Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Opinion

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.

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

Snowy Hydro Not Contributing to Flooding

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Communities along the  Murray and Murrumbidgee face more rain and more flooding, and there have been accusations, particularly from Leeton farmer David J. Linsday,  that the situation is being exacerbated by bureaucratic incompetence, in particular, by Snowy Hydro releasing water into already flooded rivers, water that could be filling Lake Eucumbene. 

I phoned Snowy Hydro this morning and put the various accusations that have been filling my email inbox to them.

Paul Johnson assured me that there is nothing Snowy Hydro could do to reduce the flooding because most of the rain is falling below Lake Eucumbene and Snowy Hydro does not have the capacity to pump from the lower reservoirs, for example from the Blowering or Burrunjuck dams, into Lake Eucumbene. 

Mr Johnson confirmed that Lake Eucumbene is only at about 20 percent capacity; and that the Lake is enormous with a capacity nine times Sydney Harbor.

Mr Johnson also said that water in the higher reservoirs, for example Lake Tantangara, that could be diverted to Lake Eucumbene was being diverted to the lake rather than to the lower reservoirs.

The forecast is for more rain and already 35 council areas in NSW have been declared natural disaster zones.  Crop losses are significant and global wheat prices continue to climb.

UPDATE: 

I got it wrong.  To find out what happened after I posted this short note, read  http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2010/12/bureaucratic-flood-damage

When Half the World Population…

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“ENVIRONMENTAL policy isn’t just about the environment, it’s also about people. And it isn’t just about a future nearly impossible to predict, it’s also about what is happening today. When half the world population today does not have access to reliable supply of energy, to talk of problems that may arise 50 or 100 years later and call for reducing consumption is a hard political sell. Green activists almost always forget this. Political leaders do so at their own peril.”

Mr. Mitra is director of the Liberty Institute, an independent think tank in New Delhi, and a columnist for WSJ.com.