FAR West NSW landholders have been rejoicing this past week, with water flowing into Lake Menindee for the first time in three years.
Lake Menindee was the first lake to dry up, in mid-2014, within the Menindee Lakes system, which services the town water supply to Broken Hill and Menindee.
The system was at 3pc of capacity in June, forcing the NSW government to propose a $500 million pipeline from the River Murray at Wentworth, NSW, while bore water was part of short-term solutions.
But Darling River flows into the system since July has pushed levels to nearly 34pc of capacity.
Broken Hill Menindee Lakes action group spokesman Darryn Clifton said the opening of the gates to Lake Menindee on Thursday last week was “fantastic”.
“Mother Nature stopped the NSW government from putting us on a bore water supply,” he said. “They made some grave mistakes when they released the water in 2013 and blamed it (the drying of the lakes) on a drought.
“It was a man-made drought. The government had a plan to remove the water and go ahead with a bore water program, to put Menindee and Broken Hill on an alternate source of water.”
Mr Clifton said the River Murray pipeline needed to be reconsidered, as the cheapest option was to replace the Menindee pipeline and remain on surface water.
“The Murray Darling Basin Authority need to take control back of this system and speak with local communities about what they have been through and put a plan of action in place so it does not happen again,” he said.
Opening the gates to Lake Menindee has meant ‘everything’ to the town of Menindee, NSW, according to Menindee Tourism Association president Karen Page.
“It brings life back to the town and we need water for our town to live and breathe,” she said.
Ms Page said the government needed to focus on the way they now managed the water.
“We are looking forward to a really good Christmas, but now that the water is here, it needs to be managed better,” she said.
WaterNSW spokesman Tony Webber said about 500 gigalitres had made its way down the Darling River and into the Menindee Lakes system in recent months, with “another 600-700gL in transit”.
“It’s a phenomenal turn around as the situation was dire prior to winter,” he said.
“We’ve seen record rain in inland NSW and that has driven those feeder systems, plus water has come down from central Qld.”
The enabled the gates to be opened at Lake Menindee last week, he said.
“Once Lake Pamamaroo was at capacity, further up the Menindee system, we needed to start putting water into the next lake which was Lake Menindee,” he said.
Mr Webber said the eventual plan was to put water into Lake Cawndilla and Lake Tandou – the final lakes in the system.
“Water finds its way to Cawndilla as a result of going to Lake Menindee through the creek channels, so it will receive some water in the next fortnight, and we’ll evaluate how much water is coming down the system,” he said.
The volume of water should provide Broken Hill with a town water supply until at least mid-2018. Work on the short-term water security borefield, constructed by WaterNSW at the height of the dry, has ceased and the bores since have been capped.
