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Gin Gin dam canned
This letter confirms that the Gin Gin dam project (aka Macquarie re-regulating weir) has been cancelled.
THANK YOU to everyone who supported the campaign by making a donation, writing to the paper, a politician, signing a petition or coming along to an event on the river or a public meeting.
A great result for the river and the criters who rely on it.
Public Meeting – No Lead or Toxic Metals in our Water!
Saturday 17th June, 3pm
Orange Ex-Services Club (Greenhouse)
231 Anson Street, Orange NSW
Public meeting in Orange to discuss the 3 metal mines in the region: Cadia at Orange, McPhillamy’s at Kings Plains and Bowdens at Lue, and the threat they pose to our rivers!
Floodplain Harvesting Flow Targets we’d like to see
In July 2022, then NSW Environment Minister Griffin gave concurrence to changes to three NSW Water Sharing Plans in the Gwydir, Border Rivers and Macquarie-Wambuul Catchments that included rules on how floodplain harvesting would be managed.
When rivers levels dipped below certain heights at specific gauges, floodplain harvesting of water has to stop. These measurements are called flow targets.
Minister Griffin’s own department, the Environment and Heritage Group advised the Minister not to sign off on the water sharing plans, as the targets proposed by Nationals Water Minister Kevin Anderson are so low, they are not consistent with the objectives of the Water Management Act that requires critical human needs and the environment to be prioritised over irrigation.
Despite writing to Minister Anderson to say he would not be signing off on the Plans with the extremely poor targets, Minister Griffin did succumb to the pressure from the Nationals and signed them off.
The Environment and Heritage Group developed a set of preferred flow targets for these water sharing plans. These documents were obtained through a Parliamentary Order for Papers. Here they are.
Have your say on the future of the Belubula River
The Belubula River starts between Bathurst and Blayney, and eventually flows into the Lachlan River. The source of this river could soon be buried under 50m of toxic slurry from a proposed gold mine.
Regis Resources has applied to build a new open-cut gold mine on Kings Plain near Blayney. The mining pit would be 1km wide and 450m deep. A tailings dam wall 1.5km long and 50m tall would hold back a slurry of waste containing cyanide, mercury, lead, molybdenum and many more heavy metals – the tailings from extracting gold from the ore.
Watch a video about this destructive proposal
Submissions to the Independent Planning Commission process are open until December 21st and you can help be downloading this simple submission guide, written by the Belubula Headwaters Protection Group, and having your say.
When the drought returns
With all the flooding around, it’s easy to forget that droughts will be back.
The last drought in the Wambuul-Macquarie was shocking.
Burrendong dam emptied quickly between 2017 and 2019, and soon after, fish and turtles were being rescued from drying green pools of water downstream of Warren.
As the dam approached 0%, plans were made to rescue platypus in anticipation of the river stopping at Burrendong, and Dubbo faced day zero.
But have we learnt our lesson?
No. The allocation settings for Burrendong have not changed. Burrendong dam will be emptied every two years, regardless of the climactic outlook.
The government could chose to consider the droughts that have happened since 2004 when determining water allocations – but they don’t. Here’s what they say:
“After the Millennium Drought, NSW opted not to take a more conservative approach to its water allocations to improve water security for critical needs in the event of a future severe drought. Rather, in the event of the next drought, it was preferred to use other emergency drought mitigation measures to support communities. These include carting water for some domestic uses and restricting access to carryover water in general security licence accounts to meet higher priority needs.
In the wake of the recent drought, there are again calls to reduce water allocations to mitigate the impact of future droughts—that is, to be more conservative in how much water is allocated over a particular period to keep more water in reserve. However, this could potentially have a cost to productivity across non-drought years.” NSW Water Strategy page 88.
The government would rather let the river run dry than reduce water used for irrigation.
Macquarie-Castlereagh Regional Water Strategy
Right now, the NSW government is asking for your feedback on how water is managed in the Wambuul-Macquarie and Castlereagh catchments.
Remember how severe the 2017-2020 drought was? It shook our region.
The best available science tells us the chance of droughts that severe happening again have jumped from one in a thousand years, to as high as one in thirty years.
The river was cut off downstream of Warren town. Insurance populations of native fish, mussels and turtles had to be rescued from drying green pools. The Ramsar listed Macquarie Marshes caught on fire.
Plans were put in place to house rescued platypus, should the dam and downstream river run completely dry.
As Burrendong dam approached 0%, towns like Nyngan and Dubbo came within months of potentially running out of water.
The scramble to find more groundwater that wasn’t contaminated with dangerous PFAFs highlighted how susceptible to water mis-management our communities are.
Wambuul/Macquarie Cudgegong Environmental Water Advisory Group
The Wambuul/Macquarie Cudgegong Environmental Water Advisory Group is made up of representatives from a range of local interest groups, who provide advice on planning, management and monitoring of water for the environment in the mid and lower Wambuul/Macquarie valley.
NSW Nature Conservation Council has been represented on the Wambuul/Macquarie Cudgegong Environmental Water Advisory Group since it’s inception in 2000.
Group Meeting Communiques: – LINK
Meeting summaries:
Media Release: Chance to fix broken water rules in the Wambuul-Macquarie
13 October 2022
The second draft of the Macquarie-Castlereagh Regional Water Strategy is on public exhibition until November 1st.
Two webinars are being held Monday 17th, and Monday 24th. To register, go to the website.
Regional Water Strategies for the state were triggered by the severe 2017-2020 drought, which saw flows in the Wambuul-Macquarie River cut off at Warren, native fish rescued from shrinking green pools, and communities like Nyngan and Dubbo months off ‘day zero’.
The strategy includes climate change predictions that suggest the chances of another severe drought happening again could rise from a one in a thousand year event, to a one in thirty year event by 2070.
Inflows into Burrendong dam could halve in the next 50 years.
Mel Gray, Convenor of Healthy Rivers Dubbo said:
“It’s obvious a lot of work has gone into this strategy over a long time. There are a lot of great innovative ideas, but some worrying ones as well”
“It is irresponsible to keep managing water releases from Burrendong dam based on rainfall data from before 2003. Ignoring the recent unprecedented, severe drought, and allocating water as if it never happened is bordering on negligent.”
“Common sense dictates that enough water should be kept in Burrendong Dam to make sure Dubbo and other communities have enough water to survive more frequent and severe droughts. Town water security is the reason that tax payer money paid for that dam in the first place.”
“The only purpose the controversial Gin Gin re-regulating dam project would serve is to allow even more water to be taken from the river. The significant damage the dam would cause to native fish habitat and the Ramsar Macquarie Marshes is well documented. It’s time to scrap the Gin Gin dam dud of a project.”
“Reducing the size of the flood mitigation zone of Burrendong dam would put Dubbo at a higher risk of being flooded. After the events of this week, it’s ludicrous that this option is even mentioned in the strategy.”
Media Contact
Mel Gray – Convenor, Healthy Rivers Dubbo 0431 471 310
River Community snubbed
Representatives of 22 groups from inland NSW wrote to the Premier in July, raising serious concerns with the government’s floodplain harvesting regulations.
Both the Premier and the NSW Water Minister have refused to meet with community members.
This group is a true representation of the communities who will feel the brunt of the floodplain harvesting policy. The group includes Traditional Owners, floodplain graziers, recreational fishers and tourism operators, as well as concerned regional residents.
Daily Liberal, 4 Oct 22 Healthy Rivers Dubbo’s Mel Gray among 22 representatives calling out Water Minister Kevin Anderson’s ‘controversial’ laws
Excerpt:
Concerns of numerous groups have been ignored after they sent an open letter condemning the NSW Water Minister Kevin Anderson’s floodplain harvesting regulations in water systems including the Wambuul Macquarie river.
The regulations are so divisive that they were disallowed in the NSW Upper House for the fourth time last week, in a vote of 16 for and 15 against.
Healthy Rivers Dubbo 