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Water policy must preserve Gippsland LakesWater policy for Gippsland must ensure protection of the Gippsland Lakes, and this must preclude any new dam on the Mitchell River, says MP Philip Davis. By Kevin Balshaw - 11th March 2010 - Back to News Recent discussion on water policy, together with confusion that has arisen about the State Government’s management of Gippsland water resources, prompts me once again to speak strongly in defence of the Gippsland Lakes.
Unquestionably, the environment of the Gippsland Lakes catchment, a vast stretch of land and waterways from Warragul in West Gippsland to beyond Lakes Entrance in the east and north to Mount Skene, is suffering because of the generally dry conditions of recent years and successive decisions to divert an increasing proportion of the catchment’s water to Melbourne.
Irrespective of Gippsland’s diversity, the rivers flowing from the high country, along with the lakes and coastal waters, are the heart of its environment, lifestyle and economy.
The first problem is the question of diversions of environmental flows from the Thomson River, which began in 2007 and were increased last year, are planned to continue another two years and potentially indefinitely — even though the Government is sending out the strongest hints it is about to ease Melbourne’s water restrictions.
The Government has made contradictory statements on environmental flows in the Thomson River, and I have put it forcefully in the Parliament that Water Minister Tim Holding should clarify the contradictions in a formal statement to the Parliament that discloses and explains the total water reserve held in the Thomson Dam, and water allocations and actual flows for various purposes, including the environmental flow in the river.
The Government has acted deviously in trying to conceal its decision to divert further water from the river’s environmental flow to Melbourne. When questions began to be asked, it released conflicting figures about reserves held in the dam, the diversion to Melbourne and the environmental release.
Minister Holding announced in a line buried at the bottom of a media statement on September 8 last year that a further 10 billion litres of water designated as environmental flow for the Thomson River would be diverted each year to Melbourne, taking the total annual diversion of environmental flows to 20 billion litres.
In a reply to an earlier endeavour I made to obtain a formal explanation of the reasons for the latest water diversion, the minister said he had established a drought reserve to manage potential long-term environmental risks.
In fact there has long been a reserve in the Thomson Dam, which exists for the sole purpose of providing a drought supply for the Macalister irrigation district.
The minister came back with a claim there is a second reserve, an environmental drought reserve, that was established in 2007 to protect the river, and he refers to some obscure arrangement that makes provision for a two billion litre environmental reserve being available from July this year, but which does not require the water to be actually released into the river.
This has revealed a contradiction between the minister’s statement that Melbourne would receive an additional 10 billion litres of water and now that two billion litres will be held back as a reserve for the Thomson River. Does this mean Melbourne will receive only eight billion litres of the promised diversion? And what is now to happen with the hypothetically accumulating drought reserve?
The second reserve has never previously been mentioned and must be regarded as extremely suspect, particularly in view of the minister’s repeated refusals to explain it publicly.
The second critical issue to arise in this context concerns the future of the Mitchell River, which is the largest source of fresh water for the lakes and provides more than 35% of their inflow.
There has been discussion recently on the possible development of a dam or storage on the Mitchell or one of its tributaries, which inevitably would lead to pressure to divert water to Melbourne.
On December 1, 2008, in response to earlier suggestions in a similar vein, I issued a statement, which said in part:
"The ecology of the Gippsland Lakes 20,000 square kilometre catchment, 4000 square kilometres of adjoining wetlands and 400 square kilometres of lakes waterways depends on the premise that it is a dynamic system requiring continuous water inflows, including regular floods, to maintain its health.
"The view that more water from rivers can be captured regularly and diverted from rivers in the catchment is unacceptable because of the damaging impact that would have on the Lakes and the wetlands and therefore threaten their long-term ecological health."
I reiterate that I oppose any policy for any new dam on the Mitchell River.
I support the present situation, however, that a part of the flow in the Mitchell is drawn upon to meet the entitlements of irrigators and provide urban water for towns in the Bairnsdale-Lakes Entrance area.
The East Gippsland Water Authority has built and recently expanded an off-stream storage at Woodglen to assist it to meet the needs of towns in the area. Within the vegetable industry at Lindenow, for example, there is already a major off-stream storage holding water entitlement and thereby guaranteeing regular access to water supply for irrigation.
These approaches are realistic and practical in terms of the river’s capacity to meet the community’s needs and yet remain the largest source of water for the lakes, and it may be there is scope for the further development of water conservation initiatives of this nature.
But I oppose the development of any dam on the Mitchell River.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au
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