AUTRALIA WATER HOGS HIGH, DRY & ..... DUSTY

G'day mates ! ... I love that new australian joke :

Q : ... How do ya sight from a mile away a school of fish going up the
Darling ???

The nose of one of those big fat bellied australian toads buried in
their lukewarm horrible Swan beer ( out of Cue, Mekha, or Nullagine )
emerges then from its froth with a big gurgling laugh :

A. BECAUSE OF THE DUST !!!

Bwahahahaha !

That 's a beauty !
Please read on the most interesting report of the terrible (but well
deserved chastiment) situation in "The Australian", which is not in
my view is not going to take side with Sir Turcaud, it never did in
all these years as well as any of those other australian rags ...
always siding with the Mining Criminals, well known australian
Geological frauds & as well their Political backers & treators
indeed ! MORE JUICY, HEY ?

See the picture , nothing to celebrate !
Sehen Sie die Abbildung, pathetisch !
Il crimine non paga !
Voyez le tableau !!! .... FELICITATIONS !!!

Pleazzze read on now !

Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Australia Mining Pioneer
Discoverer of Telfer, Nifty & Kintyre mines in the Great Sandy Desert

Exploration Geologist & Offshore Consultant
Mobile +33 650 171 464
Founder of the True Geology

~ Ignorance is the Cosmic Sin, the One never Forgiven ~

for background info.
http://www.tnet.com.au/~warrigal/grule.html
http://users.indigo.net.au/don/tel/index.html
http://members.iimetro.com.au/~hubbca/turcaud.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s28534.htm


**************************************************
From THE AUSTRALIAN
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/sto...rom=public_rss

Water hogs leave Darling high and dry downstream
Thanks to the drought and too much water being taken upstream, a once
great river has been reduced to use as a cricket pitch, says rural
writer Asa Wahlquist
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 28, 2007

THEY call it the forgotten river. Drought has reduced the Darling
River, which meanders through western NSW, to a chain of stagnant,
algal-infested ponds lined with ailing river red gums. Its billabongs
and flood runners are dry. Flood plains are deserts.
Ask Mark Etheridge, who runs an organic sheep farm near Wilcannia on
the banks of the Darling. The river has not flowed there since October
last year. "It is in sad shape," Etheridge says.
In 2003, aggrieved residents of the western Darling formed the Darling
River Action Group. Its secretary, Broken Hill-based geologist Brian
Stevens, says water supplies were so low then locals were within weeks
of having to evacuate Broken Hill. What water they did get was so poor
they couldn't drink it. "We were shocked this could happen," Stevens
says.

A good fall in January filled local reservoirs and Broken Hill has
enough water for the short term. But Stevens and the other members of
DRAG are still worried about the Darling because of what's being taken
out of it and its tributaries upstream. "There is too much water being
pulled out of the Darling river. That is the basic problem," he says.
Stevens blames what he calls "the almost unrestricted expansion of
cotton. There has been some restrictions from the 1990s but they
haven't been very effective."

Although the national focus has been on the dire state of the Murray
river in the present drought afflicting eastern Australia, a recent
report has found the Darling is equally troubled. State of the
Darling, released by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission last month,
concludes the impact of increased water use due to northern
development in the Darling basin, with its many tributaries, has been
substantial, "and changes are comparable in scale with those that have
occurred on the Murray".

It says average flow into the Darling has been reduced by one-third,
and extractions from the Darling and evaporation from storage water
held in Menindee Lakes further reduce flows. "The result is that
average outflows from the Darling to the Murray are now less than half
the volume they would be under natural conditions," the report says.

For a river, the Darling makes a great cricket pitch. Several weeks
ago locals met on the dry Darling bed north of Wilcannia. Under the
shade of gums they played cricket: the east side of the river v the
west.

Justin McClure, who lives at Kallara station, which has a Darling
River frontage of about 60km, says despite the circumstances "it was a
magic day". It showed the community could pull something good out of
adversity. "We are a very strong little community," McClure says.

Etheridge says the river community's stoicism has made it too ready to
accept changes to the river. "There has been a gross transfer of water
use to upstream, which is equivalent to a gross transfer of wealth
upstream. It has happened slowly. We are probably guilty of letting it
happen and not doing as much about it as we should have."

McClure explains the Darling is an event river, meaning there are
surges of water rather than continuing high flow, and the trouble is
the big flow events don't happen these days.

Etheridge recalls a flow event in 2004 "that should have been a flood"
but wasn't because so much water had been siphoned off upstream. That
time, the Balonne and Culgoa rivers upstream, which help feed the
Darling, alone took 366 gigalitres (billion litres) of water. "Our
river came within 1m of the top of the bank" but no further, he says.
If his place had flooded, "it would have saved us a lot of money" in
feeding stock.

Etheridge and McClure are flood-plain graziers and their survival is
dependent on floods. The deep-rooted perennial plants of the flood
plain thrive for years after a flood, providing plentiful feed. But
now, Etheridge says, the flood plain "is in diabolical trouble
ecologically. A lot of trees, a lot of lignum tall shrubs forest, are
now dead."

It's true the Darling is a highly variable river. Between 1885 and
1960, before large-scale water use, it stopped flowing at Menindee 48
times. The big wets bring almost incomprehensibly huge floods. In
August 1950, 352 gigalitres a day rushed past Bourke, enough to supply
southeast Queensland for 15 months. Some of the Darling's tributaries
-- the border rivers in southern Queensland and northern NSW and the
Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie in NSW -- are dammed. But the main stem of
the Barwon river end of the Darling system in the north is a so-called
unregulated river and has no dams. Irrigators elsewhere take water
released from dams, but irrigators along the Barwon and Darling are
licensed simply to switch on their pumps when the river reaches a set
height and fill their ring tanks, huge, privately constructed dams on
the farms.

According to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, in 1960 just 50GL
was diverted from the Darling and its tributaries. By 1990 diversions
increased to 1400GL. Cotton had come to the northwest and irrigation
was going gang busters. Now State of the Darling estimates the average
annual diversion for irrigation from the system at 3072GL.

By 1995 it had become clear too much water was being taken from the
Murray-Darling Basin. The mouth of the Murray, which under natural
conditions had severe drought one year in 20, was experiencing drought-
like flows six years in 10. Salinity was rising, wetland health was
declining, there were more frequent blue-green algal blooms and a
significant decline in native fish populations.

In 1995 extractions from the Murray-Darling Basin were capped at
1993-94 levels, except in Queensland, which argued its development
lagged behind that of the other states, NSW, Victoria and South
Australia.

Between 1999 and 2002 the capacity of ring tanks in Queensland
increased from 1146GL to 1878GL. In 1993-94 Queensland took 336GL from
the river system, rising to 804GL in 2003-04. The Murray-Darling Basin
Commission reported in 2004: "There is some concern about the 42 per
cent increase in on-farm storage capacity and 33 per cent increase in
area planted that has occurred since 1993-94 in the Barwon-Darling
River system." It's estimated about 154GL of water above the cap was
taken from the Darling and Barwon rivers between 1998 and 2005.

David Harriss is the executive director, water management, with NSW's
Department of Natural Resources, the body responsible for managing the
Darling and Barwon rivers between Mungindi on the NSW-Queensland
border and Menindee Lakes.

"It the Barwon-Darling is our one valley that we report on that is
actually in breach of the cap," he acknowledges.

A cap of 173GL, the 1993-94 level of diversions, should finally be in
place next season. "There is a lot of having to go back through
records and working out what people's history of extraction has been,
to be able to work out what their share of the 173GL pie is likely to
be," Harriss says. "It doesn't matter how much on-farm storage they
have got, our cap will still be the same."

The way the caps are applied is seen by some as unfair because it is
based on usage.

McClure is an irrigator of opportunistic crops. He doesn't have a big
dam. Rather, he plants and irrigates an oilseed or cereal crop when
the season is right and the river is high. Under the formula being
applied to bring Darling irrigators under the cap, he looks like
losing 67 per cent of the face value of his licence. Those with a
greater history of use, and a greater investment, will lose less.

"Obviously it is over-allocated," McClure says. "There needs to be a
clawback and there needs to be full compensation. And there needs to
be equity throughout the system from the environment up."

Harriss argues that the system along the Barwon and Darling, where
irrigators can pump only when the river reaches a set threshold, is
self-regulating. "In the Darling, if you are having a reduced number
of freshes flows, that is less access," he says.

McClure says up to 10GL is stored up-river, but Darling river towns
such as Louth, Tilpa and Wilcannia have undrinkable water or no water
at all.

"I have cousins 60km down the river and they are carting rainwater,"
McClure says. "They just haven't got any water and their nearest town
is 100km away."

Etheridge says he makes good use of the water he gets. "Because I
water my stock, I am making about $60,000 a megalitre consumed," he
says. "Cotton is at about $400. So we are very efficient users of
water."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates cotton earns $420 a
megalitre.

Stevens welcomes Prime Minister John Howard's new plan for water
security and argues "there has to be just as much emphasis on the
Darling as the Murray, the Darling has been the forgotten river". His
group wants environmental flows, or water dedicated to the health of
the river, given a far higher priority.

"We would like to see the wetlands wet, we would like to see the flood
plains have the occasional flood that they are supposed to have,"
Stevens says. "We would like to see the billabongs fill up now and
again."

wrote:
G'day mates ! ... I love that new australian joke :
a complete nong bites the dust

Now, that's odd, I thought YOU were the Australian joke.

On 27 avr, 18:32, wrote:
G'day mates ! ... I love that new australian joke :

Q : ... How do ya sight from a mile away a school of fish going up the
Darling ???

The nose of one of those big fat bellied australian toads buried in
their lukewarm horrible Swan beer ( out of Cue, Mekha, or Nullagine )
emerges then from its froth with a big gurgling laugh :

A. BECAUSE OF THE DUST !!!

Bwahahahaha !

That 's a beauty !
Please read on the most interesting report of the terrible (but well
deserved chastiment) situation in "The Australian", which is not in
my view is not going to take side with Sir Turcaud, it never did in
all these years as well as any of those other australian rags ...
always siding with the Mining Criminals, well known australian
Geological frauds & as well their Political backers & treators
indeed ! MORE JUICY, HEY ?

See the picture , nothing to celebrate !
Sehen Sie die Abbildung, pathetisch !
Il crimine non paga !
Voyez le tableau !!! .... FELICITATIONS !!!

Pleazzze read on now !

Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Australia Mining Pioneer
Discoverer of Telfer, Nifty & Kintyre mines in the Great Sandy Desert

Exploration Geologist & Offshore Consultant
Mobile +33 650 171 464
Founder of the True Geology

~ Ignorance is the Cosmic Sin, the One never Forgiven ~

for background info.http://www.tnet.com.au/~warrigal/gru...ies/s28534.htm

************************************************** From THE AUSTRALIAN

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/sto...-30417,00.html...

Water hogs leave Darling high and dry downstream
Thanks to the drought and too much water being taken upstream, a once
great river has been reduced to use as a cricket pitch, says rural
writer Asa Wahlquist
---------------------------------------------------------------------------*-----

April 28, 2007

THEY call it the forgotten river. Drought has reduced the Darling
River, which meanders through western NSW, to a chain of stagnant,
algal-infested ponds lined with ailing river red gums. Its billabongs
and flood runners are dry. Flood plains are deserts.
Ask Mark Etheridge, who runs an organic sheep farm near Wilcannia on
the banks of the Darling. The river has not flowed there since October
last year. "It is in sad shape," Etheridge says.
In 2003, aggrieved residents of the western Darling formed the Darling
River Action Group. Its secretary, Broken Hill-based geologist Brian
Stevens, says water supplies were so low then locals were within weeks
of having to evacuate Broken Hill. What water they did get was so poor
they couldn't drink it. "We were shocked this could happen," Stevens
says.

A good fall in January filled local reservoirs and Broken Hill has
enough water for the short term. But Stevens and the other members of
DRAG are still worried about the Darling because of what's being taken
out of it and its tributaries upstream. "There is too much water being
pulled out of the Darling river. That is the basic problem," he says.
Stevens blames what he calls "the almost unrestricted expansion of
cotton. There has been some restrictions from the 1990s but they
haven't been very effective."

Although the national focus has been on the dire state of the Murray
river in the present drought afflicting eastern Australia, a recent
report has found the Darling is equally troubled. State of the
Darling, released by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission last month,
concludes the impact of increased water use due to northern
development in the Darling basin, with its many tributaries, has been
substantial, "and changes are comparable in scale with those that have
occurred on the Murray".

It says average flow into the Darling has been reduced by one-third,
and extractions from the Darling and evaporation from storage water
held in Menindee Lakes further reduce flows. "The result is that
average outflows from the Darling to the Murray are now less than half
the volume they would be under natural conditions," the report says.

For a river, the Darling makes a great cricket pitch. Several weeks
ago locals met on the dry Darling bed north of Wilcannia. Under the
shade of gums they played cricket: the east side of the river v the
west.

Justin McClure, who lives at Kallara station, which has a Darling
River frontage of about 60km, says despite the circumstances "it was a
magic day". It showed the community could pull something good out of
adversity. "We are a very strong little community," McClure says.

Etheridge says the river community's stoicism has made it too ready to
accept changes to the river. "There has been a gross transfer of water
use to upstream, which is equivalent to a gross transfer of wealth
upstream. It has happened slowly. We are probably guilty of letting it
happen and not doing as much about it as we should have."

McClure explains the Darling is an event river, meaning there are
surges of water rather than continuing high flow, and the trouble is
the big flow events don't happen these days.

Etheridge recalls a flow event in 2004 "that should have been a flood"
but wasn't because so much water had been siphoned off upstream. That
time, the Balonne and Culgoa rivers upstream, which help feed the
Darling, alone took 366 gigalitres (billion litres) of water. "Our
river came within 1m of the top of the bank" but no further, he says.
If his place had flooded, "it would have saved us a lot of money" in
feeding stock.

Etheridge and McClure are flood-plain graziers and their survival is
dependent on floods. The deep-rooted perennial plants of the flood
plain thrive for years after a flood, providing plentiful feed. But
now, Etheridge says, the flood plain "is in diabolical trouble
ecologically. A lot of trees, a lot of lignum tall shrubs forest, are
now dead."

It's true the Darling is a highly variable river. Between 1885 and
1960, before large-scale water use, it stopped flowing at Menindee 48
times. The big wets bring almost incomprehensibly huge floods. In
August 1950, 352 gigalitres a day rushed past Bourke, enough to supply
southeast Queensland for 15 months. Some of the Darling's tributaries
-- the border rivers in southern Queensland and northern NSW and the
Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie in NSW -- are dammed. But the main stem of
the Barwon river end of the Darling system in the north is a so-called
unregulated river and has no dams. Irrigators elsewhere take water
released from dams, but irrigators along the Barwon and Darling are
licensed simply to switch on their pumps when the river reaches a set
height and fill their ring tanks, huge, privately constructed dams on
the farms.

According to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, in 1960 just 50GL
was diverted from the Darling and its tributaries. By 1990 diversions
increased to 1400GL. Cotton had come to the northwest and irrigation
was going gang busters. Now State of the Darling estimates the average
annual diversion for irrigation from the system at 3072GL.

By 1995 it had become clear too much water was being taken from the
Murray-Darling Basin. The mouth of the Murray, which under natural
conditions had severe drought one year in 20, was experiencing drought-
like flows six years in 10. Salinity was rising, wetland health was
declining, there were more frequent blue-green algal blooms and a
significant decline in native fish populations.

In 1995 extractions from the Murray-Darling Basin were capped at
1993-94 levels, except in Queensland, which argued its development
lagged behind that of the other states, NSW, Victoria and South
Australia.

Between 1999 and 2002 the capacity of ring tanks in Queensland
increased from 1146GL to 1878GL. In 1993-94 Queensland took 336GL from
the river system, rising to 804GL in 2003-04. The Murray-Darling Basin
Commission reported in 2004: "There is some concern about the 42 per
cent increase in on-farm storage capacity and 33 per cent increase in
area planted that has occurred since 1993-94 in the Barwon-Darling
River system." It's estimated about 154GL of water above the cap was
taken from the Darling and Barwon rivers between 1998 and 2005.

David Harriss is the executive director, water management, with NSW's
Department of Natural Resources, the body responsible for managing the
Darling and Barwon rivers between Mungindi on the NSW-Queensland
border and Menindee Lakes.

"It the Barwon-Darling is our one valley that we report on that is
actually in breach of the cap," he acknowledges.

A cap of 173GL, the 1993-94 level of diversions, should finally be in
place next season. "There is a lot of having to go back through
records and working out what people's history of extraction has been,
to be able to work out what their share of the 173GL pie is likely to
be," Harriss says. "It doesn't matter how much on-farm storage they
have got, our cap will still be the same."

The way the caps are applied is seen by some as unfair because it is
based on usage.

McClure is an irrigator of opportunistic crops. He doesn't have a big
dam. Rather, he plants and irrigates an oilseed or cereal crop when
the season is right and the river is high. Under the formula being
applied to bring Darling irrigators under the cap, he looks like
losing 67 per cent of the face value of his licence. Those with a
greater history of use, and a greater investment, will lose less.

"Obviously it is over-allocated," McClure says. "There needs to be a
clawback and there needs to be full compensation. And there needs to
be equity throughout the system from the environment up."

Harriss argues that the system along the Barwon and Darling, where
irrigators can pump only when the river reaches a set threshold, is
self-regulating. "In the Darling, if you are having a reduced number
of freshes flows, that is less access," he says.

McClure says up to 10GL is stored up-river, but Darling river towns
such as Louth, Tilpa and Wilcannia have ...

plus de détails »

a good one, hey ?
.... however the water hogs don't appreciate the situation !
The other animals being too ****ed to appreciate the gravity of the
situation
... but nothing really surprises me coming from down under ....

Sir Jean-Paul

On 28 avr, 15:11, Greatest Mining Pioneer of Australia of all Times
wrote:
On 27 avr, 18:32, wrote:

G'day mates ! ... I love that new australian joke :

Q : ... How do ya sight from a mile away a school of fish going up the
Darling ???

The nose of one of those big fat bellied australian toads buried in
their lukewarm horrible Swan beer ( out of Cue, Mekha, or Nullagine )
emerges then from its froth with a big gurgling laugh :

A. BECAUSE OF THE DUST !!!

Bwahahahaha !

That 's a beauty !
Please read on the most interesting report of the terrible (but well
deserved chastiment) situation in "The Australian", which is not in
my view is not going to take side with Sir Turcaud, it never did in
all these years as well as any of those other australian rags ...
always siding with the Mining Criminals, well known australian
Geological frauds & as well their Political backers & treators
indeed ! MORE JUICY, HEY ?

See the picture , nothing to celebrate !
Sehen Sie die Abbildung, pathetisch !
Il crimine non paga !
Voyez le tableau !!! .... FELICITATIONS !!!

Pleazzze read on now !

Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Australia Mining Pioneer
Discoverer of Telfer, Nifty & Kintyre mines in the Great Sandy Desert

Exploration Geologist & Offshore Consultant
Mobile +33 650 171 464
Founder of the True Geology

~ Ignorance is the Cosmic Sin, the One never Forgiven ~

for background info.http://www.tnet.com.au/~warrigal/gru....indigo.net.au...

************************************************** From THE AUSTRALIAN

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/sto...-30417,00.html...

Water hogs leave Darling high and dry downstream
Thanks to the drought and too much water being taken upstream, a once
great river has been reduced to use as a cricket pitch, says rural
writer Asa Wahlquist
---------------------------------------------------------------------------**-----

April 28, 2007

THEY call it the forgotten river. Drought has reduced the Darling
River, which meanders through western NSW, to a chain of stagnant,
algal-infested ponds lined with ailing river red gums. Its billabongs
and flood runners are dry. Flood plains are deserts.
Ask Mark Etheridge, who runs an organic sheep farm near Wilcannia on
the banks of the Darling. The river has not flowed there since October
last year. "It is in sad shape," Etheridge says.
In 2003, aggrieved residents of the western Darling formed the Darling
River Action Group. Its secretary, Broken Hill-based geologist Brian
Stevens, says water supplies were so low then locals were within weeks
of having to evacuate Broken Hill. What water they did get was so poor
they couldn't drink it. "We were shocked this could happen," Stevens
says.

A good fall in January filled local reservoirs and Broken Hill has
enough water for the short term. But Stevens and the other members of
DRAG are still worried about the Darling because of what's being taken
out of it and its tributaries upstream. "There is too much water being
pulled out of the Darling river. That is the basic problem," he says.
Stevens blames what he calls "the almost unrestricted expansion of
cotton. There has been some restrictions from the 1990s but they
haven't been very effective."

Although the national focus has been on the dire state of the Murray
river in the present drought afflicting eastern Australia, a recent
report has found the Darling is equally troubled. State of the
Darling, released by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission last month,
concludes the impact of increased water use due to northern
development in the Darling basin, with its many tributaries, has been
substantial, "and changes are comparable in scale with those that have
occurred on the Murray".

It says average flow into the Darling has been reduced by one-third,
and extractions from the Darling and evaporation from storage water
held in Menindee Lakes further reduce flows. "The result is that
average outflows from the Darling to the Murray are now less than half
the volume they would be under natural conditions," the report says.

For a river, the Darling makes a great cricket pitch. Several weeks
ago locals met on the dry Darling bed north of Wilcannia. Under the
shade of gums they played cricket: the east side of the river v the
west.

Justin McClure, who lives at Kallara station, which has a Darling
River frontage of about 60km, says despite the circumstances "it was a
magic day". It showed the community could pull something good out of
adversity. "We are a very strong little community," McClure says.

Etheridge says the river community's stoicism has made it too ready to
accept changes to the river. "There has been a gross transfer of water
use to upstream, which is equivalent to a gross transfer of wealth
upstream. It has happened slowly. We are probably guilty of letting it
happen and not doing as much about it as we should have."

McClure explains the Darling is an event river, meaning there are
surges of water rather than continuing high flow, and the trouble is
the big flow events don't happen these days.

Etheridge recalls a flow event in 2004 "that should have been a flood"
but wasn't because so much water had been siphoned off upstream. That
time, the Balonne and Culgoa rivers upstream, which help feed the
Darling, alone took 366 gigalitres (billion litres) of water. "Our
river came within 1m of the top of the bank" but no further, he says.
If his place had flooded, "it would have saved us a lot of money" in
feeding stock.

Etheridge and McClure are flood-plain graziers and their survival is
dependent on floods. The deep-rooted perennial plants of the flood
plain thrive for years after a flood, providing plentiful feed. But
now, Etheridge says, the flood plain "is in diabolical trouble
ecologically. A lot of trees, a lot of lignum tall shrubs forest, are
now dead."

It's true the Darling is a highly variable river. Between 1885 and
1960, before large-scale water use, it stopped flowing at Menindee 48
times. The big wets bring almost incomprehensibly huge floods. In
August 1950, 352 gigalitres a day rushed past Bourke, enough to supply
southeast Queensland for 15 months. Some of the Darling's tributaries
-- the border rivers in southern Queensland and northern NSW and the
Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie in NSW -- are dammed. But the main stem of
the Barwon river end of the Darling system in the north is a so-called
unregulated river and has no dams. Irrigators elsewhere take water
released from dams, but irrigators along the Barwon and Darling are
licensed simply to switch on their pumps when the river reaches a set
height and fill their ring tanks, huge, privately constructed dams on
the farms.

According to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, in 1960 just 50GL
was diverted from the Darling and its tributaries. By 1990 diversions
increased to 1400GL. Cotton had come to the northwest and irrigation
was going gang busters. Now State of the Darling estimates the average
annual diversion for irrigation from the system at 3072GL.

By 1995 it had become clear too much water was being taken from the
Murray-Darling Basin. The mouth of the Murray, which under natural
conditions had severe drought one year in 20, was experiencing drought-
like flows six years in 10. Salinity was rising, wetland health was
declining, there were more frequent blue-green algal blooms and a
significant decline in native fish populations.

In 1995 extractions from the Murray-Darling Basin were capped at
1993-94 levels, except in Queensland, which argued its development
lagged behind that of the other states, NSW, Victoria and South
Australia.

Between 1999 and 2002 the capacity of ring tanks in Queensland
increased from 1146GL to 1878GL. In 1993-94 Queensland took 336GL from
the river system, rising to 804GL in 2003-04. The Murray-Darling Basin
Commission reported in 2004: "There is some concern about the 42 per
cent increase in on-farm storage capacity and 33 per cent increase in
area planted that has occurred since 1993-94 in the Barwon-Darling
River system." It's estimated about 154GL of water above the cap was
taken from the Darling and Barwon rivers between 1998 and 2005.

David Harriss is the executive director, water management, with NSW's
Department of Natural Resources, the body responsible for managing the
Darling and Barwon rivers between Mungindi on the NSW-Queensland
border and Menindee Lakes.

"It the Barwon-Darling is our one valley that we report on that is
actually in breach of the cap," he acknowledges.

A cap of 173GL, the 1993-94 level of diversions, should finally be in
place next season. "There is a lot of having to go back through
records and working out what people's history of extraction has been,
to be able to work out what their share of the 173GL pie is likely to
be," Harriss says. "It doesn't matter how much on-farm storage they
have got, our cap will still be the same."

The way the caps are applied is seen by some as unfair because it is
based on usage.

McClure is an irrigator of opportunistic crops. He doesn't have a big
dam. Rather, he plants and irrigates an oilseed or cereal crop when
the season is right and the river is high. Under the formula being
applied to bring Darling irrigators under the cap, he looks like
losing 67 per cent of the face value of his licence. Those with a
greater history of use, and a greater investment, will lose less.

"Obviously it is over-allocated," McClure says. "There needs to be a
clawback and there needs to be full compensation. And there needs to
be equity throughout the system from the environment up."

Harriss argues that the system along the Barwon and Darling, where
irrigators can pump only when the river reaches a set threshold, is
self-regulating. "In the Darling, if you are having a reduced number
of freshes flows, that is less access," he says.

McClure says up to 10GL is stored up-river, but Darling river towns
such as Louth, Tilpa and Wilcannia have ...

plus de détails »

a good one, hey ?
.... however the water hogs don't appreciate the situation !
The other animals being too ****ed to appreciate the gravity of the
situation
... but nothing really surprises me coming from down under ....

Sir Jean-Paul

Sorry, I should have said :
QUOTE
.... however the water hogs don't appreciate the situation !
The other animals being too ****ed to realise its gravity.
UNQUOTE

The turn of phrase is then lighter and more agreable to read.

( I admit a research of perfection in all disciplines)

Sir Jean-Paul


Sir Jean-Paul