Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Murray River

What to Listen to, Read, and Action This Week

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 1. The truth about water planning in the Murray Darling Basin:
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/water-issues/axe-murraydarling-plan-and-start-again-us-expert-20110304-1bi62.html

2.  Marian Wilkinson reports on the tough political decisions ahead in the fight over the biggest water reform in Australian history. “Backlash in the Basin” goes to air Monday 7 March, 8.30pm on ABC 1. It is replayed on Tuesday 8th March at 11.35 pm.  http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/

3.  Protests in each city are being organised against the Carbon Tax on Wednesday March 23. 
For more information:

Stop Gillard’s carbon tax page  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_113660108709587#!/pages/Stop-Gillards-Carbon-Tax/197122506973202

 Revolt against the carbon tax page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_113660108709587

 Petition against the carbon tax page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Gillards-Carbon-Tax/197122506973202?sk=app_4949752878

4.  And later this week I will be posting more on electricity generation from Tony.

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Consider this an open thread.  Let other readers of this blog know what you are watching, listening to, and reading, this week by way of a comment.

And consider donating to the continued operation of this blog.   There is an orange button at the top right hand corner of this page.   Much thanks to those who have made a donation recently.

This blog is about community, and access to information.  Information that is not politically correct or even fashionable…  But hopefully well considered.

What to Listen to, And Read, This Week

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Here is a clever video about what is wrong with government’s latest planning scheme for the Murray Darling Basin.

Interestingly Topher has quoted extensively from my 2003 monograph ‘Myth and the Murray: Measuring the Real State of the River Environment’.

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Consider this an open thread. Let other readers of this blog know what you are watching, listening to, and reading, this week by way of a comment.

And consider donating to the continued operation of this blog. There is an orange button at the top right hand corner of this page.

This blog is about community, and access to information. Information that is not politically correct or even fashionable… But hopefully well considered.

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

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

Parliament to Finally Admit Water Act Unbalanced?

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On the pages of The Australian Financial Review on November 16, 2010, Sydney barrister Jospehine Kelly wrote that:

“No one in federal Parliament is being honest with the people of the Murray-Darling basin and the Australian pubilc.  The Water Act puts the environment first when allocating water to the basin. 

“Social and economic considerations are not relevant to deciding how much water the environment needs.  Water available for human use is what is left…”

Today Senator Barnaby Joyce forced a Senate inquiry into the Water Act with the support of independents Senator Fielding and Senator Xenophon.  The inquiry is to determine whether in fact the Act does provide an equal balance between economic, social and environmental factors – or not.

[Read more…] about Parliament to Finally Admit Water Act Unbalanced?

What’s Not Important to Murray River Modellers

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I stayed in a house by the Murray River just upstream from Barham in the Central Murray Valley in November 2007.  Every morning I drank a large glass of water from the kitchen tap; water that had been pumped straight from the river.   The water tasted fine, and I didn’t get sick.   

In the afternoon, I sometimes swam in the river.  It was deep and there was often a strong current because water was being released from Hume Dam.  

The bird life was especially amazing, with wood ducks on the river, cockatoos and galahs on the lawn, superb blue wrens amongst the roses and red-rumped grass parrots in the red gums.

According to Penny Wong, then Minister for Climate Change and Water, the two-year period to November 2007 recorded the lowest ever inflow to the Murray River.    Inflows during that period were 43 percent lower than previous record lows which occurred at the end of 1938. 

[Read more…] about What’s Not Important to Murray River Modellers