SNOWY SQUEEZED TO DEATH
Tuesday, 10 March 2009 04:41
“In 2000 the Premiers of NSW and Victoria announced a program to restore the river,” said Jeff Angel, Director of the Centre. “There were high hopes that the Snowy Mountain Hydro scheme would subsequently cease to squeeze every single drop of water out of the Snowy Mountains to make money with irrigation and hydro-electricity.”
The Mowamba Diversion, which channeled the natural montane water flow of the Mowamba River into the Jindabyne Dam, wreaking ecological havoc downstream, was switched off in 2000. But due to a secret clause in the license it was quietly re-commissioned in 2005.
“The consequences for the health of the Snowy river systems have been disastrous,” said Mr Angel. “The diversion of the Mowamba River to the Jindabyne Dam has drastically reduced snow melt and rain water flow downstream to 1% of pre-dam levels.
“It has destroyed natural seasonal variations in flow, and encouraged introduced flora and fauna at the expense of indigenous plants and wildlife.”
The Snowy Scientific Committee (SSC) was appointed under the Snowy Corporatisation Act to investigate results from the environmental flow decision made in 2000.
“The government has suppressed the SSC report since last October,” said Mr Angel. “This report vindicates the concerns of environmentalists and the local communities of the Snowy River. Environmental flows are inadequate, and the vital connection between the Snowy and Mowamba Rivers, must be restored.”
Mr Angel said that the Snowy Water license, which is at the heart of the problems in the Snowy, is currently under review.
“Now is the time to have all the appropriate research made available,” he said. “The SSC Report states that current flow has encouraged the proliferation of exotic gold fish and the eco-menace mosquito fish.
“At the same time the native freshwater black fish, Gadopsis marmoratus, has been listed as a critically endangered species under the Threatened Species Conservation Act, because of the lack of flows in the Snowy.”
The report can be found on the Total Environment Centre website here.
