Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Opinion

Interim Findings from Water Inquiry

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‘INDEPENDENT MP Tony Windsor has raised three interim findings from his House of Representatives Murray Darling Basin inquiry, highlighting the potentially detrimental impacts of the “Swiss cheese effect” of water buy backs on irrigation districts.   Mr Windsor, as Chairman of the Regional Australia Committee, which is conducting the inquiry, has written to Water Minister Tony Burke and Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean raising the Committee’s concerns.

‘In doing so, the Committee has asked that more strategic buy back arrangements be considered as a matter of urgency.

‘As well as highlighting the “Swiss cheese effect”, the Committee has also raised unanimous concerns about the impact of the current taxation arrangements on irrigators, resulting from water reform such as grants for investments in water efficiency.

‘Concerns have also been raised about implications of the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s consideration of overbank flows in their modelling of water requirements on environmental icon sites and in consultation with stakeholders, opportunities for engineering alternatives.

More here: http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/windsors-mdb-concerns/2078438.aspx 

And via: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_188277774537703&id=189701537728660

Exotic Disease Threatens Australian Eucalyptus

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Exotic diseases represent a significant threat to Australia’s unique fauna and flora.

Dramatic declines in frog numbers in the 1970s were initially blamed on habitat destruction associated with logging.  It was not until twenty years later that the disease Chytridiomycosis caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was positively identified and is now officially recognized as the cause of four species extinctions.  The disease is thought to have spread from Africa.

The Myrtle rust is an exotic disease from South America with the potential to infest many Australian native plants including Eucalyptus.  The disease was first detected in Australia on the Central Coast of New South Wales in April 2010.   Recently it was found in southeastern Queensland.   In an attempt to stop the spread of the disease it is rumoured some National Parks could be closed to visitors.

[Read more…] about Exotic Disease Threatens Australian Eucalyptus

Questions over Snowy Hydro Water Management

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 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

Formal Request to audit BOM and CSIRO Climate Data

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A team of skeptical scientists, citizens, and an Australian Senator have lodged a formal request with the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to have the BOM and CSIRO audited.

The BOM claim their adjustments are “neutral” yet Ken Stewart showed that the trend in the raw figures for our whole continent has been adjusted up by 40%. The stakes are high. Australians could have to pay something in the order of $870 million dollars thanks to the Kyoto protocol, and the first four years of the Emissions Trading Scheme was expected to cost Australian industry (and hence Australian shareholders and consumers) nearly $50 billion dollars.

Given the stakes, the Australian people deserve to know they are getting transparent, high quality data from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). The small cost of the audit is nothing in comparison with the money at stake for all Australians.

Jo Nova is part of the team, more details at her blog:  http://joannenova.com.au/2011/02/announcing-a-formal-request-for-the-auditor-general-to-audit-the-australian-bom/

Bronwyn Herbert Investigates Snowy Hydro

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Before the recent flooding, there was much lamenting about how there is never enough water in the Murray Darling Basin for both irrigated agriculture and also the environment.   Yet in all this discussion no consideration has been given to the more integrated management of Snowy Hydro waters with management of water allocations within the Basin proper.  

Over 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.   

Since its corporatisation, the priority for Snowy Hydro has been electricity generation and so now, while the catchments are flooding, water is being taken by Snowy Hydro from Eucumbene Dam and sent through turbines before being released into Blowering Dam which is spilling into the saturated Murrumbidgee catchment.  

An alternative management arrangement that gave precedence to water storage over electricity generation would undoubtedly see water being stored during this period of high flows in anticipation of the next drought. 

Given the high inflows over recent months it is indeed extraordinary that Lake Eucumbene, the central storage system for the Snowy Hydro scheme, remains at less than 30 percent capacity and that water is being drawn from this storage for electricity generation.

Bronwyn Herbert has been considering these and other issues and her investigation will feature tonight on the ABC Television 7.30 Report*. 

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*The program can also be watched from your computer http://www.abc.net.au/iview/?gclid=CJaDoMLCiacCFQU3pAod5DUydQ#/series/7.30%20Report?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=CORP_srch_iview

For background on Snowy Hydro scroll here: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/tag/snowy-hydro/

The Cost of Reducing Carbon Emissions

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‘MORE than $5.5 billion has been spent by federal governments during the past decade on climate change programs that are delivering only small reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. 

‘An analysis of government schemes designed to cut emissions by direct spending or regulatory intervention reveals they have cost an average $168 for each tonne of carbon dioxide abated.

‘While some have reduced emissions cost-effectively, many of the more expensive schemes are exorbitant ways of tackling climate change, costing far more for each tonne of carbon avoided than any mooted emissions trading scheme or carbon tax.

‘The worst offenders have included the Labor government’s rebates for rooftop solar panels, which cost $300 or more for every tonne of carbon abated, and the Howard government’s remote renewable power generation scheme, which paid up to $340 for each tonne of carbon.

‘By contrast, the proposed emissions trading scheme blocked by the Coalition and the Greens in the previous Parliament was expected to put a price on carbon of $20 to $25 a tonne in its early years…

Read more here: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-cash-goes-up-in-smoke-20110214-1atnh.html 

[Climate cash goes up in smoke, Mark Davis and Lenore Taylor, The Age]