SRI chair Chris Brooks said the group was in support of operational rules for the Murray-Darling Basin which included water going into Menindee.
“The fact water has even been able to find its way into the lakes, despite a 142 per cent increase in storages in the north to 1395 gigalitres over the last 26 years, is certainly worth celebrating,” Mr Brooks said.
It comes after the group voiced concerns about what it sees as attempts to divide NSW irrigators, with the expected flows raising questions about how much water would flow into the Menindee Lakes, and how much would be diverted through the lakes system towards NSW Murray irrigators.
Mr Brooks said bypassing the lake system did little to preserve future water requirements for towns and critical needs for the community of Menindee and down the Darling, nor did it support the key principle of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan of a connected river system.
“Water quality along the Darling is already poor, bypassing the lakes will only escalate the severity of current issues including environmental damage, industry impacts and of course the health of the Barkandji who received native title over a decade ago and now have a river with no flowing water.”
He said with storages filled in the north, the volumes now flowing through the system were an indication of just how much volume had been taken from the system by floodplain harvesting (FPH).
Floodplain harvesting — the capture and use of water flowing across a floodplain — is widely used in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.
Southern Riverina Irrigators has complained the use is largely unmetered, unlicensed and unregulated, and has increased over the past 20 years.
“We support licensing of FPH to the 1994 legislated cap level, however, we do not support a 500 per cent carryover in any shape or form,” Mr Brooks said.
“FPH has already decimated the Darling and negatively impacted allocations in NSW Murray and Victoria and it is high time it was brought in line with the 1994 cap levels every other licensed and metered valley operates under.”
While licensing is due to be implemented by July, only an upper house disallowance last October stopped NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey allowing unlimited floodplain harvesting until the system is operational.
The expected flows into the lakes have also received support from Southern Connected Basin Communities spokesperson Sophie Baldwin, who said the group remained unanimous in its support to see water flow into the Menindee Lakes system as per operational rules.
“Any water in this one-in-one-hundred-year flood which managed to escape the 1395 Gl of unmetered and unlicensed storage in the north, and find its way down the system and into the Menindee Lake system is welcomed,” Ms Baldwin said.
“After all, a key principle of the basin plan is a connected river system and that goal cannot be achieved without water stored at Menindee.
“Industry, environment and communities along the Darling have suffered more than their fair share of heartbreak and destruction, particularly over the last 10 years at the hands of increasing, unlicensed and unmetered floodplain harvesting.”
Southern Connected Basin Communities represents groups and individuals from the Darling River through the Riverina, along both sides of the Murray and Goulburn rivers and into South Australia.
