Regional Australia needs a healthy flowing Murray

Charles says:

08:02am | 14/02/12

There is no science in this Basin plan, there is just ideology.  For some reason Mr Henry thinks that a healthy river is one that runs at a fairly high clip all year round i.e. ~ 4000 Gl per annum), and that this is the new environmental norm for a temperate river in Australia. 

Historically, if he bothered to read anything outside his own propaganda, it would tell him that the Murray river runs wet and dry, and it has experienced protracted periods when there is virtually no water in the system Salt has always been present in the system as it is part of the natural flow of salt via surficial water systems to return to the ocean.  Sturt on his journey down the Murray in the 1830’s found not only was it not flowing (there was a drought even in pre-climate change days), but also that there were water holes in it where the water was too salty for the stock to drink.  Where can you find that today?

The reality is the environmental nature of the rive has changed from what it once was.  Trying to enforce that 4000 Gl/annum flow down it will change it even more from its original characteristic and nature.

The ideal would be for some of our so-called environmentalists to have a basic understanding of what an environment is.  At the moment we have environmental policy hijacked by environmental Luddites for their own base political purposes.  It is a situation which contains many problems that we do not need.

handjive says:

08:44am | 14/02/12

“And it’s up to the rest of us to hold them to account.”

Let’s start with Don Henry. Rewind 2006:

“Mr Turnbull has also endorsed a feasibility study of a plan for piping water from northern NSW to south-east Queensland to solve a looming water crisis.

Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry approved.”

Don Henry, 2012:

” Rain and floods have returned life to many parts of the river system,...”

[ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/households-could-receive-water-allocations/story-e6frg6nf-1111112571329 ]

Gaia holds Don Henry to account as a climate fraud.

Gregg says:

09:16am | 14/02/12

” Some politicians understand. At the start of 2012 SA Premier Jay Weatherill told Adelaide’s Advertiser the Basin Plan would determine the river system’s health for a century. “
It’ll not just be a century but health of the river fullstop and any plan needs to seriously look at the fluctuation in flows caused by weather variation and realise that it is not just a case of how much can be taken out for irrigation to provide food for an increasing number of mouths or how much to leave in for quenching first but what can be done to harness and better manage the flow fluctuations.

We’ve had the Snowy and Lake Hume in place for over a half century now and also Lake Dartmouth on the Mitta Mitta for a couple of decades and so should we also not be looking at storage systems in the more northern areas.

Sure, the terrain may not be anywhere near as suitable where you’ve not got ranges and valleys to be dammed and so that may mean there is just going to have to be more effort put into gouging and using the material for walls instead of just building a dam wall.
If that will alleviate much flooding as well as helping to keep water available for longer than if it spreads out and evaporates/soaks away, it might just give us more for both irrigators and keeping up river flows.

We are continually being told how we have to be smarter and the NBN will help in that regard but all the money being put into the NBN would be far better being put into something that we certainly cannot do without and we do not need the NBN to help on thinking that through.

watty says:

09:35am | 14/02/12

Do your bit Mr Henry.

Get your organisation,the Greens, and all the other Gaia worshippers to drop the “no more dams” crap you have been running for years

Jane2 says:

12:59pm | 14/02/12

The Murray-darling is the lifeblood however we know that before man started messing with its flow it regularly dried up. We know that before they put weres in place, in the 1930’s draught the mighty Murray was so small that a person could leap across it.

The plan is stupid. It ignores what we know is the natural health cycle of the river for a man made cycle that does not in any way resemble what it always has been. [And yes I have read the plan]

If the Greens are really serious about it they should be partitioning for the removal of all dams and weres and let the system flow as it was designed, including becoming stangnant pools in dry years and drying up totally in prolonged draught.

Environmental flows *pffft*

Mickey T says:

01:04pm | 14/02/12

The apathy relating to this article is appalling. Probably the most important issue facing Australia and once again the least commented article of the day.

TheRealDave says:

02:14pm | 14/02/12

I’d vote for ANY party, even the Liberals (*gack*...I feel dirty now) if they could put to the people an actual platform to do some proper ‘Nation Building’ and invesment into the prevention of drought in this country (as one particular issue of nation building I long to see). I don’t really care what it costs to be honest. If we can harvest all this water that falls every year in the north and get it into the Murray Darling system it can only be a great thing not only for central Australia but also the people all the way down the other end in South Australia.

Pipe it, damn it, pump it….whatever. Just get it done. Bradfield had a plan, flaws and all, 80 years ago….stop procrastinating - DO something. I’ll vote for you if you do.

Tony of Poorakistan says:

03:42pm | 14/02/12

You need to hie Downer and Minchin to do the lobbying….

Ray says:

04:57pm | 14/02/12

The best way to have a strong flow in the lower Murray is to remove the barriers that are built across the river in its lower reaches.

Environmentalists should realise that the Murray system would reduce to a trickle for over 99% of the time if it had no storage dams. The proposition to mandate a minimal volume flow for environmental reasons is purely arbitrary.