30 Mar 2016
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority is expected to release the Northern Basin Scientific Review in the coming months. The Authority initiated the investigations because the information available in the Northern Basin for the preparation of the Basin Plan was not as well developed as that used for the Southern Basin. The 2012 Basin Plan set limits on the amount of water that can be taken for irrigation, town supply and other industries for each catchment in the Northern Basin to ensure that environmental needs for rivers and groundwater can be maintained.
The investigations are to assess whether these limits need to be changed thereby altering the amount of water that has to be recovered either through the buy-back of irrigation entitlements or investment in on-farm water use efficiency measures. The investigations have focused on the Condamine Balonne river systems. Currently over 45,000 megalitres is still to be recovered from surface flows and an additional 82,000 megalitres water has to be recovered from the Northern Basin to improve flows down the Darling River to the Southern Basin. Over 40,000 megalitres also has to be recovered from the Condamine groundwater aquifers to achieve Plan targets. To implement the Basin Plan the Authority must complete water recovery programs by 2019 thereby allowing new water plans to be implemented in all of the Basin catchments including those in the Northern Basin.
Recovering water to achieve these targets or adjusted targets by 2019 is expected to raise significant challenges. Irrigators in the Lower Balonne continue to ask for the best available scientific analysis of the environmental benefits that will be achieved through the recovery of 100,000 megalitres in their area. It is expected that the buy-back program will have impacts on Basin communities within Queensland, particularly western communities based in
St George and Dirranbandi.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority must allow sufficient time to engage with catchment communities on the findings of the Northern Basin Scientific Review. The Authority must also work with Queensland Government agencies to develop revised catchment plans in the Queensland catchments.
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