State Govt dithering loses Lower

Lachlan water, says Hodgkinson

RESIDENTS of the Lower Lachlan River are fuming because the State Government failed to make timely decisions on the release of water from Wyangala Dam after December’s spin-off rainfall from tropical cyclone Laurence, says Nationals’ MP, Katrina Hodgkinson.

Government dithering means the valuable water flow cannot be reinforced by further releases from the dam, claims the Member for Burrinjuck and Shadow Minister for Natural Resource Management.

“Rainfall from the cyclone, falling in the Lachlan catchment, boosted the Wyangala Dam storage by 2 per cent to about 6.3 per cent and also put an estimated 8 gigalitres of water into the river below the dam wall,” she says.

“This extra rain was very welcome, but the Lachlan River bed was so dry that barely a quarter of a gigalitre made it as far as the Lake Brewster storage and Booligal has received no water at all.

“The State Labor Government stopped continuous flows of water in the Lachlan River, below Condobolin, on November 1, 2009, after the water level in Wyangala Dam fell to 5.5 per cent.

“Residents of the Lower Lachlan River were pleading with the Office of Water to bring forward the release

“But the inability of the . . . Government to make quick decisions meant that the release of 20 gigalitres into the Lachlan River did not start until January 21, almost a month after the tropical cyclone Laurence inflows into Wyangala Dam.”

Ms Hodgkinson says Lower Lachlan residents are fearful they have lost their only chance of getting water down the whole length of the river because the Government was too slow to reinforce the water flow generated by cyclone Laurence.

“As a result, it is unlikely that Booligal, Coorong and Oxley will receive any water until there is another large rain event,” Ms Hodgkinson says.

“Once again, State Labor has failed residents in regional New South Wales, because of its inability to understand the effect of the continuing drought.

“State Labor delayed waiving fixed water charges for the Lachlan River for years before being forced to try and match the NSW Liberals’ and Nationals’ commitment – now we have to deal with another failure.

“State Labor just can’t be trusted to deliver sensible decisions and policies to support regional NSW during the ongoing drought,” she says.