E-trade: NSW Minister sells $441,000 of environmental water

The NSW Environment Minister has sold $441,000 of his excess Murray and Murrumbidgee environmental water in recent weeks.

The sale of 3875ML of environmental water has surprised irrigators.

The NSW Environment Minister Matthew Kean’s department has sold $441,000 of his excess Murray and Murrumbidgee environmental water to brokers and Victorian licence holders in the past three weeks, as Hume and other southern Basin’s storages spill.

The sale of 3875ML of environmental water has surprised NSW Murray irrigators, who are still sitting on general allocations of just 30 per cent, despite the Murray Darling Basin Authority reporting it had almost 7.2 million megalitres of active storage in Dartmouth, Hume, Lake Victoria and the Menindee Lakes.

NSW Murray Irrigation Limited chairman Phillip Snowden said “on one hand the Minister is trying to recover more water for the environment and then turns around and sells it back. The question is – Why?”

Minister Kean’s office said he was “not involved in the day-to-day decisions regarding use, movement or temporary trade of the water held on these licences.

“These decisions are made by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment via a clearly documented annual planning framework and transparently communicated.”

The Minister’s spokesman said the water was sold to earn the revenue the department needed to cover the cost of charges associated with the use of environment water and to buy more of it when needed to deliver annual watering priorities.

In the meantime NSW Murray irrigators are wondering why they are still sitting on such low allocation, when storages are brimming with water.

MIL analysis shows that over the past 20 years its Murray general security irrigators’ allocations had always reached 100 per cent when the combined storages had reached 7 million megalitres.

“We want to know why it isn’t happening this season,” Mr Snowden said.

“Especially when there’s nowhere to put more water. This was not supposed to happen in years like this,” Mr Snowden said.

Mr Snowden said MIL had written to Inspector-General of Water Compliance Troy Grant asking him to investigate why allocations have remained so low.

NSW Irrigators Council and the Rice Growers Association have issued a statement blaming overly conservative policies for delays in lifting allocations.

“The rules and accounting for water are complex and variable but the assumptions for future inflows are exceptionally conservative and are severely impacting the planning and decisions water users make,” the statement said.