LANDOWNERS in the Edward-Wakool River area are concerned about flooding projections put to them by the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
Following a public meeting in Moulamein last week, some landowners are saying figures outlined in the Constraints Management Strategy are inaccurate.
The strategy is a 10-year project aiming to improve the way available water is managed and used in the Murray Darling Basin.
But landholders in the Edward-Wakool area are concerned by data indicating the amount of water that would be released into the floodplain area if the strategy were to go ahead.
They believe some of the inundations will cause considerable third-party damage beyond what is reasonably expected in a floodplain area.
Moulamein farmer John Lolicato said last week’s meeting had confirmed his fears.
“Around 95 per cent of people at the meeting said these inundation maps weren’t right,” Mr Lolicato said.
“These are people who have been living there a long time.”
Mr Lolicato said he believed the MDBA were not hearing their concerns.
“If we’re going to move forward we need to acknowledge what’s right and what’s wrong,” he said.
“And they need to acknowledge that there’s going to be third party impacts.”
Rice grower Jeremy Morton agreed the figures were troubling.
“They had maps indicating where the water would spread out to, but it was half of what it would really be in an actual situation,” Mr Morton said.
“We provided some feedback on that.”
Mr Morton said the impacts would be worse for growers on lower ground than his property, but that even for him the projections were “high risk”.
He said growers were worried about the impact of a natural flooding event following a man-made event as part of the strategy.
“We live on the floodplain so we’re used to flooding and we know what it’s all about,” he said.
“The difference here is if they do the environmental watering and get the catchment wet, and then we get a big natural event it increases the risks enormously.
“And if it goes from bad to worse who’s going to come in and make it all right?
“That’s the concern from our point of view.”
MDBA Yarrawonga to Wakool Junction Constraints project leader Terry Korodaj said they had used the meeting as an opportunity to seek feedback on their plans.
“We can do this analysis remotely but it’s important for us to check it, which was the point of the meeting,” Mr Korodaj said.
“Last year at [a meeting in] Moulamein we only had 10 people come along but, in contrast, this time we had 30.
“It was a good meeting, they asked a few tough questions. It’s nice to have that level of interest.”
Since last week’s meeting, alterations have already been made to inundation maps and figures, while level crossings and bridges have been added to the report.
“We ended up going out and taking photos of them and including them in our work,” Mr Korodaj said.
Mr Korodaj and his colleagues will present their findings in a report to the Basin Government Ministers at the close of 2014.
The ministers will then decide whether to move on to the feasibility stage of the strategy in 2015.
