Letter to the Editor - Re: Mokoan water savings etc
I wish to respond to claims made in a recent media release by Goulburn Valley Environment Group (GVEG) in which they call on the Government to proceed with decommissioning Lake Mokoan.
Water Savings
It is generally agreed that around 50,000 ML of water is lost each year by evaporation from Lake Mokoan. Contrary to claims by the Government, not all of this can be saved.
Decommissioning Lake Mokoan will reduce losses to about 16,000 ML – from the residual Winton & Green swamps.
The proposed Mini Lake Mokoan will reduce losses to about 16,500 ML because it will not increase the water surface area of the swamp (it will just mean that a relatively small area will have water cover all year, every year instead of four years out of five if the lake is fully decommissioned.
Misinformation re flooding and other perceived negative impacts
I reject this claim – the Justice for the Broken Valley Group have spent tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours researching scientific data and drawing upon local knowledge to support their arguments.
Unfortunately, the Government Departments – GMW, DSE & GBCMA have been less thorough and have in fact been the ones guilty of withholding the truth and peddling half truths and lies to protect their argument which, since day one, has been based on flawed and incomplete information.
The debate on flood risk can be resolved easily. GMW just needs to make public the basic information on the inflows and outflows of Lake Nillahcootie during wet years.
Unfortunately, in spite of several verbal commitments to do so, they have failed to deliver – Why?
I encourage GVEG (and any other interested groups) to take up the Justice for the Broken Valley Group’s offer to brief them on their proposal compared with full decommissioning.
Then we can resume informed debate on this very important subject.
Yours sincerely
Bill Sykes MP
Member for Benalla
Water Savings
It is generally agreed that around 50,000 ML of water is lost each year by evaporation from Lake Mokoan. Contrary to claims by the Government, not all of this can be saved.
Decommissioning Lake Mokoan will reduce losses to about 16,000 ML – from the residual Winton & Green swamps.
The proposed Mini Lake Mokoan will reduce losses to about 16,500 ML because it will not increase the water surface area of the swamp (it will just mean that a relatively small area will have water cover all year, every year instead of four years out of five if the lake is fully decommissioned.
Misinformation re flooding and other perceived negative impacts
I reject this claim – the Justice for the Broken Valley Group have spent tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours researching scientific data and drawing upon local knowledge to support their arguments.
Unfortunately, the Government Departments – GMW, DSE & GBCMA have been less thorough and have in fact been the ones guilty of withholding the truth and peddling half truths and lies to protect their argument which, since day one, has been based on flawed and incomplete information.
The debate on flood risk can be resolved easily. GMW just needs to make public the basic information on the inflows and outflows of Lake Nillahcootie during wet years.
Unfortunately, in spite of several verbal commitments to do so, they have failed to deliver – Why?
I encourage GVEG (and any other interested groups) to take up the Justice for the Broken Valley Group’s offer to brief them on their proposal compared with full decommissioning.
Then we can resume informed debate on this very important subject.
Yours sincerely
Bill Sykes MP
Member for Benalla
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posted by Greg Naylor at
4:57 PM
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