LOWER Limestone Coast irrigators are divided in their support for the region's proposed new water-allocation plan, with some facing cuts of up to half of their groundwater allocations.
The draft plan developed by the South East Natural Resources Management Board was discussed at three public meetings last week at Kingston, Naracoorte and Mount Gambier. It converts current area-based allocations to volumetric licences, addresses changes to the volume of water allocated across the region, and seeks to balance agriculture activity with greater protection of groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
Cuts are being proposed to nine of the 75 confined and unconfined aquifer management areas where the water-use exceeds the target management levels and is showing signs of stress.
Drops of 1 metre to observation wells in the past decade are of concern and in some cases drops of 2m have been recorded.
Some irrigators are adamant that they have not seen the same drops in their irrigation bores and that the trends are simply short-term from below-average rain in the past decade.
Others believe the cuts are too severe, but the Department of Water, Environment & Natural Resource Management is urging irrigators to check their own situation. It says only 60 of the 800 affected irrigators are likely to need to reduce their current water-use based on annual water-use returns.
Under the plan the volume reductions will be implemented gradually. A quarter of the reduction needs to be made in Year 2 and another 25 per cent two years after that, before a review.
The plan also includes a water-licensing system for the area's commercial forests – the first of its kind in Australia.
Many irrigators see the volumetric conversion figures as more than fair to continue their irrigation practices, especially with additional delivery volumes available for the next five years.
Others fear they will not have enough water to use their existing irrigation infrastructure, and may be forced to buy additional water at high prices.
Board presiding member Frank Brennan says he was pleased with the level of interest at the public meetings and in a stand at the recent South East Field Days at Lucindale.
"The board will be giving deliberate and serious consideration to all the feedback and submissions received during the community consultation, to ensure the best possible outcome in managing the region's groundwater resources can be achieved," he said.
He says the board is providing several ways to reduce the impact, including the ability to transfer 75pc of water reductions from unused water in the management area without assessment of hydrological impacts and carryover, and temporary transfer provisions.
Mingbool irrigator and SAFF's representative in the stakeholder process Tony Beck disagrees on the scale of cuts needed to ensure the sustainability of the unconfined aquifer.
He says triggers for cuts should be based on the rotation of the longest crop grown in the region, such as 30 years for softwood plantations, rather than just five to 10 years as in the latest allocation plan.
He admits – in a period of below average rain – to being worried when the level of some of his bores dropped dramatically and they began pumping air, but says they are now back to a full operating pressure of 207 kilopascals.
"The department's own hydrographs show there is definitely no reason to panic and that most areas have recovered with the better rainfall we have received in recent years, following the 2005-2006 drought," he said.
*Full report in Stock Journal, April 4 issue, 2013.
