Hurry Save The Murray!

The SA Government is requesting the the federal government reconsider the matter of the so-called “Flow Regulators in the Goolwa Channel and tributaries” and vary the existing decision so they can pump ‘environmental water’ from Lake Alexandrina to the “Goolwa Lake’.  They cite EPBC 2009/4833 as the federal decision they wish to vary.

The Request does not specify amounts of water to be pumped or provide a schedule for pumping but rather asserts there will be no impact on Lake Alexandrina. The Request has enraged locals who challenge the basis of the request and the claims being made for the ‘flow regulators’.

‘It is difficult to know where to begin with a critique,’ said Professor Bell who listed the following flaws in the SA Govt proposal in her submission.

* The Request is not consistent with s. 78 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

* Contrary to the Request, the action was declared a ‘Controlled Action’ by the decision of the federal minister on December 18, 2010 (EPBC 2009/5227).

* The Request claims there has been a substantial change of circumstance that could not have been foreseen in the original Referral. [It has rained and flood waters have made it to Lake Alexandrina.]

* The Request asserts but does not provide rigorous science support, that the regulators have improved conditions in the Goolwa Lake. Look at the graphs in the submission of John Yelland, graphs from the SA Govt own website, which prove that salinity levels have increased in the so-called ‘ecological refuge’.

* The Request constitutes piecemeal planning and should not be considered in isolation of other planned actions. It should be part of the impending EIS under Referral EPBC 2009/5227.

In the meantime the rain continues. Lake Alexandrina is refreshed. The salinity in the ‘ecological refuge’ created by the construction of the dam/regulator at Clayton Bay soars. Why this Request now? Why was no-one warned the Request was being made? ‘We learned of it 5 days into the 10 days period allowed for public comment and had to put all else on hold to get our submissions to Canberra,’ said Bell.