SA Murray Irrigators chair Caren Martin is doubtful the CSIRO-led review into the history of the Lower Lakes, which was released on Tuesday, will "placate the eastern states".
"The MDB Authority claims this report puts the science to bed, but I feel it will only fuel the debate," she said.
"It is almost a 'say it and it will be true' report, with minimal science behind it.
"There is also timeline errors in the narrative - they say the barrages were put in in the 1940s to counter upstream offtake, but the majority of that offtake occurred in the 1990s.
"The barrages were initially put in to secure Adelaide's water supply, not because of irrigation.
"They need to look at the real science, and not use models for convenience."
Ms Martin feared the report created more uncertainty for irrigators and their communities.
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"This report implies more water may be needed for the environment - and the more water becomes scarce, the less supply comes into the water market and the higher the water market price - putting more people out of business," she said.
"The panel say they don't want to affect the socio-economics of communities, but by default they will, because they haven't stated any other way to find water savings or solutions, except to take it from irrigators.
"But that's not true. You can get extra water from infrastructure, you can get it from towns and urban, you can get it from desalination.
"But above-all, water savings can come from achieving the constraints strategies set out by basin governments and they must achieve them quickly, otherwise they won't fix the problems of the river.
"What we really need is a review into why those constraints have yet to be addressed.
"Removing the constraints is vital to the health of the system - if they don't do that, then they're not going to hit their ecological outcomes.
"The number one focus for governments and policy people now is to get those constraints sorted out before anyone tries to start renegotiating MDB Plan figures."
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