148 GL: The River receives its due and more is promised.
Yes, 148 GL and that is water for the environment.
Yes, 148 GL and that is water into the Lakes.
“The River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc (RLCAG) will be watching for each precious one of those 148 GL to arrive in Lakes Alexandrina and Albert,” said Professor Diane Bell
“We will see the difference as the water levels rise. We should see salinity levels fall. About 25 hectares of exposed shore will be covered. The fresh water will be blown across the still exposed soils and help to keep them alive. Every drop counts. We know that from the regrowth from the rains of late last year and whatever rain we get this year.”
“It is not clear how this water will be shared between the lakes because they are separated by a bund. Lake Alexandrina is currently at about 0.9m below sea level and 148 GL would bring us to about 0.6m below sea level. Lake Albert is at around minus 0.7m and in dire straits.”
“This water is too late in the season to see spectacular impacts but, by Spring 2010, we should reap the benefit of this water in terms of the capacity of the ecosystem to recover. So this water is part of a larger process.”
“The decision to deliver 148 GL of fresh water to the environment puts off the building of a weir across the River Murray below Wellington at Pomanda Island and should silence calls to open the barrages and flood the lakes.”
“It appears there is now a better understanding that the Murray-Darling system must be administered as a whole and an acknowledgement that because rivers die from the bottom up, the health of the Lakes is critical to the health of the whole system.”
“But it also appears we still do not have an independent authority that can manage this complex interconnected system in the interests of the River as a whole. Come the next flood will we be scrambling again and watching another stand off between states and, what happens if the next flood is after the election?
Prof Bell is completely wrong in saying that the 148GL will make the water levels in the Lakes rise. At best it will only arrest the decline which is happening already in this dry season due to evaporation. This has been acknowlegded by Karlene Maywald and Prof Mike Young. Salinity levels will almost certainly still increase. As for the fresh water being blown across the still exposed soils and keep them alive, I have news for her. The old lake sediments which were previously covered by water for thousands of years are pretty much completely dead, and will not regenerate vegetation like the band of soils which were first exposed as the levels went down. (The latter were covered with the higher water levels when the barrages were put in, and did not have time to form a huge reserve of sulphidic materials). The older soils are rapidly turning highly acidic and will not respond to revegetation unless they are dosed with enormous amounts of limestone - the amounts required are astronomical, and there is no way it could be done in the time required.
The 148GL is a drop in the bucket, and has not diminished the need to return the Lakes to an estuarine condition. Please look up our website with an open mind, and stop clinging to the fresh water only “solution”. It will only lead to devastation of the Lakes. What is no happening to Lake Albert is a precursor to what will become of Lake Alexandrina if present trends continue. So, I am sorry, there will be no silencing of calls to open the barrages.