. The calculation does not account for the impact of lowering the adjoining Lake Albert.

OPINION: SA IS MISUSING MURRAY’S ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS

An SA Department for Environment and Water spokesman said the lakes did not need to be drawn down to 0.4m above sea level “to achieve positive outcomes”.

“Management of water levels in the lakes must consider social, cultural, economic, water quality and environmental implications of water level management actions,” the spokesman said.

“At no times has the South Australian Government requested that Commonwealth environmental water be retained in the Lower Lakes for recreational purposes.”

But there is growing evidence the SA Government is misusing $3.2 billion of environmental water, most of which has been drained from southern NSW and Victorian irrigation communities.

Under the current rules the Murray Darling Basin Authority independently manages all the Murray River’s storages, weirs and flows up to the South Australian border. Beyond that point all river operations fall into the SA Government’s hands.

It means that while the MDBA controls releases from Dartmouth Dam, it is completely reliant on the SA Government to manage the barrages that allow water to flow from the Lower Lakes into the Coorong and Murray Mouth.

Even when The Weekly Times contacted the MDBA last week for details on the flow of water through the barrages, it was told to contact the SA Government, which collected all the data on this crucial measure of the basin plan’s performance.

Calls are already mounting for the MDBA to extend its management of the Murray or for some other form of independent oversight, with the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder already expressing frustration with the SA Government.

“There is a lack of transparency on how billions of dollars of taxpayer’s environmental water is being delivered,” Australia Institute senior water researcher Maryanne Slattery said.

“It’s critical there is a genuinely independent oversight of all river operations, to ensure environmental water is going and is getting the best environmental outcomes.

“It’s indefensible for governments to take water out of production for the environment without having proper arrangements in place to ensure that governments and river operators are fully accountable for how that environmental water is used.”

Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman Richard Anderson said it was time the MDBA was split, to form a separate river operations group that managed the whole river. “We’re talking about 973 gigalitres we’re all putting down to the Lower Lakes, which has come at a huge cost to us irrigators,” Mr Anderson said.