'RIVERS NEED ESTUARIES' CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
December 16th 2011
Biologist and AEF member Dr Jennifer Marohasy launched the AEF campaign, 'Rivers Need Estuaries' to have the current MDBA draft plan completely revised to prioritise restoring the Murray River estuary.
Dr Marohasy announced that the campaign’s petition would call on the federal parliament to recognise the estuary should be restored by re-engineering or removing the 7.6 kilometres of barrages, in part or whole, to allow inflows from the Southern Ocean.
The AEF maintains that restoring the estuary through removal of the barrages should be the priority of the basin plan as it would allow for savings of hundreds of gigalitres of water currently used to maintain artificial levels of freshwater in the Lower Lakes.
Over 800 gigalitres (equal to 800,000 Olympic swimming pools) evaporates from the Lower Lakes each year.
“Communities are being asked to give up further large amounts of water to prop up this badly managed Lower Lakes system that has been degraded by the barrages since they were completed in 1941.
“The current MDBA draft plan fails to address this fundamental issue.”
The peer-reviewed scientific literature [1], unlike many recent government reports, recognises that the barrages have destroyed the estuary.
The campaign has the support of communities across the basin as they face further cuts to water allocations without any specific environmental benefits yet articulated in the draft plan.
The Rivers Need Estuaries campaign petition to be tabled in the House of Representatives details the major objectives of the campaign.
This petition of concerned citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House:
Despite past dire predictions, the Murray Darling Basin has not been lost to salt or drought. However, upstream water storages are not large enough to keep the Lower Lakes supplied with adequate freshwater during protracted drought. Furthermore, the 7.6 kilometres of concrete barrages that created this artificial freshwater system have destroyed the Coorong-Murray River estuary.
The petitioners request that the Australian parliament recognise that:
1. Restoring the Coorong-Murray River estuary must be a priority in any Murray Darling Basin Plan.
2. The estuary should be restored by re-engineering or removing the barrages in part or whole to allow inflows from the Southern Ocean.
3. Adelaide's water supply can be secured by building a lock downstream from Tailem Bend.
THEREFORE – We petition the members of the House to act to restore the natural estuarine environment of the Lower Lakes and Coorong.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh has encouraged community members to have their say about the plan while the MDBA community consultation period is in progress. This is an opportunity to add your voice to other community members and have a say.
The online version of the petition can be signed here.
Print copies of the petition are available in many communities or it can be downloaded here. Individuals and communities are encouraged to print and distribute the petition and when completed, return to PO Box 7 Bingara NSW 2404 by April 30th 2012.
Fact sheets and posters for distribution in your community can be downloaded from the links.
For any queries on the Rivers Need Estuaries campaign email AEF at info@aefweb.info
[1] Bourman RP, Murray-Wallace CV, Belperio AP, Harvey N. 2000. Rapid coastal geomorphic change in the River Murray Estuary of Australia. Marine Geology, 170, 141-168
SEA WILL SAVE THE MURRAY RIVER'S MOUTH
This article by Dr Jennifer Marohasy published in The Australian highlights the key issue missing from the current draft MDBA plan - addressing the false premise that the Lower Lakes must be maintained as an artificial, man-made freshwater lake system.
"Later this year the government will release a plan that is supposed to place the Murray-Darling on a sustainable environmental footing, and already $10 billion has been set aside for the plan's implementation. But if the guide released last year gives any indication of what to expect, then it will do nothing to restore that part of the system most affected by agriculture and most in need of saving: the Lower Lakes and Murray mouth, once the Murray River's estuary.
The estuary was destroyed when 7.6km of concrete barrages were built across the bottom of the Murray in the 1930s. If nothing is done about this enormous structure there is no guarantee water will get to the Murray's mouth even if South Australia gets the 4000 gigalitres it is demanding as part of the water reform."
MILDURA MDBA MEETING HEAR FROM ANGRY GRAPE GROWERS AND TONY BURKE
Around 250 people attended the MDBA meeting held in Mildura on February 10th which was well down on expectations. Approximately 800 chairs spread over several rooms in the venue had been readied for the turnout.
Growers were crititcal of the timing of the meeting during the harvest.
The generally well-behaved audience became agitated in support of one speaker would not give up the microphone until his questions had been answered. The facilitator turned off the speakers microphone - so he just raised his voice until Environment Minister, Tony Burke wisely intervened to take his question.
Over a hundred people added their signatures to the Rivers Need Estuaries campaign petition prior to the start of the meeting.
DENILIQUIN CLOSES DOWN FOR MDBA MEETING
3000 people attended the MDBA meeting in Deniliquin on December 16th out of a local population of around 10,000. Speakers gave compelling accounts of how the draft plan, if implemented in its current form, would have a devastating effect on the Deniliquin community. The crowd was a very representative cross-section of the community with teenagers in school uniform, tradies in work gear, business owners and their staff, farmers and retirees.
The standout speech of the meeting was not from a politician or a farmer, but from Finley High School principal Bernie Roebuck.
MEETING UNANIMOUSLY REJECTS THE MDBA PLAN IN ITS CURRENT FORM
Everyone present rose to their feet at the Deniliquin meeting to support the meeting resolution to reject the MDBA plan in its current form.
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SIGN THE PETITION!
Sign the Petition
TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN FOR A SENSIBLE BASIN PLAN
- Send the online petition link above to your networks.
- Click on the link below to send an eCard to all Federal MP's
- Download copies of the printed petition, posters and fact sheets for distribution in your community.
- Make a direct contribution via the PayPal button on the left to help spread this campaign right across the MD Basin.
FURTHER INFORMATION ON MURRAY DARLING WATER ISSUES
Lakes Need Water
Myth and the Murray
Murray Darling Basin Authority
Rivers Need Estuaries
Measuring the real state of the environment
SEND AN e-postcard NOW TO FEDERAL MP's CALLING FOR ACTION!
Click here to send one of three e-postcards to all Federal Members of Parliament bringing to their attention the need to return the Lower Lakes to a natural estuarine environment.
UPCOMING MDBA PUBLIC MEETINGS
The MDBA have released details of upcoming community meetings during February.
Come along and have your say about the MDBA proposals for the Basin and sign the AEF petition.
Swan Hill
Wednesday, 22 February, 1-4pm
Swan Hill Church of Christ
The Grain Shed
2-8 King Street
Swan Hill VIC 3585
Renmark
Friday 9 March 2012
1-4pm
Greek Orthodox Community Hall
Twentyfirst St, Renmark
Open houses are currently being organised for Albury (7 March), Wangaratta (8 March), Echuca (15 March), Deniliquin (15 March), Hay, Dubbo and Forbes - further details will be provided shortly.
RIVERS NEED ESTUARIES PETITION STRONGLY ENDORSED AT DENILIQUIN MDBA MEETING
The RNE campaign petition's first public airing was at the Deniliquin MDBA meeting on Friday December 16th.
Two 50 metre long lines of people queued to sign the petition before entering the Deniliquin Racecourse for the meeting with federal environment minister Tony Burke and MDBA chairman Craig Knowles.
1350 people of an estimated 3000 attendees signed one of the six petitions operating simultaneously until organisers ran out of petition forms.
TALKING TURKEY, BUT NOT ABOUT THE BARRAGES
Columnist for The Land Jennifer Marohasy says many organisations involved in the Murray Darling basin issue are acting like turkeys voting for Christmas instead of drawing a line in the sand to represent their constituents. Read more
HOW MUCH WATER IS ENOUGH FOR THE MURRAY?
AEF member David Leyonhjelm writing in several rural newspapers poses the question and points out the escalating demands of different groups over the last few years from 1500GL to demands now of over 4000GL to be returned to the Lower Lakes.
THE GREAT URBAN MYTH: THE MURRAY RIVER IS DYING
If it is accepted that the Millennium Drought and the floods that swept it away are a manifestation of the environment that we live in, and that the corresponding recovery is a part of the natural cycle, it becomes difficult to reconcile that reality with the urban myth the Murray is dying and MD Basin water is poorly managed and allocated.
Undoubtedly management could be improved, particularly the use of environmental water and the egregious management of the Lower Lakes.
Professor John Briscoe of Harvard University who was invited to participate on the MDBA High-Level External Review Panel noted in his submission into the senate inquiry on the Water Act 2007:
“The environmental vote was important in the election of 2007. After seven years of drought environmental conditions were poor, not least in the Murray Darling Basin. The electoral arithmetic of Australia is such that most of the electorate live in the coastal cities. Most city dwellers have both little knowledge of the land and water environment of the world’s driest continent, and a paternalistic and dim view of farmers and agriculture.
He who could capture the environmental vote would strongly improve his chances in the election. Most environmental minded voters were Labor. If the Liberal Party were to woo some away it had to do something dramatic. The Water Act of 2007 was one of the dramatic efforts.”
Embedded in that analysis is one of the current drivers of the flawed draft MDBA plan – politics.
It is noteworthy in this last drought that the Murray did not run dry, as has previously been the case and the Living Murray icon site, the Barmah-Milliewa forest received the largest environmental watering event ever – in the middle of the extended drought.
During much of the drought, farmers received little or no allocations of water, as water is allocated to agriculture only when it is available.
The drought was not without harsh consequences for basin communities and the environment, this however is the nature of drought and our environment. Many urban residents, inflamed by alarmist predictions about the state of the basin environment seek to lay blame for these consequences looking only through the prism of unattached and uninformed perspectives.
One such perspective not lost on basin residents is that there will never be enough water available in the basin to stop adverse impacts of drought.
If we are to understand the real state of the environment, we need to focus on the fundamentals. And we need to look at realities, not myths.
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