Murray River metering loophole: Irrigation pumpers can overuse water

Irrigators pumping from the Murray and other rivers in northern Victoria can take more water than they own, without detection.

Water corporations cannot read river pumpers’ meters until the end of the season, creating a loophole that allows overuse.

River pumpers with Victoria’s largest government-owned irrigation corporation are able to borrow water they don’t hold in their accounts and then wait until the end of the season or even later to repay it.

Goulburn Murray Water’s corporate secretary Chris Dalton has admitted the meters on the pumps of irrigators diverting water straight from the state’s northern rivers are not read until the end of the season.

As has occurred in other states, the practice allows irrigators to overuse water at the peak of the season, when prices are high, and not repay it until the end of the season when prices traditionally fall.

“Almost all of GMW’s diverter customers have non-telemetered meters,” Mr Dalton said. “This means that GMW cannot perform a remote read on the meter.”

“GMW’s Water Use Compliance and Enforcement Policy expects river diverters to manage their water usage throughout the irrigation season to ensure they do not exceed their entitlement.”

Ironically Victorian and NSW irrigation leaders have condemned South Australian irrigators in the past for pumping water from the Murray they did not own and not repaying it until the end of the season, when their meters were read.

Australia’s Inspector-General of Water Compliance Troy Grant has called in former Victorian Auditor-General Des Pearson to undertake a forensic analysis of each Murray Darling Basin jurisdiction’s water compliance systems and policies.

“Inconsistency in Basin states’ response to water theft risks is undermining confidence. Left unchecked, these differences, including in the mandatory response to water theft, reinforces views that water management is unfair or not effective.”

Last September Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville announced a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorised take.

But some irrigators have a long history of overuse, with GMW’s 2019-20 annual report showing it issued 766 advisory and sent 128 caution letters to customers in 2019-20 advising they had exceeded their water allocation and advising of potential prosecution.

In contrast to GMW, Victoria’s second largest irrigation corporation Lower Murray Water has telemetry read meters on all its irrigators pumps, which instantaneously show its staff when, where and how much water is being used, automatically flagging overuse.

Yet despite this sophisticated telemetry system LMW appears to be still delaying action, with its 2019-20 annual report showing it issued 807 advisory letters and 301 formal warnings, but only locked down 12 pumps and undertook two prosecutions.

Compliance reports are yet to be released for 2020-21.

Meanwhile South Australia is still trying to sort out how it deals with overuse, which its river pumpers must address each quarter by buying in water to rebalance negative accounts.

Last spring the penalty for overusing 10 to 25 per cent of your water was $2450 per megalitre of overuse and $4200/ML for anything above 25 per cent.

This spring the penalty is $1125 a megalitre for overusing up to 500ML and $1500 for anything above that volume.