Representatives of some of the Lower South East’s major agricultural industries have joined forces to find solutions for water security.

Key points:

  • Major agricultural industries want to research whether fresh water can be harnessed for production
  • Approximately 112 gigalitres of fresh water runs out of man-made drainage system into the ocean
  • Industries say more water is needed to grow production levels

Wine, forestry, dairy, and potato producers have formed the Primary Producers Sustainable Water Group to inform future Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan reviews.

The group has developed a research proposal to investigate how fresh water that drained to the ocean could be harnessed for use.

Group member and forestry representative Laurie Hein said the group was engaging with government bodies and hoping to attract funding.

“We’ve got some ideas, we think we’ve got some shovel-ready projects that we can undertake to test some of the theories,” he said.

‘We have to find the science’

Mr Hein said that the region’s man-made drainage system was designed decades ago and did not represent the current situation.

“[Annually], we estimate there’s about 112 gigalitres of water that finds its way through the man-made drainage system out to sea,” he said.

Another forestry representative Ian MacDonnell said the project would have to go ahead whether government funding was received or not.

“For our community and for all our industries we have to find the science and make decisions on good science rather than on guesstimates,” he said.

The producers want to explore whether the water can be utilised and how it would be possible.

Dairy representative Graeme Hamilton said that knowledge would help in the future renegotiation of the region’s Water Allocation Plan.

“It’s looking at identifying locations where there are more significant volumes of water passing by a given point and matching that with points where that might be able to be injected back into the aquifer, maintaining the integrity of the water,” he said.

“The whole aquifer system is roughly in balance at the moment … so recharge and use are roughly balanced.

“For any industry to grow we’ve got to find new water from somewhere.”

A broader issue

The group’s potato industry representative Terry Buckley said it was about balancing the needs of the region.

“We fully understand we do need to hand on a working water aquifer and system to the next generation,” he said.

“It’s not about extracting every last crack that we can get out of it — we do have to have a system that works.

Mr Hamilton said in previous discussions that all the players had “really battled”.

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