Flood harvest: NSW Government’s promise to grant licence to irrigators
The NSW Government is trying to cut a deal on floodplain harvesting that doesn’t drain the Darling River and leave everyone worse off. Here’s what they have planned.
SOUTHERN Murray Darling Basin irrigators fear the NSW Government is trying to soften the blow of curbing the volume of floodplain harvesting licenses it issues in the state’s north by offering up to 500 per cent carryover rights.
NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey has promised to grant flood plain harvesting licenses to irrigators across the state’s northern basin valleys by July next year, after almost a decade of delays.
But Riverina and Victorian irrigators are concerned the NSW Government will grant floodplain harvesters unprecedented carryover rights to offset cutting back license volumes to within the 1993-94 Murray Darling Basin cap on diversions.
NSW Irrigators Council said the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment had advised it “the general principle will be smaller licensed volume/higher carryover; larger licensed volume/less carryover”.
“It will depend on the valley,” NSWIC chief executive Claire Miller said. “We are relying on the DPIE modelling to inform carryover thresholds.”
One DPIE source said carryover rights of up to 500 per cent were under consideration, which would allow an irrigator to harvest up to five times their licensed volume in any one year.
Southern Riverina Irrigators chair Chris Brooks said he was opposed to such a move given 500 per cent carryover would allow floodplain harvesters to capture the bulk of flows headed for the Darling River, in the two out of 10 years when floods hit the north.
Mr Brooks said he had raised the issue in a meeting with MDB Authority chief executive Phillip Glyde last week, who he said had agreed carryover rights of 500 per cent were unacceptable.
Victorian Farmers Federation Water Council chairman Richard Anderson said it was clear “they’re trying to soften the blow of reduced licence volumes by offering the carrot of high carryover”.
But he said whatever happens NSW must meter all usage and get floodplain harvesting under the basin cap.
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