Scientists split on letting sea into Murray
Australia’s top water scientists have split over whether the Murray River’s stricken lower lakes should be flooded with seawater in an act of desperation to save them. For many years now we have had barrages separating the freshwater coming down the river from the salt water. Historically any estuary would have had both salt and freshwater dominated regimes over the milenia but the isue is much more complex now.
While the 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has warned it may be time for such “heroic” measures, other experts say letting in the ocean because the acid sulphate soil is turning the lakes acidic. The acid sulphate soil reaction is irreversible.
The fact that opening the sea barrages to Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina is under consideration illustrates the depth of the crisis engulfing the Murray’s lower reaches, which also threatens the magnificent Coorong wetlands at the river mouth.
Farming communities who have relied on the lakes water for irrigation, stock and domestic use for generations are desperately worried and no one is able to guarantee the lakes would return to freshwater.
While people upstream want to hold onto their precious water storage the battle rages at the end of the Murray.
On one side we have the arguement that removing the barrages is “short-sighted”, and a collaboration of options including infrastructure investment and purchasing water from cotton growers would better save the river.
On the other, some researchers are arguing for a new model for the lakes where preconceptions are thrown out the window and the health of the river as a whole is placed first.
“It could be that in the long term, having that salty-type estuary is what that region looks like,” Justin Brookes, leader of a research group said. “At the moment we’re constrained by what we consider ideal – having lakes full up and always fresh. He went on to say that “We are going into a period of drying across the Murray-Darling basin, so we need to not have paradigms about what things should look like, we need to look at what is the best solution environmentally and for the whole river management.”
The alarm bells went into full clamour in January when the lakes went below sea level for the first time ever. They are now 0.36m below sea level, compared with a normal 0.75m above sea level.
That drop is felt in real terms by irrigators trying to get their pipes into fresh water and recreational users watching the water line recede into the distance.
If the saltwater solution was not already unpopular enough, Dr Brookes believes if it happens then a weir must be built upstream to stop the salt going back up – something downstream communities have been fighting against long and hard.
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