The New South Wales Office of Water says it will be extremely hard to deliver the environmental water that has been identified for the Murray Darling Basin.
The revised draft Basin Plan released last week still wants to return 2750 gigalitres of surface water to the environment each year.
The state’s Water Commissioner David Harriss says there are going to be problems in nearly every river valley getting that water to icon sites.
“Certainly to meet the large volumes from regulated flow in the lower reaches of the Murray River is going to be exceptionally difficult,” he said.
“It’s going to be trying to line up high flows in the Murray, the Murrumbidgee, the Victorian tributaries, out of the Goulburn and water coming out of the Menindee Lakes.
“And that’s never been done before, it’s going to be extremely difficult.”
Dams along the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers are being mooted to store environmental water for icon sites in the Murray Darling Basin.
The New South Wales Office of Water says it is investigating mid river storages downstream of the main Murray and Murrumbidgee irrigation areas.
The state’s Water Commissioner David Harriss says the move could limit flooding of upstream land when the incredible volumes of water intended for return to the environment are made.
“In the Murrumbidgee we’d be looking at areas like Tom Bullen storage and that sort of stuff,” he said.
“In the Murray Valley you’d be looking at, ‘Can water be stored in the Euston Lakes?’
“What benefits are there because they’re downstream of the Barmah-Millewah choke.
“But there’s limited capacity in those lakes, compared to the major storages you’ve got high up in the catchment areas.”
New South Wales is ruling out the compulsory acquisition of land which may be flooded by environmental flows for icon sites in the Murray Darling river system.
Mr Harriss says the New South Wales government has made clear its position about how the problem should be addressed.
“They want access to flooding land to be either negotiated or compensated,” he said.
“There should be no compulsory acquisition of water and there should be no compulsory acquisition of land or floodplain easements to provide that water.
“It should be all through negotiation.”
