Farmers favour water trade across border

 Andrew Fraser
 January 09, 2007

FARMERS on either side of the Queensland-NSW border will be able to trade water licences for the first time under a draft plan released yesterday by the Queensland Government.
While the plan does not apply to coastal urban areas, it is set to be implemented across all inland regions, with its greatest impact expected to be felt around Goondiwindi, about 400km from the coast.

Under the draft plan, Queensland’s Department of Natural and Water resources would allow a farmer on one side of the border to buy a water allocation from the other side.

There are 240 tradable water allocations on the Queensland side of the border, and a maximum of 179,000 megalitres of water available to be traded under the new arrangements.

The move comes as the Howard Government and federal Labor argue over a call by water expert Peter Cullen, for the commonwealth to buy back water licences. While NSW and Queensland have only just come to a trading arrangement, it has been in practice for several years on the Murray River boundary between NSW and Victoria. Farmer David Turner from Goondiwindi, who operates mainly in Queensland but also has some NSW interests, said the change would give him more flexibility. “What it means in practice is that if NSW has more water than Queensland then we can buy from there, and if Queensland has more water then we can buy from there.

“It’ll be a great boon for us. We’ve been trying to get this through for years, and it’s the sort of thing that should happen naturally.”

In good times, the Goondiwindi region has strong cotton, wheat and wool industries, but the drought has hit the region hard, especially its cotton industry.

But even in drought the changes outlined in the draft plan could be used, as the main watercourse for the Goondiwindi region, the McIntyre River, draws water from dams in both NSW and Queensland. On the Queensland side, the main dam that supplies water to the river is the Glenlyon Dam, in the western part of the Granite Belt, which yesterday was only 20 per cent full, while a year ago it was at 27 per cent of capacity.

But the dam that supplies water to the McIntyre and on which water allocations in NSW are based is the Pindarri Dam north of Inverell, which is in a different catchment area.

The Coorong has been reduced to a trickle

By Cara Jenkin

January 10, 2007
Article from: The Advertiser

SOUTH Australia’s most precious natural asset, the Coorong, has been reduced to a trickle, with fish and birds rapidly disappearing.

The condition of the Coorong has reached a new low as a lack of freshwater flowing into the estuary has led to the 140km stretch drying up.

Adelaide University School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor David Paton said the internationally recognised ecosystem was in the worst condition he had seen. Professor Paton will lead an expedition to the Coorong this month with conservation group Earthwatch.

He said information gathered in the past week in the south lagoon had been devastating. Pelicans had recently flocked to the Coorong because it was one of the last sources of water in SA, but Professor Paton said numbers of other bird species had significantly dropped compared with last summer.

“We found no fish in the south lagoon at all this year and that’s the first time that’s happened,” he said.

“The quality of the ruppia (water grasses) is the lowest it’s ever been.

“The water levels are the lowest we’ve ever seen - there’s a sand bar just south of Salt Creek which goes right across the Coorong.”

Professor Paton said the group would investigate northern parts of the Coorong in the next week and he did not expect a better situation.

He said years of low flows and drought had caused the dire situation. He criticised governments for not providing environmental flows when it had the water.

“This is a good measure of politicians being depreciative of scientists pleas for environmental flows, we’ve been asking for a decade, but are put off and put off and put off,” he said. “(The Coorong) can’t do it five, six, seven years in a row without flows.”

River Murray Minister Karlene Maywald said the Coorong had been deprived of water from natural floods for at least 10 years as water had been over-allocated across the system. She said water in the Murray-Darling Basin must be managed by one overseeing body so that areas at the end of the Murray River receive what they need.

 
Queensland defiant on water sell-off

Greg Roberts and Andrew Fraser
January 11, 2007

A DEFIANT Queensland Government has rejected criticism of its sale of eight billion litres of water from the Warrego River, part of the drought-ravaged Murray-Darling system, by claiming it would be plundered only when in full flow.
The Australian revealed yesterday that the allocations would be sold at two auctions in March in defiance of federal Labor policy to buy back water licences and in the face of record low flows in the Murray-Darling Basin.

The Warrego is a major tributary of the Darling River, and Parliamentary Secretary for Water Malcolm Turnbull yesterday described it as a volatile river.

“The move by Queensland to sell water licences on the Warrego has surprised people,” said Mr Turnbull, who has asked the National Water Commission to investigate the sale.

But Acting Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the federal Government knew about the plans through the National Water Commission.

But late yesterday a spokesman for the commission said its role was to assess the broader planning framework rather than approve specific plans.

Ms Bligh said the state Government was not planning to take the water from the river in the current circumstances.

“We haven’t sold water, we’ve sold an access right should there be full water,” she said. “That right cannot be accessed if there is no flow or low flows.

“This is about giving rural producers access to these rivers when those rivers are full.”

The NSW, Victorian and South Australian governments - which all rely to varying degrees on the Murray-Darling Basin - all expressed concern yesterday about the move.

South Australian Minister for the Murray River, Karlene Maywald, said far too much water had been allocated out of the Murray-Darling system already, but that the state would not be severely affected if Queensland’s plan went ahead.

But Acting Queensland Water Minister Paul Lucas hit back strongly, saying the state took only 5 per cent of the water from the Murray-Darling Basin, compared with figures of 6 per cent in South Australia, 34 per cent in Victoria and 55 per cent in NSW.

The Mayor of the Charleville-based Murweh Shire, Mark O’Brien, said the proposed sale should be cancelled.

Mr O’Brien said that because licence holders could average out water allocations over several years, during floods they could trap large quantities which would normally flow south into the Murray-Darling.

“The Government needs to cap the amount of water a licence holder can use in any one year,” Mr O’Brien said.

“If they are allowed to average it out, as they can at present, the end result is that all the flow in those occasional flood events gets taken out. The Murray-Darling misses out on all that water.”

Mr O’Brien said Charleville’s 4000 residents obtained water from a Great Artesian Basin aquifer. “We won’t be able to do that forever. If we eventually need access to river water, is the Government going to tell us we need to buy out these water allocations they’re issuing now?”

Cunnamulla grazier Carol Godfrey is concerned that licence holders upstream from her property would restrict river flows.

“It is vital to the health of the river that you have these flows,” Ms Godfrey said. “You can’t be extracting huge amounts of water. That upsets the whole natural system. It is dry enough without having water cut even more.”

But Charleville farmer Neil Duncan is planning to bid for one of the new Warrego River allocations. “We have too many dry days now and this is about trying to drought-proof our operations,” he said. “It is a positive thing to be able to utilise that water if you manage it properly.”

Additional reporting: Pia Akerman

Water meter faults cost $500m

Selina Mitchell
January 12, 2007

ENOUGH water to meet the annual consumption of Perth and Canberra could be lost from the Murray-Darling river system every year because irrigators are relying on faulty meters.
Up to 350 billion litres of water is being siphoned out of the Murray-Darling basin due to inaccuracies in the ageing devices used to measure extractions.

It is worth more than $500million, but experts say it could cost as little as $1.5 million to fix the meters.

In some areas, water meters are under-reading the amount of water being taken from the river system by 40 per cent. In others, there are no devices measuring water diversions.

“Improvements in diversion measurement should occur as a matter of urgency,” says a report undertaken for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

The commission has asked NSW, Victoria and Queensland to report back by March on how they plan to improve the accuracy of meters in areas where large amounts of water are extracted from the river system.

It would cost $1.5 million for the states to upgrade the meters at bulk diversion points to ensure they are accurate to within 5 per cent, but millions of dollars more to maintain the devices and install others.

The report says metering systems are being improved and notes that in some instances irrigators may be getting less water than they have been allocated due to inaccuracies. It calls for national standards and systematic checks to ensure installed meters are actually working properly.

On Tuesday, The Australian revealed that Queensland planned to allocate licences to irrigators to extract another eight billion litres of water from the Murray-Darling system, angering states downstream. However, that figure is a fraction of the amount of water lost through faulty meters.

The commission’s manager of water resources, Andy Close, said the drought and record low flows through the system meant far less than the maximum 350 billion litres of water had been lost through metering errors in the past few years.

But he said it was worrying that the majority of water meters gauging extractions were not tested for accuracy.

The report says that in the worst years, as much as 351 billion litres of water - 70 per cent of the volume of Sydney Harbour - could be extracted in error, but that represented just 4 per cent of the water used in the basin. In an average year, the volume of losses is 214 billion litres, equivalent to Perth’s annual water use.

“Despite representing a small percentage error, the magnitude is significant,” the report says. “Furthermore, most of this error volume is located within NSW.” The state uses 55 per cent of the water taken from the Murray-Darling basin.

The report warns that the errors are a “major risk” to the integrity of the cap on water diversions put in place in 1995 to avoid the Murray-Darling system drying up through increasing irrigation use.

South Australian River Murray Minister Karlene Maywald called on the states to urgently upgrade the metering technology.

“Inaccurate metering that can allow extra water to be withdrawn to this extent is just another blow to the River Murray,” she said.

The report examines sites that divert more than 5 billion litres of water from rivers in the basin.

These bulk offtakes account for about 80 per cent of the 11,000 billion litres of water diverted from the Murray-Darling system, and most are water extractions rather than returns.

There are a number of state and federal programs aimed at improving standards of monitoring and measuring irrigation extractions, and the National Water Initiative calls on the states and territories to implement Australia-wide standards by the end of this year.

Additional reporting: Asa Wahlquist

 
Wetlands pumped dry to boost Murray

Pia Akerman
January 12, 2007

SACRIFICING wetlands along the Murray River has become a pillar of the Rann Government’s strategy to increase the river’s flow, already reduced to record lows by the drought.
Twenty-seven wetlands in South Australia have so far been closed off from the river and pumped dry, returning significant amounts of water to the Murray and minimising losses through evaporation.

Minister for the Murray River Karlene Maywald said yesterday that more wetlands were being looked at for closure throughout the Murray valley.

“We have to actually manage the river system in a very different way from how we’ve managed it before,” she said. “We’re now micromanaging to the extent where we have to shut off wetlands.

“That water will go back into the channel, that water in the channel is going to be a very valued addition to the channel water in these times of very, very low flows.”

Ms Maywald said managing the river in these conditions required “extreme measures”.

“Our storages are incredibly low (and) this takes us into the next water year with no backup and no insurance,” she said. “We’re in uncharted territory and that requires some very difficult decisions.”

Last year was the driest on record for the Murray-Darling system, with just 1317 gigalitres entering the river. The previous lowest inflow was 1740 gigalitres in 1902, during the Federation drought.

“The drought is causing us some enormous challenges,” Ms Maywald said. “We’re looking to the skies for rain and lots of it.”

Yesterday, management at Banrock Station vineyard - owned by the world’s biggest winemaker, Constellation Brands - prepared to cut its wetlands off from the Murray.

The plan to dry the wetlands there is expected to save about 1.15 gigalitres of river water - about 1150 Olympic-sized swimming pools - over two years.

On a hot day, 10 megalitres - the equivalent of 10 swimming pools - can evaporate off the 100ha lagoon.

Tony Sharley, manager of Banrock Station, said drying out the wetlands would revive a natural phenomenon and have positive results for the local ecosystem.

“While we have become used to seeing the wetlands being constantly full of water, this situation is not, in fact, what nature intended,” Mr Sharley said. “Allowing them to dry out every two years is a natural phenomenon that will have fantastic benefits for the plants and animals in our wetland.”

Native species of fish, birds, frogs and plants are expected to flourish due to nutrient release, while the European carp, a pest that destroys the riverbed, may be eradicated.

 
Canberra paying up to reduce the flow

 Greg Roberts
 January 12, 2007

THE Howard Government is preparing to buy more water licences to reduce the flows going to irrigators from the drought-ravaged Murray-Darling Basin.
“I accept there has been over-allocation of water in a lot of areas, and we are going to have to adjust for that now,” Parliamentary Secretary for Water Malcolm Turnbull told The Australian yesterday.

“We are inevitably going to see more a move towards purchasing water allocations.”

His comments came as NSW demanded an explanation from the Beattie Government about Queensland’s decision - revealed this week by The Australian - to sell licences for eight billion litres of water a year from the Warrego River, when flows in the Murray-Darling Basin are at record lows.

NSW Natural Resources Minister Ian Macdonald said the main concern of his state was that appropriate environmental flow provisions were made on rivers that crossed the Queensland-NSW border.

“I will be seeking assurances from the Queensland Government that this is the case under this proposal,” he said.

The Warrego is a major tributary of the Darling River. Queensland insists the new allocations can be extracted only when the river is in full flow. Critics counter that because annual allocations can be averaged out, most of the flow during infrequent flood events can be diverted to irrigation dams.

Mr Turnbull has asked the National Water Commission to review the sale.

The federal Opposition signalled early this week it would go to the election promising to buy water licences to reduce the 70per cent of water use accounted for by irrigators.

Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran rejected the policy as a “blunt instrument”.

But Labor’s water spokesman Anthony Albanese said yesterday: “The commonwealth should be buying water licences from irrigators to ensure river flows and town water supplies.

“Unless all the options are kept open for returning water to the Murray-Darling, the Government’s big words over water will remain dry, meaningless rhetoric,” he said. “Despite years of promises from the Howard Government, not a single drop of water has been returned to the Murray as a result of the Living Murray process.”

Mr Albanese declined to comment on whether he believed the Warrego sales planned by his Queensland Labor colleagues were appropriate.

Mr Turnbull said further efficiency-related purchases by the Howard Government would be made in South Australia under the Living Murray initiative.

“Our aim is wherever possible to do this in a manner which enhances irrigation efficiency and viability,” Mr Turnbull said.

“It’s a question of how much and at what price, where and in what quantities.”

But Mr Turnbull signalled that the Government was prepared to broaden its approach.

“Let’s not be in any doubt that we are not opposed to buying water,” he said.

“Allocations for water recovery will remain under consideration. Nothing is off the table.”

Turnbull supports ‘food bowl’ plan

  Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter
  January 25, 2007

MALCOLM Turnbull is expected to support a radical plan for a $200 million channel to bypass a natural blockage in the Murray River and boost trade in water for irrigation.
It is believed the new federal Water Resources Minister will give the project in-principle support in the next few days after the plan was revealed in The Australian yesterday.

The project, put forward by Victorian Water Minister John Thwaites, is designed to expand horticulture and farming in the state’s Sunraysia “food bowl” region by making an extra 1300GL of tradeable water available each year.

But Mr Turnbull has lashed another of Mr Thwaites’s proposals, describing calls for a restructure of the National Water Initiative as “just another way to avoid accountability and force the commonwealth into acting as an ATM for the states”.

Mr Thwaites had suggested letting the states, rather than the commonwealth, dole out funds from the $2billion scheme, with the federal Government able to impose fines if projects fail to save water.

The Australian Conservation Foundation dubbed the channel plan a “white elephant” that could cause environmental problems for the already degraded Murray River.

The ACF’s healthy rivers campaigner, Arlene Buchan, said the Victorian Government’s own research had recommended against the idea.

“I think it is an expensive, unnecessary and environmentally risky proposal,” she said.

 
Matthew Warren, Environment writer
March 30, 2007

IRRIGATORS have agreed to sell 100 gigalitres of low-security water to the NSW Government in the state’s biggest buyback for environmental flows.
The Iemma Government is expected today to announce the $20million deal with Murray Irrigators Ltd, taking over nearly half of its supplementary water licence to recharge key environmental systems.

The latest buyback under the Living Murray Initiative will take the total of water reclaimed to about 340GL, on target to reaching the proposed target of 500GL by 2009.

The agreement will encourage negotiations over the Howard Government’s proposed takeover of the Murray-Darling Basin, demonstrating there are likely to be willing sellers of water entitlements under the proposed $3billion buyback proposal.

Murray Irrigation chairman Stewart Ellis said the sale of the supplementary water would be in the spring, when environmental flows were most valuable to recharge natural systems.

Low-security water is generally only available in periods of peak flow, making it less valuable for irrigators but valuable for flushing out and recharging natural systems, replicating the natural behaviour of the river. He said the decision to sell was made because of the diminished access to these allocations - only three times in the past 11 years.

Murray-Darling Basin chief executive Wendy Craik welcomed the sale, which follows major buybacks announced in Victoria and South Australia.

Victoria stalls federal water plan

April 13, 2007 - 11:27AM

Progress toward a national deal on the Murray-Darling basin appears to have stalled, with Victoria continuing to hold out.

Prime Minister John Howard said he wouldn’t offer Victoria any more than he had already offered other states which had agreed to sign on to the package.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said he wasn’t about to budge and was intent on protecting the commonwealth from what was an ill-thought through plan.

Mr Howard revealed the plan at a special water summit in February with NSW, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT agreeing to cede their powers over the Murray-Darling basin to the commonwealth in exchange for a huge upgrade of irrigation infrastructure.

Victoria opposed the package but there have since been ongoing negotiations with the commonwealth and the state.

Mr Howard said he believed there had been progress during talks during the week with Mr Bracks and was surprised to hear the premier wasn’t budging.

The prime minister said the water plan wasn’t on the agenda for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, so failure to reach agreement would not spell its demise.

“It has been left to Victoria and the commonwealth to separately discuss Victoria’s position,” he told Southern Cross Radio in Victoria.

“We are not going to give Victoria something that we haven’t given or won’t give to the other states.”

Mr Howard said Victoria really should sign up as the plan could not proceed without it.

“It is like a three-legged horse,” he said.

“I notice that the National party in Victoria, which has previously been holding out, has now signed up. I hope the Victorian farmers will now do the same. That is a matter for them.

Mr Bracks said he believed there was a better way forward and he would seek to convince the commonwealth to agree to Victoria’s proposal.

“We won’t budge,” he told ABC Radio.

“We believe there is an easier way forward with an inter-governmental agreement which can give Canberra more power and say over water entitlements without a wholesale transfer of power and responsibilities.

“If it had started with a proper policy process we could have got a better outcome from it.”

Mr Bracks said Mr Howard’s water plan was ill-thought out and intended only for an election year, adding that it had not been scrutinised by cabinet, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission or the Treasury.

“We will discuss this further and we will try and convince the commonwealth of our plan for a better way forward and to really save the commonwealth from itself, from very poor decision making … from slipping Australia into a system that we will regret in the long term,” he said.

“We believe (that) rather then awarding efficient irrigation, this system will simply take water off Victoria for other water supply systems which have been run inefficiently in the past.”

Water plan back to square one
May 23, 2007

Victoria is still refusing to sign up to the Federal Government’s $10 billion water plan for the Murray-Darling Basin after seeing the second draft of the proposal.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks is now planning to ask Prime Minister John Howard to intervene.

“I’ll be writing to the prime minister today, indicating to the prime minister that the current draft is not acceptable,” Mr Bracks told ABC Radio today.

“Effectively, this project is not going to proceed with Victorian government support unless there is proper negotiation around a limited set of referred powers.”

Mr Bracks said Victoria’s concerns had been ignored as the Federal Government was still planning to take over the state’s control of water.

“This came as a bit of a shock, I think,” Mr Bracks said.

“Mostly, we expected that there would be an accommodation to deal with the federal government’s involvements in caps and over-entitlements of water in the Murray-Darling Basin system.”

But, he said, the government’s plan goes much further than that.

“It gives planning, water rights, water pricing responsibility totally to the Federal Government in a significant takeover which will not serve the country well.”

Mr Bracks said it was now up to Mr Howard to change the plan otherwise Victoria would not be part of it.

“It’s not irretrievable, it is able to be dealt with through intervention from the prime minister to seek to have a limited and targeted referral of powers,” Mr Bracks said.

“But in relation to this legislation, if it was to go unchanged into the Federal Parliament, from our point of view, it is dead in the water and we would not support it.”

AAP