Water Sharing Plans
After an intensive RGA lobbying effort, the NSW Water Minister advised the Basin Ministerial Council on 17 December that NSW Water Resources Plans would not be lodged for MDBA assessment and accreditation by the 31 December deadline. The plans will be held up pending consultation with stakeholders on proposed changes to the NSW Water Sharing Plans to address concerns raised in the RGA and other submissions. This is a great result, overturning the NSW Department’s advice to stakeholders on 27 November that the resources plans would be lodged regardless.
Federal Water Minister, David Littleproud, wrote to NSW in mid-January advising that $1 billion would be withheld unless at least one of the 20 outstanding plans was lodged by the new 30 April 2020 deadline. Minister Pavey responded that the plans would be delivered by mid-way through 2020. The consultation process is not yet finalised but we will not be accepting another last-minute, tick-the-box exercise.
Inquiry into management of Murray–Darling Basin water resources, by the Interim Inspector General, Mick Keelty
Federal Water Minister David Littleproud announced this inquiry after meeting Can the Plan rally organisers on 3 December. Victorian and SA Ministers expressed concern about reviewing the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) Agreement, believing it amounted to NSW wanting a larger share of Murray River water. The MDB Agreement predates the Basin Plan. At a very simple level, Victoria and NSW must to deliver 1850GL a year to SA from Murray inflows above Hume and Dartmouth, before allocating water to meet their own entitlements. NSW and Victoria retain total control over water in tributaries such as the Murrumbidgee and Goulburn Rivers.
While the Victorian and SA governments said they would not participate, the inquiry nonetheless got underway immediately after the 17 December Basin Ministerial Council. RGA lodged responses to the online survey, focusing on the scope to review water set aside for conveyance, dilution and loss. RGA’s practical survey responses received positive feedback from the IIG. RGA representatives have attended the IIG Town Hall meetings through January and February, and RGA president Rob Massina met Mick Keelty separately on 5 February.
What’s going on in the northern Basin?
With heavy rain in the northern Basin this week getting the Barwon-Darling River flowing again, RGA is closely monitoring the situation. As of 6 March:
• No floodplain harvesting (FPH) has been authorised on the Barwon-Darling floodplain.
• FPH embargoes have been lifted on Barwon-Darling tributaries upstream, such as the Namoi.
• Embargoes on A, B, and C class river extraction licences have been lifted on the Barwon-Darling as well as the upstream tributaries,
• These licences allow pumping when the rivers are at running at trigger heights, and progressively fall away as river heights fall, first C, then B, then A.
• 205-240 GL is now expected to make it into Menindee, starting to arrive around 10 March.
• This water will be enough to run a minimum flow regime in the lower Darling River for at least 12 months, and supply stock and domestic, as per the water sharing plan.
• The Department will begin releasing water into the lower Darling as soon as possible, but the block banks creating temporary weir pools as an emergency drought measure need to be removed first and they need to plan for water quality issues.
• The situation is literally fluid. More rain is forecast in mid-March.
• We will keep you updated, particularly on when Menindee flows could be expected to translate into supporting NSW Murray GS allocations in the 2020-21 water year.
RGA Water Committee Goals for 2020 - voted by members a half yearly branch meetings
Fourteen potential goals were listed, and taken to the RGA six branch meetings from 10-12 February. The goals were colour-coded in a traffic light system according to ease and/or likelihood of achieving them in the next 12 months. The goals are all consistent with RGA water policy, and are all pursued through submissions and advocacy efforts. The objective of this exercise is to pull out three priority goals for the water committee to pay extra attention to achieving by the end of the year.
Members were asked to rank the goals in order of importance, to inform the water committee’s discussion on choosing the top three to focus on. One member at one meeting asked why the list did not include ‘Fix the Plan’, and another at another meeting, why the list did not include ‘getting more water for GS entitlement holders.
The reasoning is that these are high-level statements when decision-makers will want to know specific actions to achieve them. The list of goals includes specific actions relevant to fixing the Basin Plan and increasing allocations for GS holders.
The results from 90 correctly completed forms are summarised below.
The following four goals are the priorities of the RGA Water Policy committee in 2020.
1. NSW Government support for conveyance losses factored into water traded downstream from source entitlement zone.
Objective: Free up water to increase GS allocations, particularly in dry years.
2. NSW Government to support a review of 2163GL for conveyance, dilution and loss, to identify potential efficiencies to increase consumptive pool
Objective: Increase consumptive pool for all southern Basin states.
3. NSW Murray and Murrumbidgee water sharing plans amended to include 75% of RGA recommendations.
4. Commonwealth to support structural adjustment that does NOT require water entitlements in return for funding.