Professor Gary Jones, Chief Executive of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology and Chairman of the SRP, said today, "The important conclusion from the report is that more environmental water is needed for the River Murray -- at least 750 GL and probably 1500 GL." (One GL is one gigalitre or 1,000 million litres.)

"The report and supporting documents provide all the evidence supporting further environmental allocations, and where the benefits will be seen along the Murray. It is the summary effort of more than 60 leading Australian freshwater scientists," he said.

"Nevertheless," concludes Professor Jones, "we may never resolve to everyone's level of satisfaction the exact volume of environmental flow needed, yet we cannot afford to wait any longer before we act."

"State and federal governments (under COAG) have now agreed to provide up to $500 million to start buying water for the River Murray. While this might not be enough to secure the long-term health of the Murray, it will be a useful beginning. Some practical on-ground trials of generous environmental flows -- set up with well funded monitoring programs -- are what is now needed. A first-step decision from the Ministerial Council in November must allow this to happen."


For interview: Professor Gary Jones, CRC for Freshwater Ecology at the University of Canberra
Phone: 02 6201 5167 or 0408 411 033. Email: gjones@enterprise.canberra.edu.au

THE NOTES BELOW SUMMARISE THE MAIN FINDINGS OF THE LEAKED REPORT.

International reviewers' comments on the SRP draft interim report have been now received, and are strongly supportive. They acknowledge the serious time constraints put on this very complex scientific assessment and the limitations this put on the assessment process. The reviewers said that the Scientific (SRP) report "represents a major first achievement in the integration of science with large scale water resource management in Australia".

The SRP draft interim report offers interim scientific advice, both for politicians, government advisors and the public to consider, and to promote discussion around the benefits of environmental flows. Contrary to the statements in some media articles, the SRP report makes no 'recommendations' about necessary environmental flow volumes.

The SRP draft interim report shows that a realistic allocation of environmental water is required to reverse the currently unsustainable River Murray condition. Doing nothing more, or providing a low level of environmental flow in the long term, will provide little system-wide benefit and will not secure a healthy working river.

The report provides evidence that allocations of water at the lower end of the reference range (350 GL) may provide significant local benefits for some parts of the Murray, but substantial 'whole-of-Murray' benefits only start to appear at 750 GL, and more generally for 1500 GL.

The report concludes that 1500 GL, well managed, and combined with additional structural improvements (such as fish ladders and wetland regulators) provides the best hope for the provision of a healthy working River Murray. The report does not indicate that 750 GL cannot achieve this aim, only that it is much less likely to do so.

The report also shows that there are substantial ecological gains to be made through smarter use of every gigalitre of environmental water (e.g. through the use of regulators to improve wetting and drying cycles for wetlands: such demonstration projects are already underway on the Murray, e.g. Moira Lake in NSW and Lake Merreti in South Australia). For example, in some cases, smart use of 750 GL can provide better ecological outcomes than dumb use of 1500 GL.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission has indicated that a first-step decision, presumably at the lower end of the range of values examined, would target specific areas of the river having high ecological value. This could be a reasonable management option in the first instance, but scientists would be concerned about a sole focus on river floodplain sites while ignoring the critical role and health of the river channel proper.

The Final SRP Report (this is the Interim report) will be developed for the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council over the next 12 months.

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