Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for December 2010

Save Lake Eucumbene’s Frogs

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ANGLERS fishing Lake Eucumbene in late October 2010 were pleased to see that the rising waters of the lake had created perfect spawning conditions for the frogs. 

Frogs were in abundance and their future was assured through this massive spawning event, or so we thought.

By early November the water in the lake ceased rising and began to fall, yet the State was in flood and the rains continued, how could this be? 

More importantly anglers watched as the frog spawn was left high and dry.  The baby tadpoles yet to hatch suffered a miserable death by dehydration.  Caring anglers scurried around the lake margin; lifting spawn blobs and putting them back into the water, only to see the whole miserable cycle continue as the waters relentlessly receded. 

How many frog larvae died we will never know, but the receding waters killed far more frogs than any number of trout possibly could – even the deadly chytrid fungus would have been hard pressed to match this slaughter.

For the whole of November an early December the rains fell, the State flooded but Lake Eucumbene continued to fall. 

[Read more…] about Save Lake Eucumbene’s Frogs

City Deal That Led to Water Waste: Ross Tyson

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“AN ARCHAIC agreement hatched in the air-conditioned suites of a Sydney office block has exposed the kind of chronic mismanagement at government level that is driving local farmers to the point of despair.

“The revelation this week that Snowy Hydro is sending millions of litres of water downstream every day into overflowing dams and flood-affected towns along the Murrumbidgee River has left irrigators dumbfounded.

Read more at Area News.

  [Read more…] about City Deal That Led to Water Waste: Ross Tyson

Government to Finally Act on Bureaucratic Flooding

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FINALLY, last night, the NSW government agreed to change Snowy Hydro Licence conditions which required water to be released into the already swollen Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers –exacerbating the current flood crisis.  

The article in today’s The Australian newspaper (page 7), indicating licence conditions will be changed, quotes Terry Charlton, CEO of Snowy Hydro, denying that recent flooding was exacerbated by licence conditions.

This comment from Mr Charlton is disingenuous, contradicts comment he made to me in a telephone conversation yesterday, and also comment he made to former employees of Snowy Hydro at a meeting in Cooma on November 25, 2010, that even though Blowering and Hume dams were spilling, Snowy Hydro still had to release water from Lake Eucumbene because of licence conditions.

How Much Should One Frog Eat?

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THE green tree frog, with the white lip, that I fed last night is currently asleep outside my kitchen window.  

Last night she – I call her Emily – ate four grasshoppers, two moths, one bush cockroach, one click-beetle, but refused the squirming earthworm I held out for her.

I understand it is easy to overfed a frog.  

There are lots of grasshoppers in my veggie garden at the moment which I can easily collect during the day and keep alive in a container for Emily when she wakes up around 7pm.   But, how many should I feed her each night?  

Picture taken by Neil Hewett of a frog like Emily in the Daintree.

And please, spare me the response from the public servants – who for mostly just sitting on their bums each day get money regularly fed into their Sydney bank accounts – that Emily should actually go hunting for her own food in the wilds of the adjacent nature reserve.

Snowy Hydro Wants Changes to Licence Provisions to Avoid Exacerbating Flooding

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TERRY Charlton, CEO and Managing Director of Snowy Hydro, confirmed with me this morning by telephone that Snowy Hydro has been making water releases that may have exacerbated current flood conditions in the Murray Darling Basin because of licence conditions imposed by the NSW Office of Water. 

Mr Charlton told me that he wrote to the NSW government on April 21, 2010, and raised the potential issue in the licence, the requirement for Snowy Hydro to repay water immediately inflows climbed above a specified long range value.

As recently as last night, December 13, 2010, Mr Charlton was still in talks with the NSW Office of Water asking that this provision in their licence be changed.

“The NSW government appears unable to make any decisions,” said Mr Charlton.

“The situation is ridiculous.  We are frustrated.   Late last week we pulled back on the water releases but this potentially puts us in contravention of our water licence,” said Mr Charlton.

Snowy Hydro Must Immediately Stop Exacerbating the Current Flood Crisis

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Murrumbidgee Valley Food and Fibre Association (MVFFA) is appalled to learn that Snowy Hydro has been releasing water ostensibly as part of its environmental flow obligations that can only have exacerbated the current flood crisis.

This bureaucratic incompetence was uncovered by Dr Jennifer Marohasy and detailed in her article published by Quadrant on Saturday.

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2010/12/bureaucratic-flood-damage

After ringing up to ask a genuine question, she was given the most amazing “run around” by the water bureaucracies.

MVFFA can confirm that similar questions have been asked by several of its members and they have also been stonewalled.

“We all knew that something was not right up there in the mountains but we couldn’t get a straight answer out of anyone”, said Mrs. Christine O’Callaghan, Public Officer for MVFFA.

“I have been trying to ring the two separate departments for over a week and could only get to those nice women who answer the phones. I have left messages for both David Harris (Snowy Hydro Limited) and David Harriss (NSW Office of Water).

 “I was asking the same questions that Dr Marohasy was asking.”

 “It is very fortunate for all of us that Dr Marohasy recognized that something was odd about the answers she was given and that she was tenacious enough and concerned enough to get to the bottom of it” said Mrs Debbie Buller, President. “At least we now have some answers.”

 “MVFFA calls for an immediate cessation of all environment flows into all catchments downstream from the Snowy Hydro System.

 “They are sending out water into dams that can’t store it, into river systems which are in major flood, through environmental assets which are already flooded.”

 “There is not one ounce of common sense or sensible water management here”, said Mrs Robyn Schmetzer, Treasurer.

“Why on earth aren’t they diverting every single drop possible into Lake Eucumbene to help alleviate the flood crisis?

“Eucumbene is the central reservoir in the Snowy system and is only 25% full, leaving a huge storage potential.

“The Snowy system was built to not only generate power but also as a storage system to help manage the excesses of our variable climate.”

Media enquiries to Debbie Buller on 0414374312