Lake Cargelligo lives: Greens MP thanks water allocating Premier - 22 February 2010

Greens MP Ian Cohen is today congratulating Premier Keneally for interceding in the Lachlan Critical Water Advisory Committee and securing flows for Lake Cargelligo to fill the system back to 30% of capacity.

“The decision to start prioritising flows for the neglected wetland system at Lake Cargelligo is a great win for the local community, who have suffered at the hands of poor decision making,” says Mr Cohen.

“I have obtained the minutes of the Lachlan Critical Water Advisory Committee under Freedom of Information and those minutes – which should be publicly available – raised a suspicion that critical human needs and the environment have not been prioritised.”

“The Advisory Committee at a meeting on the 25 August 2009 recommended that regulated flows from Wyangala would need to be restricted downstream of Lake Cargelligo in late October. At the next meeting on the 28th September 2009 the Committee had changed its recommendation to restricting flows at Condobolin. While Wyangala Dam did drop .5% in that month, it is clear the savings from restricting flows at Condobolin rather than Lake Cargelligo did not compensate the decline in Wyangala levels.”

“What is even more concerning is that the Advisory Committee recommended a 10% allocation for high security users because in the words of the Committee ‘the mines rely upon trading’ and ‘the available water for purchase would be high security’. The Committee also argued that Jemalong Irrigation be provided with a conveyance allowance of 1000ML so it can trade surface water (upstream only) to the mines and reduce the impacts on the groundwater Barrick Gold extracts from.”

“According to the Minister for Water and water trading data Barrick Gold has to date acquired approximately 17 percent of all high security water allocation for 2009/10. Maybe if the advisory committee had a representative from lower Lachlan water users in the same way Barrick Gold has a representative on the Committee, the Committee would have found a more equitable way to manage the severe water shortages.”

“While the intervention of the Premier is something that should be applauded there are clearly unresolved problems in how we manage water in times of extreme shortage and drought. I hope that the current NSW Inquiry into Water Management closely examines management in the Lachlan over the last 12 months and learns from the mistakes made. We need increased transparency and openness for critical water advisory committees and water trading markets to ensure fairness for all water users.”