Bid for more water for Murray Darling Basin’s environmental flows
Complex deals mean Victoria must deliver more water towards the Murray Darling Basin’s environmental flows. But some irrigators have their concerns.
VICTORIA’S largest irrigation corporation is seeking $177.5 million from the Commonwealth to further rationalise its channel network, in a bid to deliver an extra 15.9 gigalitres in water savings to the environment.
If approved, the project will extend the work of Goulburn Murray Water’s Connections team, who were due to finish their work later this year after delivering 429GL in water savings to the Commonwealth, 75GL to each of Melbourne’s three state-owned water retailers, plus 75GL to irrigators.
If approved it would mean the Federal Government will pay more than $11,000 a megalitre for water savings, when it has only allocated $1.8 billion under its water efficiency program to recover 450GL, equal to $3333/ML.
Some Victorian irrigators have contacted The Weekly Times concerned the project is at odds with Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville’s policy of opposing further water recovery from the state towards the Murray Darling Basin’s environmental flows.
But Ms Neville said “we are only delivering what we are legally required to under the sustainable diversion limit”.
That legal obligation has its roots in a series of torturous negotiations between the states to deliver the original basin plan and consequent amendments.
To date 2098GL has been drained from irrigation communities to deliver against the original MD Basin Plan recovery target of 2750GL.
However in 2018 two amendments were passed, which first cut the 2750GL target by 70GL to appease northern basin irrigators and then by another 605GL.
NSW and Victoria convinced the other states and Commonwealth the 605GL cutback could be offset by delivering environmental water more efficiently — using levees, regulators and pumps.
The amendments meant the new target was effectively set at 2075GL, a volume that irrigation communities have effectively delivered.
However South Australia and environmentalists only agreed to the offsets on the basis every effort was made to deliver an additional 450GL to the environment, over and above the amended basin plan target.
The issue was even further complicated by a basin plan rule that dictated the states must first recover 62GL, before they could gain any credit towards 605GL of offset projects.
Under the MDB Plan the volume of water that can be extracted from the basin is limited to 10,873GL, plus or minus 5 per cent or 543GL.
As the 605GL in offset measures exceeds the 5 per cent limit of 543GL, the states must first find 62GL before setting out to deliver further offsets.
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