Conservative Management Costing Productivity

Independent member for Murray Helen Dalton said changes to the management of dams and rivers over the last twenty years is reducing allocation reliability and negatively impacting the environment and staple food production.

Mrs Dalton said dams are now conservatively run based on a 1:100-year dry scenario.

“I believe you can be too cautious when it comes to managing storages and there is definitely a community risk prioritising full dams particularly in wet years- the 2022 floods were exacerbated by full storages,” Mrs Dalton said.

Living in a land of drought and flooding rains, Mrs Dalton said we need adaptive management to allow for flood mitigation in wet years and allocation preservation in drier years.

“We have come a long way with the ability to forecast weather events and with improvements in technology, surely we can manage our dams and rivers better.”

Mrs Dalton said it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a reasonable allocation at the start of each season, because a lot of water stored in our dams is already accounted for.

“Murrumbidgee general security allocations did not reach 100 per cent until February this year, despite the system being in flood for months and months.

“Delays in allocation impact productivity and the longer they go on, the bigger the impact,” Mrs Dalton said.

Poor policy and management significantly impacts the productive sector and consequently the Australian economy.

Mrs Dalton said we must look to the future and with an ever-increasing population, dams and storages must be on the agenda, no matter how controversial the topic is.

And that includes a feasibility study into the expansion of Burrinjuck Dam.

The Burrinjuck Dam wall is now over 108 years old and the expansion of this dam from its present 1,028 gigalitre (GL) capacity to 4,000 GL could provide significant benefits, including potential hydro power and flood mitigation while overcoming cold water issues caused by water releases from valves at the bottom of the dam.

“I believe we should all be advocating strongly for a feasibility study for this proposal along with investigating other storage opportunities.

“We need to prioritise nation building infrastructure in this country and that includes an open and transparent conversation around dam management,” Mrs Dalton said.