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Never-ending stream threatens to run dry
Carmel Egan
April 13, 2008
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WATER from Victoria's once seemingly limitless underground reservoirs is being sucked up by thirsty towns, farms and irrigators faster than it can be replaced.
Just weeks after the State Government signed the $10 billion federal agreement to save the Murray River, groundwater has emerged as the new frontier in the water wars.
Farmers, irrigators and some hydrogeologists accuse the Government of having had an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude to groundwater, treating it as the poor cousin of rivers and reservoirs.
Years of neglect and mismanagement, they say, have resulted in too many pumping licences being granted on depleted aquifers while others have been slapped with pumping bans for scant scientific reasons.
At the same time, some of the state's aquifers are reaching perilously low levels as more drought-stricken producers and irrigators hunt for alternative water sources.
Despite repeated requests, the State Government and Department of Sustainability and Environment last week failed to respond to The Sunday Age's questions about the health and monitoring of Victoria's underground water reserves.
Yet most critics acknowledge that although the Government came late to groundwater issues, its water saving strategies are moving in the right direction.
Regional water authorities are now rolling out water management plans that include compulsory metering of all new bore licences, metering of all rights over 20 megalitres and protection of aquifers identified as at risk.
However, implementation of the new plans has caused headaches for Southern Rural Water, which is responsible for all groundwater licences from Gippsland to Warrnambool.
SRW has found itself before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal at least 17 times in 20 months.
In legal action almost unheard of five years ago, the authority has been challenged for refusing to grant licences, for granting too many licences and for giving individual irrigators too much access to already depleted reserves.
The authority has itself recommended prosecutions for breaches of the Water Act, including 24 market gardeners this financial year for illegal pumping from the Werribee aquifer.
By contrast, Goulburn Murray Water, which licenses bores across the state's northern districts, has had only one tribunal matter over the same period.
Meanwhile, Victoria's bores are being driven deeper in desperate and costly measures to reach fast-retreating aquifers.
