The delegation - which included Water Group deputy secretary Amanda Jones, acting CEO Ash El-Sherbini, chief knowledge officer water management Mitchell Isaacs, grants program director Kirsty Fenton and senior environmental water management officer (Murray Lower Darling) Paul Childs - received a first hand look at the innovative water saving projects and infrastructure the IIOs are implementing within the Southern Connected Basin, and spoke with local landholders about issues that are most important to them.
The visit formed part of the series of joint quarterly meetings that have been taking place between the Southern Connected Basin IIOs and the department throughout the year.
Day one of the tour focused on the Murray Irrigation footprint.
The itinerary began with a visit to the Mascotte Escape where Mr Childs explained how improvements to infrastructure has enabled greater capacity of water to flow through the escapes.
In 2017 the NSW Government contributed to the cost of upgrading this crucial environmental delivery outlet (and others located within the footprint) to enable more efficient delivery of environmental water to the Jimaringle-Cockran creek system.
This upgrade was the precursor to the $33.5 million Commonwealth funding toward Murray Irrigation’s Restoring Murray Waterways environmental watering project.
The guests also visited a local farm and were taken on tour of the Wakool Tullakool Sub-Surface Drainage Scheme site.
Murray Irrigation CEO Ron McCalman acknowledged the efforts of Ms Jones and her team in making time to visit the local footprint to better understand the work Murray Irrigation is undertaking, with a particular focus on environmental watering.
“It was also a great opportunity for our local farmers to raise genuine concern they have in relation to supplementary water conventions, and to explore options for the Wakool Tullakool Salt Abatement Scheme,“ Mr McCalman said.
The visitors headed north on Tuesday to explore Coleambally Irrigation and Murrumbidgee Irrigation sites and to meet local farmers and see the infrastructure development across both IIOs.
“We really valued the opportunity to show off our part of the region to the department’s representatives,” Colemablly Irrigation CEO Julian Speed said.
“The impacts of on-ground work are not always understood from written reports, and Coleambally Irrigation’s overall water efficiency and its role in delivering environmental benefits is something worth seeing.”
The team from NSW DPIE (Water) made their way to Murrumbidgee Irrigation’s Roaches Surge Reservoir, located 5km east of Yanco, where they were greeted by general manager of asset performance and engineering Alan Shea and lead site manager Nick Di Pompo, as well as members from Entracon Civil Pty Ltd.
The team explored the site, gaining a thorough understanding of the planning and execution put into the site, as well as the scale of activity expected to flow in and out of the reservoir.
The group then travelled to a site located 2km from Gogeldrie Weir, on the Murrumbidgee River.
This site is the centre of a new feasibility study Murrumbidgee Irrigation is hoping to receive funding for.
The team explained the vision for the newly purchased block of land, detailing a new sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism (SDLAM) project aiming to ease constraints present in the Murrumbidgee River to better environmental watering events as well as assist in managing on farm water efficiency and delivery.
“New South Wales DPIE has a tough road ahead with the looming approval of the Restoring Our Rivers Bill,” Murrumbidgee Irrigation CEO Brett Jones stated.
“Having been on the ground, hopefully putting context to complex project submissions, will assist the department in approving funding for projects for filling the gap in SDLAM offsets and which also have elements of supply and efficiency savings.”
