Jan Beer, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper
The Feasibility of Relaxing Constraints in Northern Victoria Final Report has been released by Victorian Water Minister Shing. The report recommends proceeding to the next phase of the Constraints Measures Project, which will involve the development of a detailed business case. This will be the third attempt by the Victorian Government to provide a workable business case.
However, investigations by Minister Shing’s own department for the Victorian Constraints Measures Project, which includes the Goulburn River and northern Victorian Murray reaches (Hume – Yarrawonga and Yarrawonga – Wakool) shows constraint relaxation is neither feasible nor technically achievable with no beneficial impacts from relaxation of constraints beyond Torrumbarry due to attenuation and evaporation.
Modelling as undertaken by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), Department Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and University of Melbourne for hydrological outcomes of the feasibility study clearly stated, “The observed difference between the current and relaxed constraint scenarios”¦ decreases downstream of Torrumbarry and the Wakool Junction.”
And, “This reduction at the higher flow levels reflects the geographical nature of the mid-Murray section and the Edward-Wakool section where water needs to travel through the flat and wide landscapes once water goes beyond in-channel pathways. Therefore, the peak of events is largely attenuated by the time it reaches to Wakool Junction.”
The Constraints Strategy is the vehicle devised by the MDBA to deliver the extra 450GL. Constraints are seen as anything that prevents high flows of environmental water being sent down the river systems from upstream storages such as Eildon and Hume Dams, all the way to the Murray Mouth. These constraints are river operating rules, public and private infrastructure, such as levees, roads, bridges, pumps, even privately owned floodplain farmland is seen as a constraint.
“Relaxation” of constraints is the removal of the above to allow the delivery of man-made manipulated overbank environmental flood flows, which in the Goulburn system is proposed to occur 7 years out of every 10 years.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is fundamentally a politically motivated plan, with the Constraints Management Strategy (2013) devised by the MDBA, in order to deliver greater volumes of environmental water downstream, with the aspirational assumption of achieving “enhanced environmental outcomes” predominantly in the Lower Murray and South Australia.
It has been conceded by the Draft Feasibility Report that the majority of the environmental objectives in Part 2AA Section 86AA of the Commonwealth Water Act 2007, cannot be achieved by relaxation of constraints.
The feasibility study’s Hydrological Outcomes document stated, “The beneficial environmental impacts of relaxing constraints in the mid-Murray and Goulburn tend to decrease with increasing distance downstream of the Barmah Choke. Modelling suggests relaxing constraints will result in no change in the frequency of environmentally desirable higher flow rates in the Murray River at the South Australian border under all relaxed constraints scenarios tested in this stage of the Victorian CMP,” (Constraints Measures Project).
It is morally reprehensible to recommend proceeding with a project that is therefore not feasible, in that it cannot achieve the legislated objectives, such as keeping the Murray Mouth open 95 per cent of time without dredging.
It is obvious that Minister Shing has received another pot of money from Minister Plibersek in order to continue what can only be described as morally deplorable and contemptible considering the billions of taxpayers’ dollars that will be spent to acquire an extra 450GL of environmental water that simply cannot be delivered via the technically unachievable relaxed constraints strategy.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 11 July 2024.
