Darling River inflows cut: CEWH diverts Warrego tributary’s flow

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has diverted water destined for the Darling River onto a man-made floodplain.

Sentinel satellite image showing the Warrego River's flow being diverted onto a man-made floodplain.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has diverted at least 2500 megalitres of the Warrego River flows onto Toorale Station’s artificial floodplain, rather than letting it flow into the Darling River.

The move has been condemned by downstream landholders, as water quality on the Darling River plummets, prompting WaterNSW to issue blue-green algal red alerts at Menindee.

Kallara Station owner Justin McClure questioned why the CEWH was allowed to divert water from one of the Darling’s tributaries, when blue-green algae levels in his weir pool, near Tilpa, had hit extreme levels.

“The Darling has priority in the water sharing plan,” Mr McClure said, and river water quality should be a condition of the CEWH using its floodplain harvesting licence on the Warrego River to divert water onto the Warrego floodplain.

Mr McClure also accused the CEWH of not measuring the volume of water it was using.

CEWH Simon Banks failed to answer a specific question on how the water was being measured, but said he remained “deeply concerned about the health of the Darling-Baaka River, including the water quality and other issues at Menindee Lakes”.

“When deciding to make water available, I consider both local and downstream needs,” Mr Banks said. “The additional 2.5 gigalitres I have recently approved for use on the Toorale floodplain will be delivered over the next few weeks through the regulating structures of Boera Dam”.

“This volume will provide benefit to the environmental and cultural values of this area.”

The station’s irrigation infrastructure at Boera Dam was meant to be decommissioned after the Federal Government purchased the property and its water rights in 2008 for $23.7 million,

But the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service and CEWH have continued to use levees, built on the property near Bourke as far back as 1882, to capture water and divert it onto man-made wetlands, in breach of the original agreement.

Rules for measuring water use are set by the NSW Government and are enforced by Natural Resource Access Regulator.