UPDATED 6.15PM: BROKEN Hill community leaders want work to stop on the $500 million Murray River pipeline as trouble from Monday’s Four Corners water expose continues to lap at state government’s door.
Local Councillors voted on Wednesday night for a moratorium on the project – a 270km link to pump water to town from the Murray River – while also demanding a business case be presented to justify the pipeline’s existence.
But Local MP Kevin Humphries – the former state water minister – told the ABC today the council was “poorly informed” and not interested in water security.
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Council’s vote, however, echoed the skepticism of western pastoralists, who said this week the issues raised by the ABC’s Pumped investigation had taken local water concerns “to a whole new level”.
“It raises the question as to whether a decision to build the pipeline was taken by Government in response to realisation that management of water extraction from the Barwon-Darling was out of control, and too difficult to fix,” Pastoralists’ of West Darling president Lachlan Gall said on Tuesday.
Locals had previously called for the $500 million government cash to be spent on other Far West NSW projects .
A spokeswoman for NSW minister for regional water Niall Blair said an average of 420GL was lost to evaporation each year in the Menindee Lakes due to the dry, hot and windy conditions.
“From 2012 to 2015, three summer wet seasons failed in row, and this is why Broken Hill’s water supply was in jeopardy,” she said.
“This is why the NSW Government is fixing the problem with a pipeline from the Murray River.
“There is no doubt whatsoever the pipeline is the best solution to this problem.”
Monday’s Pumped program blew the Murray Darling Basin debate wide open with allegations big-scale irrigators had been gaming the system, and that NSW officials had buried an investigation into water theft from the Barwon River.
Communities in the Lower Basin are apoplectic at the prospect of being robbed of water from upstream and have lashed state government’s handling of the situation.
Yesterday afternoon Mr Blair announced an independent review into all allegations raised by Four Corners.
The Department of Primary Industries said he water bureaucrat alleged to be at the centre of the controversy – Gavin Hanlon – has referred himself to ICAC.
Mr Humphries has also been referred to ICAC.
Broken Hill Councillors also voted for a Royal Commission into Murray-Darling Basin issues, and that council “express its disgust at the betrayal of the people of western NSW and the reckless regard for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan”.
It is understood Wentworth and Mildura Councils will discuss similar motions at their next meetings.
"Before moving forward with any projects or legislation that will impact on the Murray Darling Basin, it's important to ensure that any decisions made are what's best for the people of the Far West, and free from any influence from irrigators,” Mayor Darriea Turley – also president of the Broken Hill Labor Party – said.
"Council's stance on these issues are in line with other NSW Councils in the Lower Darling, who also feel that answers are needed before any major works - including the pipeline - are pushed forward."
Pipe dream?
Just last month state government was singing the praises of the 270km Murray River pipeline, re-announcing it as the centerpiece of its $1 billion Safe and Secure Water Program in the state budget.
Government had initially announced the project in 2016. It was sold as a win for Broken Hill’s water security following a crisis in 2015, when the main water source, the Menindee Lakes, almost dried up.
Last month Water NSW said construction of the pipeline was expected to start later this year, creating up to 200 jobs and injecting between $30 to $42 million spending into the local community during construction.
The pipeline will supply up to 37.4 megalitres to Essential Water as the local water provider.
Many in the Far West community, however, argue the pipeline is not necessary, and that instead, the solution is an overhaul of how the Murray Darling Basin is managed.
Some, for example, argue water taken by upstream irrigators are to blame for low flows down the Lower Darling into the Menindee.
Some blame Murray-Darling Basin regulators for getting releases wrong, while others point to high rates of evaporation and poor rainfall.