Water management issues
Issues for water management in Williams River system
There are 3 main areas of concern with regards to the management of the Williams River system:
- Environmental releases from Chichester Dam
- Environmental releases from proposed Tillegra Dam
- Community consultation on all river usage issues
1. Environmental regulation and reporting for environmental flows on Chichester River
HWC is regulated to release up to 14 ML (million litres) from Chichester Dam on a daily basis, depending on inflows. The most recent detailed information available from HWC’s website, graphs the flow releases from Chichester Dam through its 2005-2006 Environmental and ESD Indicators Report which can be found at: http://www.hunterwater.com.au/files/ESD_Indicators_-_2005-06.pdf.
This report shows that the river was just switched off, for up to several days at a time, every week, for over six months. An exemption from the rule was only in place 11% of the time. These regulations were put in place to protect the sensitive ecological processes in the river system i.e. the plants, water insects, fish, mussels and other freshwater organisms. The Environmental and ESD Indicators Report for 2006-07 and 2007-08, and therefore the data about environmental releases from Chichester, is not easily accessible or not reported on the HWC website.
2. Planned water releases from proposed Tillegra Dam
a) There has been no information released about HWC plans for environmental flows into the Williams River from the proposed Tillegra Dam.
This information is critical in relation to:
· the downstream impacts of low, medium and high flood events being captured by the dam
· the time it will take the dam to fill
· the timing of water releases to Grahamstown Dam
b) Other water management issues in the Williams:
· the needs of downstream irrigators
· impacts on downstream recreational users e.g. Clarence Town
3. Community Consultation
The management of rivers below major water storages is a very complex issue which needs a lot of transparent community consultation.
This is not occurring with the Tillegra Dam proposal.
teengi2@aapt.net.au said:
WHy not utilise the water of Lostock to add any needed increments to Chichester storage? Lostock is not utilised, nor seems to be ever.