The Murray & Securing our water supply

[Jim]

THE Goolwa barrages may be opened to the sea and Adelaide could face tougher water restrictions this year, Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald says.

But the Government will not make a move on the latest drought emergency measures until the spring.

Ms Maywald today that said final decisions on the barrages, restrictions and the possible building of a weir across the Murray at Wellington would not be made until late September, when the Government had a better idea about flows into the river system.

Save the Murray feature page, interactive and sign petition to PM

"All of these things will get worked out when we know the situation in September," she said.

"We may need to look at restrictions again. But Adelaide is working well on the current level three restrictions."

Ms Maywald said the Government had decided last week to spend about $30 million getting ready to build the Wellington weir, which would hold fresh water across the river at Wellington.

She said, however, it remained the least preferred option.

"But it is money we have to spend," she said. Ms Maywald said it was like preparing for a terrorist attack – you had to spend the money but hoped it would never be needed.

She denied the Government had been hiding the decision on the weir. "We gave an undertaking to talk to the people involved before making any announcement," she said.

[Jim]

August 06, 2008 02:30pm
THE Murray-Darling system does not contain enough water to viably manage the Lower Lakes in South Australia, says federal Water Minister Penny Wong.

Fears are mounting over the fate of the lakes as the State Government considers the construction of a weir to hold back the remaining Murray waters at Wellington, not far from the Murray mouth.

The government has started $30 million worth of preparatory work on the weir but is yet to decide whether or not to approve construction and cut off the lakes.

Opponents fear that would cause an environmental disaster.

Save the Murray: All you need to know
Join the fight: Sign our petition to Kevin Rudd

Senator Wong said the Federal Government was willing to work with the SA Government on the weir issue, but he said making compulsory acquisitions of water upstream would not help.

There was simply not enough water in the system to fill the lakes, the minister said.

"There is very little water in the system ... we are at historic low levels," Senator Wong told ABC radio today.

"There is not enough water in the system to do everything we want.

"There is not enough water in the system to bring down the sorts of quantities of water you'd need to fill the lower lakes and to handle the evaporation in the lakes and transmission loss, that is what you'd lose along the way.

"Even if we did make a decision to not give any allocations (upstream), there is insufficient water currently in storage - less the critical human needs issue - for us to viably manage the lower lakes with the amount of water that we have.

"That is extremely unfortunate and extremely difficult for the community down there."

SA Premier Mike Rann said the weir would only be built as a last resort - to safeguard water quality for Adelaide and other communities.

"Do we want to build a weir, no," Mr Rann told reporters.

"I would rather put the money into hospitals.

"But if we have to build a weir to stop the acidification coming upstream, then we will do so."

How can this be an environmental disaster, basically opening the artificial man made barrage to let the sea back into the lakes? Just get on with it build the weir ASAP

[SRW]

Govt urged to buy Murray-Darling properties
ABC News
By environment reporter Sarah Clarke

A new plan put together by the Conservation Foundation could potentially be the answer to the Murray-Darling river's ongoing water issues.

The Foundation says the Federal Government should buy up properties in the upper Basin and get the water flowing downstream to address the immediate crisis and save the lower lakes.

The plan involves the Government purchasing six properties on the Darling River that are all on the market. All up, these properties could return 300,000 megalitres to the Murray-Darling system.

Amy Hankinson from the Inland Rivers Network says with the Federal and state Governments now looking to buy up water to return to the environment, here lies a perfect opportunity.

"It really is a golden opportunity for the Commonwealth to turn promises into action and send some fresh water down into the system and to our thirsty rivers and wetlands," she said.

"And the best part of this is this will keep giving in years to come every time it does rain... freshwater will stay in the system for our environment and our wetlands."

Scientists say 400,000 megalitres of water is needed by the end of spring to avoid irreversible ecological damage in the lower lakes and the Coorong.

David Paton from the University of Adelaide agrees this plan will help.

"It's a starting point but the bottom line for managing the river is that one has got to fix what I think are the fundamental issues here," he said.

"[Those issues are that] we have got to get an allocation for irrigators, human use and the environment sorted that enables the environment to get its fair share and needed share of that water to guarantee its long term sustainability."

'Time to sell'

Darling Farms, south of Bourke in western New South Wales, is one of six properties along the Darling River on the market or open to offers. It has access to 23,000 megalitres a year.

Others include Cubbie Station, Australia's largest cotton farm on the Queensland-New South Wales border, which can hold as much water as Sydney Harbour.

After 40 years on the land and a decade of drought, the Cole family, who owns Darling Farms, has decided to sell.

Over summer, there has been some rain, a flow has returned to the river, the storage dams are full and the property has been put on the market.

Ian Cole, the owner and manager of the business, says it is sad to sell.

"It's always sad ... to lose something that you're used to," he said. "Obviously all our children have grown up here but obviously life changes and you have to change with it.

"So at the moment we have a really nice wheat crop of 5,000 acres in the ground and we've got full water storages."

The price tag he wants is around $60 million, but it is all about the location.

Mr Cole does not mind who buys, he says he just wants the best price.

"We didn't anticipate the Government might be interested in buying an enterprise like this to return water to the river but if that's what they want to do we don't have a problem with it," he said.

So much for there not being any water. I hope this plan is investigated by governments.

[omada]

Plan to save lakes - buy six farms

Peter Ker and Chris Hammer
The Age, August 8 2008

THE demise of the lower Murray River in South Australia could be averted if six big farms are targeted, environmentalists say.

In a proposal delivered personally to federal Water Minister Penny Wong, the Australian Conservation Foundation has collated a hit list of major water-hoarding properties whose water could be purchased or leased by the Government in a bid to save the Coorong and lower lakes.

The claims follow Ms Wong's concession this week that the lower lakes could not be saved, and figures yesterday that showed public storages along the Murray were down to 21% of capacity. Those storages would normally be up to 70% at this time of year.

Despite the dire forecasts, the ACF has urged the Federal Government to look again at six properties in the western parts of NSW and Queensland which, if purchased, could yield up to 300 billion litres annually for the river, depending on flows.

The list includes the famous Cubbie Station, which ACF spokeswoman Arlene Buchan said could provide up to 200 billion litres to the river system.

"There is actually a lot of water in the northern basin and the Government has a golden opportunity to buy that water from willing sellers and transfer it through the system, so it can inject some life back into the lower lakes and the Coorong," she said.

Three of the properties - Darling Farms, Toorale Station and Balandool Station - are on the market, and the ACF estimated that to buy all six outright would cost upwards of $600 million. Toorale spokesman John McKillop said anyone could bid for the property, but governments should beware of creating "ghost towns".

"It would be very helpful for the health of the Murray River if there were no irrigators and no development west of Sydney, but if we want communities out there and economic growth and a prosperous society we need to balance that between economic use and river health," he said.

Darling Farms spokesman Ian Cole said it would be good if the sale of his property was "part of a solution" for the river, but added: "I'm not sure there's enough water up here."

Tandou chief executive Guy Kingwill said his property was not on the market, and environmentalists found it "easy to go after" large properties like it.

But Murray Darling Basin Commission spokesman Les Roberts played down the ACF proposal, saying the purchase of the properties - which typically grow cereals, rice and cotton - might not save the lower lakes.

"Given the current level of storage it's not feasible to refill the lakes by transferring water from other parts of the Basin without any further significant rain," he said.

"As little as 20% of any water released in the north of the Basin would reach the lower lakes … four to five times the water needed at the lakes would need to be released from that far upstream."

The Government has started buying back $3 billion of permanent water licences, and spokeswoman Ilsa Colson said all types of property would be considered from willing sellers.

Ms Wong's controversial stance on the lower lakes won support yesterday from environmentalist Professor Tim Flannery, who said there was little point releasing valuable water into the lakes, only to face the same problem in coming years.

"I'm with Penny Wong on this. I think it's unwise to release that water because the balance of probability is that we won't get rain to replace it," he said.

Professor Flannery said the South Australian Government was wise to begin preliminary work on a weir to separate the Murray from the lakes to protect Adelaide's water supply.

"It could be absolutely essential. And my guess is that … 24 months from now people will be very glad that that's been started," he said.

Interesting that Tim Flannery is also against saving the lakes (see the last couple of paragraphs), i'm actually pretty disappointed about that - I thought he was a conservationist.

[Jim]

If they are going to all the expense of building a weir at Wellington should we not combine it with a road crossing (bridge) so that the local community gets some additional benefits.

Not sure if this idea better belongs in regional transport/infrastructure or Ideas and suggestions ?

[Shuz]

I think the Wellington Weir needs to be properly built, and not a middle-ages construction of rocks blocking a river. That way we can appropriately hold up the freshwater in the river system where it belongs, and return the Lower Lakes to its natural state before human intervention, as a seawater tidal body of water.
I completely agree with the construction of a road, as a route from the Princes Highway directly into the Goolwa/Victor Harbor region would bring many transport and economical benefits.

[Wayno]

Mark Sept 11 in your calendar!

This could be the first substantial murray-darling water buy-back! and it appears up to 5 more are being considered...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 01,00.html

TOORALE station in northwestern NSW is expected to be purchased by Canberra in partnership with NSW for an estimated $25 million, in response to mounting pressure on the Rudd Government to respond more quickly to the water crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Dams across the Warrego River on the 92,000ha cotton and grazing operation would be removed to boost flows from Queensland to the basin by up to 90 gigalitres a year.

Government sources said federal Water Minister Penny Wong was anxious to make some high-profile acquisitions under the National Water Plan, which included $3 billion for allocation purchases, as criticism mounted of the Government's handling of the water crisis.

The federal and NSW governments are expected to pay the British-owned Clyde Agriculture about $25 million for Toorale when the station is auctioned in Sydney on September 11.

The dams on the station would be removed from the Warrego riverbed and the huge grazing and irrigation property would, over time, be converted into a national park.

Clyde managing director John McKillop said he was aware of government interest in Toorale.

"We intend to sell to the highest bidder," Mr McKillop said.

"It would be a shame to see a good property like Toorale taken out of production and turned into a national park, but if that's what the taxpayers want, then so be it."

The move follows growing criticism from irrigators in southern NSW and South Australia that Canberra is failing to act to divert water from dams in the basin's relatively well-watered northern reaches to the parched south.

The Australian reported in January that 80 per cent of flows in the Warrego following heavy rains in Queensland were being diverted from the Murray-Darling by a series of dams across the river on Toorale. The dams were depriving the system of between 1800 and 2400 megalitres a day, although station managers insisted the quantity of water diverted was minimal.

The Australian reported last week that a record 1.014 million megalitres were diverted in 2007-08 to Queensland irrigators from the Murray-Darling. About 25 per cent ended up in the storages of the giant Cubbie cotton station.

NSW Climate Change and Environment Minister Verity Firth said yesterday her department had been in discussion with Toorale's agents.

"Toorale station would be a very substantial buy," a spokesman for Ms Firth said. "The Government is carefully considering the likely future benefits for the environment and the communities of western NSW."

The Toorale acquisition would follow the example set earlier this month when the federal and NSW governments purchased another cotton property, Pillicawarrina, to expand the Macquarie Marshes wetlands reserve.

Clyde Agriculture is owned by the British-based Swire Group, whose other business interests include the airline Cathay Pacific, Papua New Guinea's Steamships Trading Company and other shipping operations such as the Tasman Orient Line and Swire Shipping. Swire directors include prominent Australian businessman Rod Eddington, while former deputy prime minister John Anderson joined Clyde's board after last year's election.

Toorale is one of four properties in NSW and Queensland being sold by Clyde as part of the company's restructuring.

Australian Floodplain Association president Mark Ettridge, a Darling River grazier downstream from Toorale, said the property's acquisition would boost flows into the basin by up to 90 gigalitres a year.

Mr Ettridge said Senator Wong should move to purchase Cubbie, Darling Farms and other cotton irrigators in the basin's northern reaches that had indicated a willingness to sell after years of drought-related losses.

"The cotton growers are offering an opportunity to return large volumes of water to the system," he said.

Senator Wong declined to comment other than to issue her standard response that the commonwealth was open to speaking with willing sellers of water entitlements if offers had environmental benefits and were offered at fair market prices.

Senator Wong is considering a proposal from the Australian Conservation Foundation to purchase six cotton properties, including Toorale and Cubbie, to return 400GL a year to the Murray-Darling.

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said several Queensland cotton operations were under pressure to sell but their acquisition for water conservation would undermine their local economy.

"We have whole towns which rely on these farms for their livelihood," Senator Joyce said.

The Rudd Government committed $400million to buy back water entitlements in the northern basin, including $350million in Queensland, after an additional $50million was added at a cabinet meeting two weeks ago.

After that meeting, the Government announced it would work with the states to acquire irrigation properties with large-scale water entitlements, especially in the upper reaches of the basin in NSW and Queensland.

The reason for this was because of the Murray-Darling states, Queensland is the only state where water licences haven't been separated from land so they can be freely traded.

Unlike the rest of the basin, if you want to buy water from Queensland, you have to buy the land it belongs to.

[Wayno]

Yay! a big water purchase - hopefully more to come!

As predicted - this is certainly a step in the right direction!

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

THE NSW and federal governments have taken the unprecedented step of buying a massive water-hungry outback cotton station to transform it into a national park as part of an ambitious multibillion-dollar plan to save the dying Murray-Darling Basin.

NSW last night paid $23.75million, with substantial commonwealth assistance, for the Toorale cotton station in northwest NSW, in a move that will boost flows to the parched Murray-Darling Basin by up to 80 gigalitres a year.

The landmark agreement has angered locals in Bourke, who claim the Toorale station is a significant employer and central to the prosperity of the region.

The buyout of the property from British-owned company Clyde Agriculture before a planned auction in Sydney today is the first major land and water purchase under the $3 billion National Water Plan. The government offer was likely to have exceeded bids that a European food production consortium and two Australian operators planned to make at the auction.

toorale-station.JPG (100.02 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

[omada]

This is excellent news, finally it appears we have some concrete action on this problem..yay for the environment!!!!

May there be many more water buy backs to come....

[Wayno]

This picture sums up the futility of the Adelaide metro water restrictions. Continue with a few more "massive" water buy-backs of a similar scale to Toorale Station (above) and we'll all be able to sleep a bit better.

sa-use-of-murray.JPG (36.52 KiB) Viewed 4049 times

* SA uses only 6% of the Murray, with Adelaide (and SA country towns) using only 8% of that 6% (which is a meagre 0.5% of the murray)!

Some more stats not on the graph above:
* In a year with typical rainfall, 60% of Adelaide's metro water supply comes from the Adelaide Hills (not the murray). In drought years, this falls to about 20%
* 50% of metropolitan water consumption is residential, 20% for public purposes (parks, etc), wih industry taking 30%. There's probably 2-3 "really big" industrial water consumers around Adelaide - anyone know who they are?

Lots more details here ==> http://www.sawater.com.au/NR/rdonlyres/ ... /0/WPA.pdf

[Norman]

They showed a list of the biggest water users in The Advertiser a few years ago, and top of the list was actually our big 3 Unis. I can't remember much of the rest.

[Prince George]

* 50% of metropolitan water consumption is residential, 20% for public purposes (parks, etc), wih industry taking 30%. There's probably 2-3 "really big" industrial water consumers around Adelaide - anyone know who they are?

I believe your list is: Penrice Soda, Holdens, and once-upon-a-time Mitsubishi.

[Wayno]

I can believe penrice and holden, but why the Uni's? lots of scuba diving classes?

[Wayno]

Every billion litres helps...

Thanks Bligh, keep it comin'...

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html

QUEENSLAND will "gift" more than 10 billion litres of water to boost the ailing Murray-Darling system.

Eight billion litres of Warrego River water allocations were last year earmarked for auction to farmers and Premier Anna Bligh says that auction will now not proceed.

She said the allocations would be part of a transfer of 10.6 billion litres of water entitlements to the Commonwealth.

Queensland Water Minister Craig Wallace said it was a gift from Queenslanders.

"Queensland is serious in its efforts to help the commonwealth save the Murray-Darling and today's announcement is further proof of that commitment," Mr Wallace said.

The remainder of the 10.6 billion litres will come from the Nebine, Moonie and Border rivers.

The decision comes after the federal and New South Wales governments this week purchased a large cotton farm in NSW to deliver 20 billion litres of water entitlements back to the Darling River.

[Wayno]

I'm confused by the lower lakes issue. It seems the lakes were artificially converted to 'fresh water' in the last 100 years or so when the barrages were installed to keep the sea out. Prior to that (for many many 1000's of years) the lower lakes would have been mainly salt water (in times of drought) or brackish at best when the murray is flowing strongly.

So where does the "concern" come from with respect to flooding the lower lakes with ocean water? How many people actually rely on the lower lakes being fresh water for their livelihood?

There's probably many benefits in converting the lakes to salt water - but these don't seem to get discussed in the media...