Water, Land and People - Goulburn Broken Catchment ...

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
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• Transfers of CSWMS from the City of Greater
Shepparton to Goulburn-Murray Water has
progressed (Ardmona 1BP, Ardmona 1CP and
Ardmona 7P); finalisation of these is expected in
2009-2010.
Community Surface Water Management
Incentives
Targets
• Construction of 5.95km of Community Surface
Water Management System;
• Initiation, Survey and Design of a number of
Community Surface Water Management Systems.
Progress
• Initiation of Community Surface Water Management
System:
o Muckatah 18P
• Survey and Design of Community Surface Water
Management Systems in progress:
o Muckatah 4/8P
o Muckatah 22P
o Muckatah 2/3P and 3/8P.
• The Survey and Design of the Mosquito 8/25P
Community Surface Water Management System was
completed. The next step is for landholders to vote
on whether to proceed to construction;
• Construction completed of the Muckatah 2/8P
Community Surface Water Management System with
a total length of 1.95km. This system was constructed
under a Water Act agreement;
• Construction completed of the Muckatah 4P
Community Surface Water Management System
which is 4km in length. The main section of this
system will be Goulburn-Murray Water managed
with the flexible spur managed under a Water Act
agreement.
Policy implementation
• A change in Community Surface Water Management
guidelines to allow flexibility on the ends of
spurs, known as the ‘flexible spurs’ option, was
implemented for the first time with the construction
of the Muckatah 4P. This change allowed a section
of the system, running through the second last
property, to be of a lower design standard, yet
provides the same level of service, as the ‘standard’
section of drain. This helped to reduce the costs and
land required to construct the Community Surface
Water Management System and has been identified
as instrumental in the Muckatah 4P proceeding to
construction;
• The “Boring Under Trees Policy” was implemented
for the first time on the Muckatah 4P Community
Surface Water Management System. Rather than
remove three large Grey Box trees, or divert
the system around them, the drain was instead
bored underneath which provided benefits to the
environment as well as the landholders involved.
A case study has been prepared comparing the
efficiencies of this method which has proven that in
this instance it was the most cost effective option.
Increasing Water Use Efficiency through
Strategic Water Harvesting – Drainage
Nutrient Removal Incentive Scheme
Scheme background
The Drainage Nutrient Removal Incentive Scheme
(DNRIS) was introduced in April of 1998 to encourage
landowners to construct strategically located storages
(drainage nutrient removal systems) to collect and use
regional drainage water. The water and nutrients collected
can be used productively and are not lost to areas of
the catchment where they may cause problems such as
blue green algae blooms. These storages can increase
the volume of water available to the landowner and
reduce the amount of nutrient rich water entering our
waterways.
Targets - long term:
• Increase the amount of nutrient-rich water diverted
from regional drains and used productively on farm
by 25 percent;
• Capture 10,000ML of water savings from regional and
farm drainage to be used for maximum public benefit;
• Improve irrigation management across 50 percent of
the newly drained Shepparton Irrigation Region in
the next five years;
• Contribute significantly to the Goulburn Broken
Water Quality Strategy goal of reducing phosphorous
and nitrogen drain loads by 50 percent by 2016
through decreasing the amount of poor quality
(high nutrient/salt) water leaving the catchment and
flowing into environmentally sensitive waterways.