Locals lap up lake promise
Broken Hill environmentalists have welcomed a National Party MP's pledge to reform management of the Menindee Lakes.
Nationals’ Member for Barwon Kevin Humphries says he will lobby state and federal colleagues to help end the “boom and bust” cycle that the lakes tend to follow.
Broken Hill was on the brink of running out of water in 2015, forcing the Government to look at emergency supply measures. However, significant rains had largely filled the system by the second half of 2016.
Mr Humphries has proposed creating a regulator between Lake Menindee and Lake Cawndilla, which would stop too much water from running into Cawndilla, where it cannot be extracted.
The plan would give NSW authorities control over the use of water in Lake Menindee if it dipped below 80 per cent capacity.
Lake Cawndilla would then be given over to federal authorities like the Murray-Darling Basin Authority for downstream releases.
Mr Humphries said the system would let Lake Menindee hold more water more often.
“This is not the Government's position, let's be very clear, at this point in time,” Mr Humphries said.
“Does the Government know I'm coming? Yes they do, and I'll be quite strong on the issue.
“But it helps me a lot if we've got the community sitting behind at all times and out in front at times.”
The Broken Hill and Darling River Action Group has backed the idea.
“The advantage of having water held actually in Lake Menindee would be it [holds] more water than [Lakes] Pamamaroo and Wetherell together,” group president Tom Kennedy told the ABC.
“It would allow people that own houses on Sunset Strip to have water there, and I'm sure it would have a desirable effect on the Menindee township.”
Mr Kennedy said it was good to find some level of agreement, after years of friction with the State Government.
“What is happening is the politicians are starting to understand the community is not going to put up with being told what to do completely,” he said.
“They're attempting to come up with solutions, and when governments attempt to come up with solutions it can only be a good thing for the community.”