Murray River landholder opposition to removing barriers to increase environmental flows

Murray River farmers voiced their fears at a meeting last night over the NSW Government’s revised attempt to increase environmental flows.

Murray River farmers fear their properties will be flooded on a more regular basis under NSW Government’s revised attempt to increase environmental flows in the southern basin.

Landholder concerns were raised at a meeting convened by the Murray River Action Group in Howlong on Monday night when the director in charge of the government’s Reconnecting River Country program, Tracey MacDonald, confirmed they could be dealing with more over bank flooding with the removal of existing constraints to delivering water for the environment.

The present operational limit between Lake Hume and Yarrawonga is 25,000 megalitres per day, but an increase to between 30,000 and 40,000 megalitres per day is under consideration.

There are close to 200 landholders who could be impacted by the changes.

Action Group president Richard Sargood said around 303 hectares of his property near Corowa would be under water or inaccessible if the limit was lifted to 40,000 megalitres per day.

Corowa’s Heather Pearce said the focus should be on improving water infrastructure owned by Murray River councils.

“Why can’t it be spent on infrastructure that stops putting stuff in the river that then needs to be flushed out?” she said.

Browns Plains farmer Terry Doolan said the construction of another dam between Albury and Adelaide was a better long term solution.

“They are not saving the water in the winter and blocking everything off,” he said.

“You can just about walk across the river in the winter.

“The thing that controls everything is consistency all year round.”

Bonegilla’s Lindsay Rapsey said the program was flawed.

“All you’re trying to do is run water faster and create more damage,” he said.

But Ms MacDonald confirmed no final decisions had been made on timing, frequency and duration of increased flows which were the subject of the renewed consultation over an 18-month period.

“There is no program without agreement,” she said.

“The NSW Government has categorically said there will be no compulsory inundation.

“There was a lot of criticism in previous iterations of the program and generally about modelling.

“It is modelling and it’s never 100 per cent correct.

“We will be asking the community to agree to a maximum volume above the current operational limit.”

The renewed consultation is the first step towards completion of a business case for Federal Government approval to implement the program.