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The Snowy - starved by drought, over-extraction, indifference and greed

By Acacia Rose - posted Thursday, 12 March 2009


The appointment of Federal Member Dr Mike Kelly to the key position of Parliamentary Secretary for Water is a good sign for the Snowy River and regional water management.

Fish are dying at the mouth of the Snowy River and fish are also dying in the ana-branches of the Murray River, similarly starved by drought, over-extraction, human indifference and greed.

The evolution of “water trading”, the development of a “water market” and moves towards water privatisation have wreaked havoc in the agricultural sector and have escalated the collapse of vital ecosystems. The acid sulphate soils of the Coorong are a direct result of human toxic wastes and interference with natural river flows - even during the course of ultra dry sequences. The death of the Snowy with weed and willow infestation, siltation and truncated flows is the result of human behaviour, not nature.

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It is time to resuscitate the Snowy River. The legislation is in place, the specific conditions of the Snowy Water Licence are in place and the community wants water in the Snowy River. It is simply a matter of three governments following the law and letting water flow from the top to the bottom of the river.

In the beginning the Snowy Corporatisation Act hinged on the Snowy Water Inquiry - otherwise known as the Webster Inquiry - and the subsequent Snowy Water Inquiry Outcomes Implementation Deed (SWIOID), which clearly sets out the key environmental outcomes upon which the legislation and Snowy Water Licence are based.

The Snowy Water Licence in turn provides for staged environmental releases up to 21 per cent of average natural flows (ANF) and a provision through public-private partnerships to deliver the final 7 per cent to 28 per cent ANF through water savings projects. By all accounts 28 per cent is the very minimum for a river to survive and certainly, the Snowy River in its upper reaches, below Guthega Dam and Island Bend Pondage does not receive 28 per cent ANF. The Snowy Hydro grasps every drop for power generation and milks the alpine tributaries of the Snowy.

Twenty-eight per cent means that 70 per cent of the Snowy River is still diverted out west and at present it is actually about 96 per cent with the 2009 target of 15 per cent ANF for the Snowy yet to be delivered.

Below Jindabyne Dam the Snowy River is sometimes a sorry flow through a hosepipe and at other times, a flat and low flow through a generator that does not operate properly. This generator, at the centre of the “renewable energy” debate because of its poor green credentials, was never a part of the Snowy agreements - simply an afterthought to extract a few more energy dollars for Snowy Hydro Limited, required as it is to return “shareholder dividends” to the three shareholder governments, New South Wales, Victoria and the Commonwealth.

There is a patent need to decorporatise the Snowy Scheme to take the unwanted “profit at all costs” pressure off Snowy Hydro that has seen several attempts to sell, including the latest thinly veiled effort in early March when Snowy Hydro spruiked for funds and an “independent” - read privatised - Snowy on regional ABC Radio.

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There is patent need to inject clarity and a clear hierarchy into the Snowy legislation placing the Snowy Water Outcomes Implementation Deed at the pinnacle supported by ongoing scientific study conducted by the Snowy Scientific Committee (SCC), an independent body under the existing Snowy Corporatisation legislation that directs government to act, not vacillate or make perpetual excuses not to follow the law.

Of note is that the NSW Government failed to establish the SCC until it was pressured to do so by the Snowy River Alliance. The NSW Government also failed to instigate the first Five Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence that draws on the recommendations of the SCC Report and allows for amendments to environmental releases without “compensation” payable to Snowy Hydro for lost energy generation dollars. Again, the community brought the then Minister to account to review the Snowy Water Licence. Most recently the NSW Government has sat on the SSC Report “Adequacy of Releases” along with the draft first Five Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence that must include the recommendations of the Committee.

With the Snowy portfolio split three ways with three Ministers, one responsible one for the Snowy Scheme, one for the Snowy Water Licence acting as the “Water Ministerial Administration Corporation” under the legislation and the third for environmental water, it is a complex process for the public and the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments to obtain information from NSW and to act on that information.

The problem for Victoria and the Commonwealth is exercising “shareholder” rights and powers. Victoria has apparently submitted to the NSW Government to act appropriately under the conditions of the Snowy Water Licence and release the Report of the Scientific Committee, however, the Commonwealth appears reluctant to act until the NSW Government officially publishes this report. The reality is that it should have been in the public domain since October.

There are undoubtedly punishments under the Corporations Law for Directors who act inappropriately and indeed, there are punishments under Section 34 of the Snowy Corporatisation Act 1997 No 99 for cumulative breaches of the Snowy Water Licence with a possible two-year prison sentence for Directors. That the NSW Government failed to establish the Snowy Scientific Committee, or commence the first Five Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence specified under the legislation, until brought to account by the community, is arguably a sufficient trigger for appropriate legal entities to take the responsible people to court - and under the legislation that could be either the State or Federal Court.

Snowy Hydro Directors are clearly aware of the legislation and the conditions of the Snowy Water Licence and will find their case a little shaky if they argue that “we weren't told or instructed” to release water into the Snowy River.

The Snowy communities have again risen to the challenge to return water to the Snowy River, urging the new Parliamentary Secretary and local Federal Member Mike Kelly to act on behalf of the river and ensure that the report of the Snowy Scientific Committee is made immediately available and that its recommendations are included in the first Five Year Review of the Snowy Water Licence. This would see critical environmental releases into the river and ensure at least a modicum of natural and variable flow vital for ecological health and survival.

The bottom line is to amend the Snowy Water Licence and enable environmental releases into the Snowy immediately. The Mowamba, or Moonbah, River is a key Snowy tributary that will deliver a virtual natural headwater to the Snowy River until such times more substantial flows are enabled through the Jindabyne Dam.

Additionally, there is a visible need to restore natural flows to the major alpine tributaries of the Snowy River as well as the Mowamba River and to revitalise the Snowy Montane Rivers nominated in the Snowy Water Licence.

The Snowy River has endured a long dry not just as a result of drought or climate change but because of over extraction and complex government processes which are apparently incapable of responding quickly to the river’s needs.

The evidence is that the Snowy River is in urgent need of environmental flows, natural variability and that the Snowy Water Licence must be adjusted and amended now, to reflect the recommendations of the Snowy Scientific Committee.

Dr Kelly’s appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Water places him as the direct advocate for environmental flows for all rivers in Australia. It is high time that the Snowy River is included in conversations about over-extraction from the Murray Darling Basin. The Snowy River can no longer subsidise the Murray at the expense of its own health. There needs to be decisive strategic planning to ease extractive pressure on all river systems: and immediate strategic planning to prioritise key agricultural and environmental assets for conservation and restoration, as well as decommissioning of weirs and aqueducts responsible for the deterioration of wetlands, rivers and estuarine health including the demise of the Snowy River.

There is now an opportunity to place the Snowy Environmental Flows under the responsibility of an Independent Water Manager: a group of Snowy River Alliance Members advocated this position directly to the NSW Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt when the Cabinet met the community in Queanbeyan a few weeks ago. This would mean that the Water Manager would instruct Snowy Hydro on water releases into the river. It would mean that the apparent nexus between the Minister for Energy and Snowy Hydro Directors would be at last broken and the litany of excuses including “the drought” and “no water in the river for the Snowy Scientific Committee to conduct its research”, the arguably nonsensical Mowamba Borrowings, unsupportable “Snowy Borrowings”, the latest impost of the 2010 date for the Murray Darling Plan and the fallacious “compensation to the Murray under the Water Management Act” would be dissolved and the Snowy would at last receive water.

That anyone could legislate that the Snowy River “owed” Snowy Hydro for water from the Moonbah River demonstrates the deep disconnect between some government departments and the realities of the natural world and the links between rivers, wetlands, estuaries, ground water and the vitality of the agricultural sector.

It is time that an Independent Water Manager (including the Murray Darling Authority) means just that - independent without control by governments who by their nature, depend on corporate donations to put them into power.

Water is life and life depends on water. Neither water privatisation nor the $50 million for flows to the Snowy River promised by both major parties prior to the 2007 election have delivered a single extra drop of water into the river. The Snowy River continues to “flat line” with no underpinning natural, variable or flushing flows.

As a part of the privatisation scenario, cloud seeding aimed at “above target” water for energy generation and downstream water trading has done nothing for the Snowy River. If effective, cloud seeding has almost certainly contributed to the deepening rain shadow across the Monaro and a diminished water table and reduced river flows robbing wealth and hope from the regional farming community.

Weigh up the business losses, the health costs, family and community costs of the loss of rain due to cloud seeding against projected income for SHL as a result of “above target water” and you have three governments looking for a small percentage of funds for their coffers with entire communities bearing the costs of the drought and an artificial rain shadow. Top the losses with less GST and taxation income for governments.

The result is a negative balance sheet in economic, social and environmental terms.

The only long-term winners from the corporatisation of the Snowy Scheme and the latest money-spinner - cloud seeding - will be a tiny handful of people who may argue increased executive compensation as a result of increased profits for Snowy Hydro Limited. The days of executive compensation are in any case numbered and will almost certainly be tied to shareholder dividends which, in the case of the Snowy Scheme, is an absolute loss when one factors in the true community and environmental costs and ultimately taxpayer dollars.

It is time for the Snowy River to run. With the appointment of Dr Kelly as Parliamentary Secretary for Water, the Snowy River Alliance and Snowy Communities can see key amendments to the Snowy Water Licence to enable environmental releases; an Independent Water Manager; a clear hierarchy that places environmental objectives at the top of the suite of Snowy legislation; and possible de-corporatisation of the Snowy Scheme that will see environmental flows in the Snowy River in perpetuity.

Victoria and the Commonwealth should act quickly to remove NSW as a “shareholder” of Snowy Hydro Limited. NSW has abrogated its rights through failure to discharge its legislated responsibilities for the Snowy. NOW is the time to amend the Snowy Water Licence to enable environmental releases. Not to do so means to condemn the Snowy River to government incompetence and procrastination for generations and ultimately, the death of the river.

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About the Author

Acacia Rose continues to campaign to stop the sale of the Snowy Hydro and ran as Independent Candidate for Eden-Monaro in the 2007 Federal Election. She is the Alpine Riverkeeper and member of the Waterkeepers Alliance and a member of the Snowy River Alliance. Books by Acacia Rose: Wind Horse series - set in the Snowy Mountains. Midnight Pearl, Azure Moon.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Acacia Rose

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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