Mokoan: key issues remain unresolved

The key issues arising from the decommissioning of Lake Mokoan (ie water security, flooding, future land use and equitable sharing of water savings) remain unresolved after six years of battling by Broken Valley irrigators and the Benalla community.

Nationals Member for Benalla, Bill Sykes said, “As we all know, the new Minister for Water, Tim Holding, fell into the same trap as his predecessor, John Thwaites, when he re-affirmed in December 2007 the decision to decommission Lake Mokoan based on flawed and incomplete information.

100 days on we are still waiting for:-

• Government support for an independent assessment of the current level of security of supply of irrigator water – (The previous ‘so called’ independent assessment was done with extremely restrictive terms of reference which precluded considering a range of potential impacts of Blue Green Algae rather than the most extreme impact used ie. that blue green algae causes closure of Mokoan 95 years out of 100 – something which is clearly not true!)

• Government assurances regarding increased flood risks to Benalla and downstream –. Earlier Government assurances have stated ‘minimal risk increase’ but further historical evidence of floods, including in the Winton area in 1939 which washed out part of the railway line, has re-affirmed doubts about the basis for the Government’s assurances.
The Government has now agreed that another flood risk assessment should be done.

• Future Land Use – Over 12 months ago the Government was presented with a future land use strategy for the Mokoan area post decommissioning.
Successive Ministers have failed to get their minds around the subject and failed to commit the $30m plus required to ensure a ‘world class wetland’ rather than a weed and pest animal infested jungle.

• Equitable sharing of water savings – The recent Federal Government commitment of $1 billion for water saving projects in Victoria involves sharing of the water savings on a 50:50 basis between irrigators and the environment.
At this stage not one litre of the claimed 50 billion litre water savings from decommissioning Lake Mokoan is ear marked for Broken Valley irrigators.

Dr Sykes concluded, “I call on the Brumby Government to immediately address these important issues for which the most simple and cost effective solution is to accept the irrigator’s proposal for a ‘mini Lake Mokoan’ – but of course that would require Mr Brumby and Mr Holding admitting that they ‘got it wrong’ – something that neither are good at doing!”