Proposed Basin Plan consultation report

Issues relating to broader water reform

Many submissions covered issues dealing with the broader water reform process — for example the need for a review of river operations, the Australian Government’s water buyback program, minor and major infrastructure, and land management issues relating to water.

MDBA has provided copies of submissions raising broader water reform issues to the relevant Australian government or state agencies that are responsible for those issues. Many of the issues are also considered in MDBA’s recommendations contained at the front of this report.

River operations review

This section covers issues relating to the river operations review proposed in the lead up to 2015, including how constraints are addressed, the potential for environmental works and measures and suggestions for augmenting water supplies.

169.Issue

Submissions commented on the need to review river operations. This was a theme common to submissions seeking better environmental outcomes from the Basin Plan, and from submissions seeking reduced impacts on the irrigation sector. Issues to be addressed included revised operational rules to allow for optimisation of consumptive use and environmental outcomes; addressing physical constraints to water delivery for example through purchasing flood easements; and support for new works and measures to improve efficiency, such as installing regulators at particular wetlands to achieve wetland inundation from less water than the volumes required for overbank flows.

RESPONSE

MDBA considers there is scope to make changes to river operations across the Basin to allow for more effective and efficient delivery of environmental water in conjunction with water for irrigation and towns. MDBA considers this a high priority for future action. MDBA notes that possible actions in this area are the responsibility of governments. In this context, MDBA is working with Basin states and the Australian Government to develop a work program to investigate options and assess their potential for adjusting SDLs and improving environmental outcomes from the Basin Plan.

MDBA is committed to ensuring there are opportunities for community engagement in this work program, which is expected to be rolled out over the next three years and will inform the 2015 review of SDLs.

Constraints

170.Issue

Some opposing views in relation to constraints were received.

Some submissions expressed the view that MDBA had not addressed constraints yet, so the environmental outcomes could not be achieved and as a consequence the proposed 2,750GL/y reduction is inappropriate. Submitters who addressed this issue commonly referred to the Barmah Choke as a constraint on delivering water

Others suggested that activity was already underway to address constraints. As a consequence, water could be delivered more efficiently to the environment, so less reduction in consumptive use of water was required.

RESPONSE

MDBA has taken existing system constraints into account when proposing SDLs as discussed in the response to issue No. 118.

While MDBA is investigating what can be done to address some of these constraints, many of the constraints are outside the scope of the Basin Plan and will need the cooperation of Basin states and the Australian Government to address. MDBA and Basin states are undertaking further technical assessments to investigate, and where possible address these constraints. Community consultation will be an important element in the development of any proposals to address constraints.

171.Issue

Submissions expressed the view that constraints were not a relevant limiting factor to environmental flows in the northern Basin, and the Darling River in particular. Some referred to floodplain graziers and other landholders in the northern Basin who have shown willingness to offer flood easements on their land. The submissions suggested that higher environmental flows could possibly be achieved in the northern Basin.

RESPONSE

MDBA recognises the different characteristics, and largely unregulated nature, of the northern Basin. Barriers to delivering environmental water in the northern Basin are generally related to the physical connectivity of the rivers. MDBA has considered these characteristics in its determination of SDLs for the northern Basin.

Further work to explore what can be done to improve environmental flows in the northern Basin will need to take these characteristics into account.

In consultation with the Queensland and NSW governments, MDBA is developing a work program for the northern Basin to consider what opportunities there are for new works and measures, changed river management and operational practices, improved methods of delivering water, new knowledge, and other proposals to assist in achieving Basin Plan outcomes.

The Northern Basin Advisory Committee will provide advice on environmental watering, improvements in scientific knowledge and issues specific to the northern Basin.

Environmental works and measures

172.Issue

Submissions suggested that MDBA should use environmental works and measures or rule changes to deliver water to the environment more efficiently and effectively to offset the need to recover water from consumptive use so the 2,750 GL/y reduction in diversion limits could be reduced.

Some of these submissions mentioned works and changed operations at Menindee Lakes as an example. Other submissions mentioned the review of river operations envisaged by the recent Windsor inquiry, the removal of delivery constraints in various parts of the river system, and the inclusion of more environmental works and measures.

‘...the review should include the substantial offsets that can be provided by reviewing the operation, maintenance and management of public infrastructure such as the barrages at the Lower Lakes and Menindee Lakes’

Alternatively, some submissions suggested that any additional efficiencies arising from such actions should be used to improve environmental outcomes or a combination of improved outcomes and reduced water recovery.

‘The MDBA should conduct a systematic assessment of the feasibility, costs and benefits of redesigning river management operations and infrastructure to deliver ecological outcomes, followed by a prioritisation of works & measures’

There were yet other submissions that identified that the benefits of the rules review, and especially from addressing delivery constraints, could lie in the ability to re-examine the balance between environmental and social and economic issues in the determination of the ESLT, which would be likely to result in a lower SDL.

‘Engineering solutions and environmental works and measures are critical to the delivery of a balanced outcome for the Basin’

Submissions proposed that the range of options for reviewing river operations should be implemented as soon as possible, and that SDLs should be prepared on the basis that these efficiencies had already been realised.

It was submitted that the proposed 2015 review should be used as an opportunity to improve the Basin Plan, not simply to increase SDLs. Some expressed concern that the review—including environmental works and measures, and rules changes—might result in environmental outcomes being eroded as the SDLs were adjusted.

Some also mentioned the need to develop a robust and transparent method for evaluating any SDL adjustments owing to works, measures, and changes to river operations or improved environmental watering.

RESPONSE

MDBA strongly supports the exploration of opportunities for more efficient river operations, such as through consideration of environmental works and measures, river management rules that balance environmental and consumptive outcomes and the most effective and efficient use of environmental water.

Environmental works and measures on their own will not be able to deliver some of the key objectives of the proposed Basin Plan, such as increasing the frequency of floodplain inundation or providing additional watering events during extended dry periods. However, targeted works could play a role in overcoming system constraints, enhancing environmental outcomes under the proposed Basin Plan and, in some cases, might enable an increase to SDLs.

The proposed Basin Plan includes a proposed review of SDLs in 2015. This review will consider the contribution new works and measures, changed river management and operational practices, improved methods of delivering water, new knowledge, and other proposals to advance the objectives and outcomes of the Basin Plan. This review will include a robust and transparent assessment process to evaluate the impact of any possible SDL adjustments.

MDBA agrees that river management arrangements need to change to deliver environmental water more efficiently and effectively. Consequently, MDBA is working with Basin state governments on a river management review work program. This work program will include opportunities for community input.

This work is detailed and complex and will involve the resolution of many issues including third-party impacts, legal liability and detailed modelling of options. Basin states have the responsibility to set operational rules and policies in their jurisdiction and will need to be full participants in this work. MDBA is actively working with Basin states on these issues, including progressing the river operations review agreed by Ministerial Council in November 2011.

The Australian and New South Wales governments are in negotiations regarding the implementation of the Menindee Lakes Water Savings Project. Any impacts on SDLs as a result of this project will be considered in the 2015 review.

173.Issue

Submissions argued that environmental outcomes could be better addressed with works, projects or measures to improve the condition of various sites, thus reducing the need for more water to be taken from consumptive use.

Some submissions put forward proposals for infrastructure projects to improve the condition of the Lower Lakes, including proposals to extend existing south-east drainage programs, to refurbish the Lake Albert channel, and to improve flow between the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. There were also submissions seeking removal of the barrages, and the delivery of lower flows to the Murray Mouth.

Some of these submissions mentioned proposals for measures to address barriers to fish movement, deteriorating water quality and disconnection of floodplains.

RESPONSE

MDBA concurs with the general view expressed in these submissions that achieving a healthy working Basin requires more than restoring volumes of water. The complementary management of this water through improved river management practices and infrastructure is an important part of achieving improved outcomes.

However, given the-time consuming nature of implementing infrastructure projects, including ensuring that community viewpoints are received and considered, progressing major environmental infrastructure projects prior to the finalisation of the proposed Basin Plan was not possible.

To address this issue, the Basin Officials Committee is developing a work program of activities, which will complement the 2015 review of SDLs, to explore opportunities for infrastructure projects to improve the condition of rivers and wetlands. The work program, being developed in cooperation with Basin states and the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, will provide an opportunity for locally-driven solutions to be brought forward and considered as part of the further assessment of how much water is needed to meet environmental watering requirements across the Basin.

In relation to changes at the Lower Lakes, Murray Mouth and Coorong, suggestions received in submissions are responded to in issue No. 118 and 174.

Some submissions suggested that the Basin Plan should include provisions to incorporate the benefits of infrastructure projects without requiring an amendment of the Basin Plan for them to be recognised in terms of their ability to change the sustainable diversion limit (SDL) (i.e. ‘change the gap’). Given the concerns about the amendment process in the Act, MDBA is exploring whether a workable option could be developed that would allow SDL adjustment without amendment, at least for a subset of measures.

The 2015 SDL review will allow a comprehensive reassessment of the SDL, however, it can encompass the contribution new works and measures, changed river management and operational practices, improved methods of delivering water, new knowledge, and other proposals can make towards achieving Basin Plan outcomes.

174.Issue

Submissions referred to the desirability of projects to improve the condition or water availability in the Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth.

Some included proposals to improve the condition of infrastructure in the Lower Lakes, to construct a new break-wall at the Murray Mouth or to set priorities in the maintenance of the barrages and other infrastructure in and around the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. Most of these proposals were aimed at promoting a predominantly freshwater environment, particularly in Lakes Albert and Alexandrina.

On the other side, some believed that the Lower Lakes and Coorong should be more saline. This idea was usually accompanied by the opinion that the barrages should be permanently opened and that a new regulator should be constructed at the bottom of the River Murray (above the Lakes), with pipelines extending from either side of the river supplying water from above the new regulator for urban and agricultural use.

RESPONSE

There is strong scientific evidence to support a view that before European settlement, the Lower Lakes were predominantly freshwater lakes. It is true that construction of the barrages has significantly changed the ecology of the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth, particularly in times of drought. However, because of the level of upstream diversions in the Basin, simply removing the barrages would not reinstate the Lower Lakes to their original condition. Water used for agriculture and town water supplies has significantly reduced flows from natural conditions, and it would be neither practical nor desirable to stop these activities.

Some proposals intended to improve the environments of the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth do not involve removing the barrages or increasing flows. These are being investigated by Basin state governments and a variety of other groups and people interested in improving the health of the region.

The 2015 SDL review will consider what contribution can be made towards achieving Basin Plan outcomes by carrying out new works and measures, changing river management and operational practices, improving methods of delivering water and developing new knowledge and other proposals to advance the Plan’s objectives. This includes consideration of works and measures and alternative operational practices for the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth.