Brumby Set to Steal
Water from the Murray
(Or, don’t buy a
used car from this man)
4th August
2008
The June inflows to the Eildon Dam
and MDB were the lowest on record this year. Should the dry conditions
continue, the system is heading into a crisis in a way that Victorians
have never experienced before. Contingency plans are already being drawn
up in the irrigation districts to supply stock and domestic water on a
needs only basis. (See graph one and two)
Several weeks ago Mr Brumby quite rightly made the
statement that there was very little water in the system. Mr Brumby has
also repeatedly said that the ‘Foodbowl Savings’ (New Water) supplying the
North South pipeline will be available every year that the irrigation
system is run. The Premier’s words are coming back to haunt him as the
catchments’ must receive substantial inflows before an irrigation
allocation is even made. Inflows to the Eildon dam are so poor that the
irrigation system may not be run or will have a dramatically reduced
season this year.
Last year the
situation was saved in the 12th hour by a freak rainfall event
that precipitated the Gippsland Floods and provided substantial inflows
into Eildon and Thomson Dams. The ramifications of the on going dry will
see the Premiers ‘New Water’ from Foodbowl savings fall yet again from the
record lows of last year. The likelihood of the North South Pipeline
receiving any more than a puff of dust from irrigation savings has
dramatically increased.
What does all this mean for the Murray River? If the
North South Pipeline is built the Brumby government will go into the 2010
election with a billion dollar pipeline and no water, a politically
untenable situation. How is the Brumby government solving this
problem?
The Brumby government intends to borrow
billions of litres of environmental water from the Murray Darling Basin to
supply the North South pipeline. Much of this borrowed environmental water
will be sourced through the federally funded Living Murray water savings
program as well as existing MDB environmental reserves. (See slide
one)
Using the Premier’s own logic, the possible water
savings from the Foodbowl project are declining because irrigation seasons
have been cut short over the last few years. The prospect of the system
not running at all this year is also placing significant pressure on the
government to borrow more water from the environment to feed the states
new pipelines.
In the first year after construction the Bendigo
Goldfields Superpipe would have supplied very little water to desperate
Bendigo if the government had not made available 10 billion litres of
environmental water from the Eildon
water quality reserve.
The Premier is trying to perform a slight of hand
trick with water and is attempting to con the people of the Murray Darling
Basin along with his fellow labor governments.
Sources:
Graph One. Inflows into
Eildon –
The
Foodbowl water savings of 450 GL are based on 115 year average inflows.
The reality is that saving of these levels can’t be achieved because the
climate has changed.
Source
GMW
Graph Two. Inflows to the
Murray System –
record low Murray inflows.
Source GMW
Slide
One.
Water to be taken from the
Murray - The Shepparton and CG1234 projects are substantially federally
funded from Living Murray and Water for Rivers programs. This water will
be redirected via the North South pipeline to supply Melbourne in a time
of MDB crisis. The North South pipeline will also use water from the
Eildon water quality reserve which is normally used to maintain the water
quality in the Goulburn and hence Murray River. The qualification of
environmental flows will also be needed to supply the 75 billion litre
North South Pipeline because the potential recovery of Foodbowl savings is
dwindling due to the ongoing dry conditions. Source
DSE.
Footnote :
From the above slide, the
Brumby government must accumulate significant amounts of ‘water savings’
this year to ‘carry over’ if the North South pipeline is to have adequate
supply on construction in 2010. The catchment inflows have been so bad
this year that this will be impossible in the 2008-2009 season from
irrigation savings. The supply of water to the North South pipeline will
therefore have to come from environmental
reserves.
MEDIA
CONTACT:
Ken Pattison 0427 534158