|
Murray-Darling
Basin Commission – March Subscriber E-letter No 16
Welcome to the Murray-Darling
Basin monthly e-letter with reports of happenings across
the Basin. Contributions are welcome. Please send items
(no more than 100 words) to the editor at leone@netspeed.com.au
.
Please feel free to pass
this e-letter along to anybody who might be interested.
To subscribe online go
to http://www.mdbc.gov.au/commcentre/elist/form.htm
To be removed from the
mailing list, please reply to this message with "unsubscribe"
in the subject heading.
In this issue
MILDURA WEIR REMOVAL
AND LOCK OVERHAUL
River Murray Water and Goulburn-Murray
Water have announced maintencae and replacement work at
Midlura Weir which could disupt river navigation between
May and August.
The works, designed to
ensure the long-term serviceability of the structures,
will result in the Weir being temporarily removed from
the River Murray and the Lock being closed for some
time. Some water pumpers also could be affected.
Planned works include
removal of some weir trestles for overhaul, and replacement
with other trestles. This needs to be completed after
the end of the current irrigation season, and before
the beginning of the next season.
The proposed schedule
for works is currently as follows:
- 15
May 2003 - Begin removal of weir bars and trestles,
and gradual lowering of weir pool
- 31
May 2003 - Expected date of commencement of refilling
of weir pool
- 5
June 2003 to 10 June 2003 - Expected date of completion
of refilling of weir pool to near full supply level.
This date will be dependent on available river flows.
- 10
June 2003 to 31 August 2003 - Expected period for
Lock overhaul
The
schedule will be adhered to as far as possible, however
there may be some minor variations in timing in response
to river conditions and other circumstances that might
arise at that time.
Another media release will
be issued in April, to confirm the dates or advie of
any changes to dates which may be required.
For the full text of the
media release to http://mdbc.rucc.net.au/mdbc/news_room/media_releases/media_articles.cfm
For further information
contact: Roly Miller, Senior Reservoir Officer – Mildura
Weir
Ph: 03 5023 1396
IMPROVING
THE RIVER MURRAY'S HEALTH - $48 MILLION TO START
Last
year the Ministerial Council recognised the declining
health of the River Murray by acknowledging the need
for a program of structural and operational measures,
costing $150 million over seven years.
How
these funds might be invested over the next three years
is outlined in the soon-to- be released document 'The
Living Murray Proposal for Investment - An Implementation
Program of Structural and Operational Works and Measures
2003/04 to 2005/06"
The document will be available
during March 2003. It will also be available for
downloading from The Living Murray Website, www.thelivingmurray.mdbc.gov.au
For
further information, please contact The Living Murray
team, 02 6279 0127
NEW
HYDROLOGIC IMPACTS OF FIRE WEBSITE
The CRC for Catchment
Hydrology has developed a new website in response to
the number of inquiries on the hydrologic impacts of
recent bushfires in the Victoria, New South Wales and
the ACT.
The website, which aims
to deliver information that may be useful to catchment
and water supply managers, is the result of work by
a wide range of internal and external CRC staff with
significant industry input.
The site is still being
developed and currently includes a FAQ section, an overview
of the hydrologic impacts of fire and a news page.
Contributions are welcome and and will be aduely aknhowledged.
The site is available
at http://www.catchment.crc.org.au/bushfires.
For more information
or to contribute material, conatct David Perry, Communication
and Adoption, CRC for Catchment Hydrology - david.perry@eng.monash.edu.au
REMOVING NUTRIENTS
FROM IRRIGATION DRAINS
Recent research commissioned
by Goulburn-Murray Water indicates that wetlands built
off-line to irrigation drains, could significantly help
to reduce unwanted nutrients.
The report "Nutrient Removal
from Rural Drainage Systems using Wetlands", which details
research funded by Land and Water Australia.
Researchers establsihed
a trial site in a 1600m length of Shepparton Drain 8/1A/12
with a capacity of 100ML/d. The upstream half of the
drain (800m) acted as a 'control' section and was subject
to traditional drain management practices.
The 'trial' section covered
the remaining 800m and was modified with the inclusion
of aquatic plants in the bed of the drain to filter
and remove nutrients. Batter stabilisation works
were also implemented in the trial section.
The results showed that
strategically located offline wetlands protected bysuitably
scaled inlet flow controls would provided a valuable
part of an integrated nutrient removal strategy. The
balance of nutrient loads would be reduced through re-use,
diversion and batter stabilisation.
For more information
and a copy of the report, contact Daryl Eaton, Goulburn-Murray
Water, phone 0358 335 628, email: daryle@g-mwater.com.au
COMPENSATORY WETLANDS
DISCUSSION PAPER OPEN FOR COMMENT
The NSW State Wetland
Advisory Committee (SWAC) has prepared a discussion
paper to outline the major principles, options and issues
associated with compensatory wetlands.
Accoridn tot eh committee,
when wetland loss occurs, or is projected to occur,
there is no guidance for compensation in NSW. The compensation
that does take place is ad hoc, not transparent, and
mostly inadequate in that there is no allowance for
the long-term management of, and responsibility for
the wetlands.
Compensation appears to
be a fact of life under Ecologically Sustainable Management
and it is important that sustainable guidelines are
developed.
The paper tackles these
issues and could pave the way for the development of
guidelines on the compensation principle under the NSW
Wetlands Management Policy. It is available for public
comment and can be downloaded at http://www.dlwc.nsw.gov.au/care/wetlands/cw/index.html
For more information,
or to send written comments on the paper, contact kwilton@dlwc.nsw.gov.au
at the State Wetland Advisory Committee
REMINDER: OUTLOOK 2003
IS ON AGAIN
The Outlook 2003 conference
is on again n 4 and 5 March. This year it will explore
the future for Australia's agriculture and natural resources.
The conference will be
held at the Canberra’s National Convention Centre and
topics to covered are:
- Commodity
forecasts
- Market
access
- Sustainable
agriculture
- Biotechnology
- Integrating
rural communities and farming
CLIMATE AND AGRICULTURE
CONFERENCE
The latest research and
applications of climate science in Australia and New
Zealand will be presented at the 15th Australia New
Zealand Climate Forum 2003 to be held in Palmerston
North, New Zealand 19-21 March.
The general theme of the
conference will be 'Climate Serving Agriculture' and
it will provide a platform to discuss various management
and education issues with a common theme of weather
and climate.
For more information,
visit the http://anzcf.massey.ac.nz/
website or contact Richard Heerdegan at R.Heerdegen@massey.ac.nz
|
