Macquarie at critical drought status as river communities meet

A series of community meetings started last week and will continue this week and next week among water users and interested people throughout the state.

WaterNSW gave this stark warning this week on the water supply situation: "We need to protect the remaining water in our river systems as there is no significant rain or inflows predicted."

The community sessions will "provide an update on surface and groundwater water availability and proposed management measures if the dry conditions persist", the Department of Industry said.

The following drought stage changes, indicating a growing shortfall in water supplies and the need for temporary drought measures: Macquarie - Stage 4 (critical) ; Border Rivers, Gwydir, Peel, and Belubula - Stage 3 (severe); Murray, Murrumbidgee and Lachlan- Stage 2 (emerging) ; the Lower Darling, Lower Namoi and Barwon-Darling continue on the highest level - Stage 4 (critical).

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Michael Wrathall, drought coordinator, Department of Industry-Water, said "we are now in unprecedented territory".

"NSW water storages continue to fall with close to 100 per cent of the state now affected by drought. We need to protect the remaining water in our river systems as there is no significant rain or inflows predicted.

"Water availability across the Murray-Darling Basin remains low, particularly in the northern-inland and far west regions. A number of valleys have seen inflows below previous record lows. Our priority is to ensure that sufficient water is available for critical water needs," he said.

Stage 4 drought status means rivers have to "consider significant restrictions and other measures consistent with the NSW Extreme Events Policy".

"Landholders and communities need information about water availability so they can plan ahead, and that's what these consultations are all about," Mr Wrathall said.

Water NSW will also be meeting with members of the River Operations Stakeholder Consultative Committee (ROSCCo) immediately before or after the public information sessions, executive manager system operations, Adrian Langdon confirmed.

"Given the urgency of the drought situation in these valleys, WaterNSW has timed its stakeholder updates alongside the community meetings to minimise the amount of travel faced by attendees of both sessions.

Tony Quigley, chairman of Macquarie Food and Fibre and a member of the ROSCCo (River Operations Stakeholder Consultative Committee) representing stock and domestic users, says stakeholders in the Macquarie Valley are working closely to make sure water lasts as long as possible into next year along the river.

WaterNSW recently held a meeting last Narromine where stakeholders learnt about the most efficient way to deliver high security water without any losses.

Also about how the running of the river before Warren.

"There's only a certain amount i can talk about because of commercial in confidence reasons but really the meeting was about running the river as far as Warren and how they will release the water as slowly as they can from Burrendong Dam.

"It's also about keeping enough high security water for people in Cobar and at the mines such as CSA.

"Supply people along the way with a proportion of their high security water entitlement and try and string it out as long as possible , possibly 12 months.".

"They (WaterNSW) talked about eventually pumping some of the dead storage out of Burrendong." People will only get a proportion of their high security water, say 50 to 70 per cent. Everyone has to be frugal with their water use.

"It's actually amazing we've kept the dam going for this long as there has been no decent inflows into the dam since about January 2017. It's been a remarkable job by WaterNSW and others to keep the river flowing.

"Farmers have also helped by putting away at least 30 per cent of last year's carryover into drought suspension accounts."

A pipeline put in by the Trangie-Nevertire Irrigation Scheme is helping deliver water for stock and domestic needs. "We would have lost a fair amount of that if we hadn't put in a pipeline," Mr Quigley said. "Also it's at times like these that we may need to review the water channel to Cobar as there is a large loss of water in the Albert Priest water channel system."

It's all hands to the wheel on the Macquarie as the Dubbo abattoir leads the way in conserving water.

Dubbo Regional Council is also reviewing all its water use.

Acting CEO Chris Devitt said Dubbo Regional Council was working closely with Water NSW to ensure the ongoing provision of drinking water as part of the overall management of water in the Macquarie River.

"Under the existing water sharing plan water for human use, which is a relatively small portion of the overall water allocation within the valley, has the highest priority," he said.

"The current daily extraction for use in Dubbo is around 12ML/day, while existing river flows at Dubbo are 230ML/day. These flows are needed to ensure the river continues to provide water for all needs within the entire catchment

"Council staff will be attending a meeting this week with Water NSW and all key water users along the Macquarie River to clearly understand the water security challenge for Council and the catchment more generally.

"This will enable Council to develop an appropriate response, in conjunction with Water NSW and other water users.

"Dubbo Regional Council will continue to actively participate in the ongoing management of water in the catchment as the drought continues, as it has done during previous droughts."

With zero allocation, Mumble Peg Orchards near Narromine has gone back to just planting new orchard areas.

They were unaware of any meetings regarding water use on the Macquarie.

"It's all pretty much up in the air at the moment," the orchardist said.

At Little Big Dairy profit margins are hurting as they struggle with high feed costs. The dairy has access to groundwater which is the only thing that is keeping them going. Even though the cost per tonne of feed grain has come down about $100 a tonne in a year, the margins were still too tight.

Owner Erika Chesworth said processors still needed to show more understanding of the pressures dairy farmers were under and help ease the load in the drought.

Meanwhile, Sydneysiders are facing water restrictions for the first time in 10 years as water levels at Warragamba Dam fall to near 50 per cent.

The remaining community meetings are:

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