A new website, Myth and the Murray, went live yesterday. Myth and the Murray is designed to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy on Murray River issues and I’m hopeful that it will be supported with a newspaper advertising campaign – more on this soon.
In small societies, when one or a few individuals start to say something that others don’t what to become general knowledge a known tactic employed by many on the left in Australia is to simply ignore the new information. Shelley Gare explains how it works in this podcast…
http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2010/08/death-by-silence
Gare makes reference to an investigation of the Hindmarsh Island Affair. Diane Bell, an American anthropologist from the University of Adelaide, was involved in the campaign to stop the bridge connecting Hindmarsh Island to the mainland and Bell is behind the current push for more freshwater for the Lower Lakes.
Listen to the podcast to get some idea what those of us advocating a saltwater solution for the Lower Lakes are up against.
Of course the Murray River has not been lost to salt, or drought, or over-allocation, and there is a simple environmental remedy for the Lower Lakes – letting in the Southern Ocean.
If you want to know more visit:
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
another one bites the dust
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/murray-darling-basin-authority-chief-executive-rob-freeman-quits/story-fn59niix-1226054731046
Yes it’s a worry isn’t it?
First the chairman went and now the CEO.
They must be trying to re invent the MDBA?????
Looks like they may have lost their ‘independant’ status?
Hopefully they might pay more attention to that ‘end of system flow’ problem?
Keep up the good work Jen.
The website looks great.
Jennifer,
Sorting through some old e mails today when looking to put something on the new website today re Peter Marsh figures on evaporation re the Lower Lakes I came across this e mail 1/09/2009.
I have finished reading the article by Dr. Morohasy. It was a particularly good read and does put a slightly different perspective on things. I wonder if it was written today in 2009 as opposed to 2003 if some of the trend comparisons she makes would be different. I do agree with her overall thrust that before we can begin to solve any problems, we first need to identify what itis we are trying to acheive. I agree with her that the differentiation between deciding on a “natural” waterway versus a “healthy regulated” one should be the strarting point. Unfortunatly, this step is ignored and we go headlong into the declining etc saga. Personally, I think that returning towards “Natural” may be good for the river in the long term, but disastrous for the economic activity we have come to enjoy as a consequence of our activities on the river. If our economists could come up with a method for delivering a stable economy in the face of a declining population, we would have this problem licked. Unfortunately, it seems the only way forward is to grow,grow,grow.
The system has unfortunately caused him to lose his desire to continue. I know the time and effort he has put into his vision and that is why I will not let it go. Well it is now 2011 what would you have written.
exactly what is the “economic activity we have come to enjoy” Sean?
John,
I have lost contact with Peter as he has moved. The Alexandrina Coucil just like the S.A. Govt. their policy is freshwater. Personally the people in the Lower Lakes has got used to a pool level 0.75mm. It’s good for boating and tourism you only had to compare the difference between the 2011 Wooden Boat Festival (entry was free) because of the disaster in 2009 and the houseboat activity between Lock 1 and the Murray mouth. I met Peter in January, 2009 when the S.A. Govt. came to Goolwa for their first public meeting. I presented Peter Croft from the Dept. of E&H at the meeting suggesting 1. A Lake Entrance idea 2. West Lakes with pipe entrance opposite Salt Creek ( Grange in Adelaide ) and the outlet Murray Mouth ( Port River in Adelaide) the answer was no immediately. Peter Marsh scored a meeting later with his idea of opening the barrages with a Lock at Swanport. We had a few more meetings which led Peter to read the Walker Report on the Murray Mouth which led to a revised proposal of leaving the barrages and pumping sea water over the Tauwitchere barrage into Lake Alexandrina to try and achieve a stable water level around 500mm and making Lake Albert a transit lake into the Coorong and extra flow towards the Murray mouth. The Goolwa barrage to have opening gates, opened on alternate low tides to allow a vigorous outflow help keep the Goolwa and Tauwitchere Channels clear.
Good for you Sean,
You are attempting to get SA to recognise that they have a problem there and that more fresh water from the Eastern States is not the best solution. (Especially when there isn’t any during low inflow sequences!)
Using the extra option that is available there (ie the Southern ocean) and combining it with smart technological solutions would seem to be the smartest answer.
There is a complete report here of the industries that depend on elevated fresh water lake levels here http://download.mdba.gov.au/AppendixC_SA_River_Murray_below_Lock_1.pdf and is probably the ‘economic activity’ Dr. Marsh was referring to.
In a nutshell, there is dairying, horticulture, beef cattle, marinas, lifestyle properties, tourism, freshwater carp harvesting below Lock One. All depending upon the elevated freshwater levels maintained by the barrages.
Thanks Susan,
I must admit I start cringing when I read from the guide to the plan.
Notice how they keep making unsupported statements about rising salinity and also how it’s all caused by reduced freshwater flows from the Murray?
Gee….I wonder why that happened? Maybe because there was a drought?
Next question…now that the lakes have had an awesome flush….is the salt and sediment problem any better?
Answer…well no, not really.
Even when we go to their references there is no decent reference to uphold their claims about salinity in particular.
The obvious problem is that the area has grown and there wasn’t enough back up infrastructure planning done to support that level of growth.
Not much different to what’s happened upstream really.
There is also a myopic insistence that because the lakes are listed as ‘freshwater’ under Ramsar then that is the only possible outcome.
Stay on it Susan.
We need more people like you.
Notice the reference list… You might recognize a name or two as a ‘personal comment’ as documentation.
Yep, certainly do.
It is also apparently the ‘best available’ information according to the MDBA.
ROTFL!!!hahahaha!
Nepotisim is a word that springs to mind.
Meanwhile the carp are merrily swimming around in the crap that the flush delivered you.
I can’t find any justification for the supposed economic activity they refer to. Most is centred around the river above Wellington. The winegrowers at Langhorne and Currency Creeks have been fixed up with the pipeline as have the eastern lake dairy farmers with 167km of pipes feeding them.
The only real industry associated with the lakes is tourism and fishing.
The commercial fishing takes place in the saltwater section, the Coorong and makes the only reference to the barrages
Surely opening up the barrages would assist the fishers and expand the industry. It must also expand the tourism, boating and recreational fishing industries based around Goolwa as well.
How they make the claim “the health of the Lakes and Coorong
are critical for the life and culture of the Ngarrindjeri people” baffles me – surely they were a saltwater community for the 40,000 years prior to 1940.
I like ‘baffles me’ too.
I am becoming convinced that ‘baffling’ was definitely a primary goal!
They get around the Ngarrindjeri problem by using the Ramsar listing. (It’s freshwater remember)
We’re supposed to be so impressed (or baffled?) that we don’t remember that indeed they must have often been a saltwater community prior to 1940.
None of it changes the fact that ‘mother nature’ has just stepped in and delivered an awesome flush (that upstream storages could never hope to emulate) and salt and sediment problems are still there, some of them are now worse.
So therefore (if we weren’t being baffled) it would appear that flushing is not going to solve that problem?
John,
I believe the Dairy Farmers are on potable water supply, they either were not asked or considered the cost of connecting to the irrigation pipeline to costly. The Jervois to Cuurency Creek side of the Lake has both irrigation and potable.
We Californians face complex and controversial water issues too. Take the Salton Sea (SS), in the extreme Southern part of our fair state.
The SS is a low spot in the desert, because of the San Andreas Fault that runs directly beneath it. Like Lake Eyre, sometimes it has contained water, at other times, not. Due to unusually high precipitation in the early part of the 20th Century, the local rivers overflowed their banks, and formed the lake again. Since then, agricultural runoff, from irrigation water, ‘imported’ from rivers in Northern California, has maintained the lake.
And that’s in issue in its own right. Many years ago, I remember seeing some revealing graffiti in a restroom in Seattle, Washington:
“Flush twice; Los Angeles needs the water.”
Anyway, the SS has become a small scale tourist destination for two legged visitors–with and without feathers. Understandably, there are concerns about the increasing salinity. Ironically, without large-scale agriculture in the Imperial Valley, the SS would still be nothing more than a big hole in the ground most of the time, and there would not be an environmental issue in the first place.
Exactly Larry – same with the lower lakes, had there not been barrages “there would have been no environmental issue in the first place”.
Hi Sean
Thanks for your question.
I am proud that my 2003 monograph ‘Myth and the Murray’ has stood the test of time so well. http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/449/myth-and-the-murray-measuring-the-real-state-of-the-environment
You ask would I change anything… since the drought, and with the new guide I am now of the opinion something serious needs to be done about the Lower Lakes and their reliance on freshwater from upstream.
You were ahead of me on this one.
John,
Blanchetown is the first weir on the river upstream of the barrages, so everything between Wellington north to Blanchetown depends on the Lakes’ level. I’ve read that the lakes need to be held at their full pool level of +.75mAHD to hold the river level up for the irrigators between Blanchetown and Wellington to gravity feed their irrigation systems. Some of them may have piped alternatives, but I’m not sure.
This dairy farmer does have recently piped SA water, but he claims it’s too expensive and wants to let his cows drink from Lake Albert as soon as possible http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/state/niche/general/farmers-struggle-under-rising-water-costs/2126270.aspx?storypage=0 . Remind me why I’m paying a premium to SA Water for their pipelines?…
You would think the local Coorong and Lakes Fishery would appreciate an enlarged estuary, but since over 50% of their catch comes from the Lakes freshwater species, mainly carp, then you can see why they’re happy to see the carp cash cow continue. That’s their ‘multi-species’ , award winning sustainable advantage, hmmmm? … http://www.coorongfishery.com/
Apparently according to historical interviews with Goolwa local fishers, the lakes were barren of fish for two years after the barrages where built until the freshwater species began to filter into the lakes.
It’s getting a bit complicated with everyone having a vested interest in how the lakes have been maintained since the 1940’s.
Susan,800
It will be a while yet before Lake Albert reaches potable level ( 800 ec ) currently between 6757 to 7019 EC.
Hi Jennifer,
In mine and many others (including the Federal Government and the SA Government) opinion you are wrong as
per normal, Minister Bourke’s Media Release today http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/18/3220040.htm
Your comment, “Diane Bell, an American anthropologist from the University of Adelaide” I think you will find Diane Bell is an Australian who worked in the USA.
Hi Debbie,
It’s good to be back on a blog, the MDBA I don’t believe was ever independent!
Hi Sean,
Much sense from Peter Marsh.
Hi John,
Oh come off it the, “economic activity we have come to enjoy” the area referred to wrongly as the, “Lower lake” really the Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and the Coorong pump some $500Million into SA’s economy.
Hi Sean,
Leave them fresh!
Hi Susan,
Very minimal European Carp harvesting below Lock 1 and ther are two European Carp Licences available with no takers for at least a decade!
Hi Debbie,
The salinity problem is in the Southern Lagoon of the Coorong!
Reference, “Meanwhile the carp are merrily swimming around in the crap that the flush delivered you” the professional fisherpersons below Wellington are catching minimal Carp!
Hi Jon,
You say, “The commercial fishing takes place in the saltwater section” that’s crap accepting for Coorong Mullet from the saline Coorong!
Anytime you would like to visit the Lakes please let me know and I shall procure the right people to talk to, my contacts are on my web site http://www.psmithersmyriver.com
Hi Debbie,
Your comment, “We’re supposed to be so impressed (or baffled?) that we don’t remember that indeed they must have often been a saltwater community prior to 1940’ we remember or my relations do as when the inflows into the MDB were low seawater did evade the Lower sections of the River Murray – estuarine!
Hi Sean,
Most dairy farmers have now reverted to using the Lakes water and it must be realised that about 100 dairy farmers from the irrigated swamps have gone.
Hi Jennifer,
It was not correct at the first printing as you said the water for Adelaide comes from near Morgan but it really comes from Mannum about 150K’s downstream.
Hi John,
The costs to some water users – irrigators – using the SA Water supply would be in access of $100K per year so Lakes water is far more economical. Also please look at my web site –Lock Zero link – and if it was constructed the River level could be maintained at +0.4 or +0.5 AHD and all functions along the Lower River Murray would be OK!
And the premium is not for pipelines but the SA Government’s crap management and now the desalination farce!
Your wrong about the catch as well as Golden Perch there are Black Bream, Coorong Mullet and as I said before minimal Carp.
Hi Sean,
Now the Feds are ensuring the Narrung Bung is being removed hopefully the EC level will drop and I should have Donna’s report within a couple of weeks.
Peter,
It must be the Lake Alexandrina Dairy farmers, Lake Albert is too salty at approximate average of 6,500 EC. In South Australian some farmers near the Lower Lakes are looking for alternative supplies with little success. The cost of mains water has risen from $1.88 kilolitre 12months ago to $2.48/kl. Poltalloch mixed farmer Clem Mason whose proper is the shores of Lake Alexandrina said meetings with SA Water and Minister Paul Caica had only concluded that prices would continue to rise. Peter do you know why the farmers you mention were not included in the irrigation deal? The State & Federal Governments put in $94 million and irigators $13 million you would think the farmers would have been offerred some sought of deal seeing the Governments had put so much in.
Of course the carp are in short supply in Lake Albert they paid thousands of dollars to get rid of them. Finally I notice that Ewe Island ( 2957 EC ) and Pelican Point ( 2957 EC ) much better than Lake Albert and today at 4.00pm the Goolwa Barrage levels U/S 0.551 mm and D/S 0.966 mm.
Hi Sean,
The irrigation deal, as you refer to it, was for a pipeline to Currency Creek vineyards, the cost I believe was $112Million most supplied by the Federal Government. It was only for Currency Creek irrigators the farmers who relied on Lake Albert where allowed to source water from the SA Water pipeline but as you say the cost is just far too much. I believe there are some using Lake Albert water and as I have a Lower River Reference Group meeting later today I will check.
Peter,
It was for irrigators between Jervois and Currency Creek . I still want know if the Governments put in $94 million were the farmers offerred a deal ( $13 million )like the irrigators e.g. they would have to raise $5 million. They could have used the same trench while laying the potable pipelines.
Hi Sean,
My apologies there is no irrigation from the waters of Lake Albert and all of the irrigators are paying $2.48 per kilolitre and in July that price will increase to $2.75 per kilolitre. Reference other irrigators ie dairy farmers using water piped from the River Murray, when the pipeline was put in place most had already exited the industry and those remaining couldn’t afford the prices.
Peter,
You’re trying to keep all those carp to yourself aren’t you….;-)
In 2008/2009 there were 792 tonnes worth $863,000 harvested from the Lower Lakes and Coorong Fishery.
http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/137844/Lakes_and_Coorong_Final_Report_100616.pdf
Check out figure 3.3
And these figures don’t count the 2009 Carp’o’rama fish off in 2009 when the government offered local fishers $500,000 to clear Lake Albert of carp.
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200912/s2760029.htm
Hi Sue,
I do not want any Carp, thank you all I am doing is passing along information.
I wish I had know about that, “the 2009 Carp’o’rama fish off as I would have entered as I ran the biggest freshwater fishing competition, “Mannum Big River Fishing Competition” at Mannum for a decade!
Hi Peter,
It was only open to ‘commercial’ fishers. At $4.00 a kilo everyone in Adelaide would have been in the lake getting stuck in the mud trying to catch them.
I kind of like the Carp’o’rama name though. The official name was, “Strategy to minimize fish deaths in Lake Albert”. Maybe I can help Minister Caica with his marketing strategy next time.
http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/118723/22_9_Fish_Down.pdf