Date: 2007-11-13
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Published by: VIC
Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the deferral of environmental flows was part of contingency measures for Melbourne’s water supply during the drought that had been foreshadowed as part of the Government’s long term water planning.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Environmental flows in the Yarra River will be reduced to 200ML a day heading into summer, with strong environmental safeguards put in place to accurately monitor the health of the river.
Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the deferral of environmental flows was part of contingency measures for Melbourne’s water supply during the drought that had been foreshadowed as part of the Government’s long term water planning.
“We have experienced 11 years of drought and the driest year on record last year,” Mr Jennings said.
“Melbourne’s water storages have seen some recovery over recent months but our reserves have been depleted. We are still well down even on levels at the same time last year.
“This extra contingency measure allows us to take more water from the Yarra now before the spring flows end, and enables us to keep water in the bank for the summer ahead.”
Mr Jennings said that during 2007/08, up to 10GL of water from the Yarra would be made available to Melbourne water consumers.
“While the recent rains were very welcome, they were also a reminder that everyone needs to conserve water and minimise consumption. And, unfortunately, the environment also needs to shoulder some of the burden during these difficult times,” he said.
“Victorians are now consuming 28 per cent less water than they were in the mid-1990s. During times of low water levels, all water users need to reduce water consumption – households, industry and rivers, in this case the Yarra.”
Mr Jennings said more frequent monitoring and emergency contingency measures would be brought into effect to minimise the environmental impact of reducing flows in the Yarra.
“Melbourne Water will step up its river health monitoring in the Yarra, increasing testing to weekly,” Mr Jennings said.
“Tests will be conducted at six key locations in the Yarra River for eight waterway health parameters including pH, temperature and blue-green alga.
“We will also monitor available habitat for fish and other priority species ensuring that we have an accurate assessment of the health of the river.
“In addition, Melbourne Water is upgrading its automatic monitoring stations to provide instantaneous, online data for critical parameters, available remotely 24 hours a day, every day.
“With this increased monitoring, we will be able to act quickly to deal with any emerging environmental issues through measures such as providing flushing flows down the river.”
Mr Jennings said rigorous scientific assessment has been undertaken by Melbourne Water in conjunction with expert scientists to identify the potential environmental impacts for the Yarra.
“This assessment made some important recommendations, including that critical ecological events such as fish breeding flows be protected if they occur naturally,” Mr Jennings said.
“An ecological risk assessment has facilitated the development of comprehensive emergency contingency plans for the Yarra, which will swing into place in the event that a threat of environmental impact emerges.”
Mr Jennings said the temporary adjustments to the environmental flow regimes mean that extra water could be pumped from the Yarra at Yering Gorge as long as flows remain above 200ML per day. Changes to the environmental flows regimes have commenced immediately.