NSW country MP Helen Dalton says and artificial lakes system at the mouth of the Murray River is being maintained by so-called environmental flows that take water away from productive agriculture.The artificial lakes system has a fresh water lake on one side and a salt water lake on the other, both separated by a concrete wall.
Mrs Dalton is calling for a Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling water supply system.
“That is not a natural lake system, that is a tidal estuary forced into an artificial freshwater state,” says Mrs Dalton, the Member for Murray, one of the major agricultural regions of NSW.”
“The science is clear. Before the barrages, the Lower Lakes rose and fell with the seasons. In dry years, they became salty. At times, they ran low or dry. That was normal river behaviour.
“What we have now is permanent freshwater levels maintained by pushing vast volumes of productive water out of the Murray and down to the sea.
“That water is stripped from farms, towns and food production upstream to prop up an artificial outcome that does not reflect the river’s history or ecology.
“This is sold as “environmental science”. In reality, it is policy-driven consensus that ignores hydrology, ignores history, and ignores consequences.
“Trust the science, not the consensus that demands endless flows to hold fake lakes full at any cost.”
The MP says every gigalitre sent through these barrages at the river mouth, is a gigalitre taken from jobs, food, regional economies and a river system that was never meant to be managed this way.
“This is exactly why we need a Royal Commission into water – independent, transparent, evidence-based,” she says.
“To ask why this happened, who benefited, and why, communities were never told the truth.”
Mrs Dalton says some of the real science and the real history of the Fake Lakes cann be read at https://www.helendalton.com.au/fake-lower-lakes
An independent scientific report highlighting the truth can also be seen at https://www.helendalton.com.au/…/blog-post-title-one-saapg
