It is the ultimate in hypocrisy for the Commonwealth government to be insisting farmers give back water under a new planning scheme to save the environment, while continuing to pocket millions from water wasted by Snowy Hydro for derivative trading on the electricity market.
LAST night on ABC Television’s 7.30 Report, journalist Bronwyn Herbert explained how water was released from Eucumbene Dam by Snowy Hydro for electricity generation at the height of flooding in the Murrumbidgee late last year. At the time Eucumbene Dam was at less than 30 percent capacity while the lower storages were spilling. In releasing the water for non-essential electricity generation, Snowy Hydro not only contributed to the flooding, but was wasting water, water that could have been stored for the next drought. Lake Eucumbene is the central storage for the entire Snowy scheme with the capacity to hold the equivalent of nine Sydney Harbours of water.
Since June 2001 when Snowy Hydro Ltd was incorporated, the corporation’s priority has been revenue generation for its shareholders through electricity generation. The shareholders are the Commonwealth, Victorian and New South Wales governments.
During the recent drought years Snowy Hydro waters contributed to about 60 percent of inflows to the Murrumbidgee and 30 percent of inflows to the Murray River. But then and now, there is no imperative for the management of these waters to complement or accord with water allocations within the Murray Darling Basin.
Given Snowy Hydro’s shareholders are the government, it would seem sensible that these shareholders apply some pressure to the corporation and at least encourage the Managing Director, Terry Charlton, to operate the electricity generating business responsibly.
[Read more…] about Questions over Snowy Hydro Water Management
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.