THE NEED TO FLUSH

"18,000 years ago the Murray basin was a salt desert. If we continue to manage as we have for the past 100 years, it will again become one," observed rural writer Asa Wahlquist. ["The Murray in Myth, history and reality." http://asawahlquist.com/content/view/10/11/]

With weirs, locks, barrages, bunds, channels, reservoirs, impoundments, pipelines, dams and diversions, the Murray is not a river. It's a series of pools.

Under drought conditions, it's a chain of puddles. Some call it the longest lake in the world. Some call it a sewer, a cesspit. Stagnant water is not healthy, particularly with Australia's saline soils. In 1977, the Murray River flushed “1.1 million tonnes of salt”out to sea. Only “130,000 tonnes” came from a natural source, 64% deriving from “Victoria and New South Wales,” noted United Nations University researcher Michael Butler. [http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80190e/80190E0d.htm]

In 2002, 5.1m tonnes of salt were “mobilized” annually in the Murray-Darling Basin, 2m tonnes flushed out to sea. This amount is predicted to rise to 6.8m tonnes by 2020. [Michelle Olivier, ”The River Murray: The Big Picture.” http://www.murrayusers.sa.gov.au/big_picture1.php] 850 EC units is the magic figure for maximum safe levels of salinity levels for drinking water. In August 08, the salinity level at the Goolwa Barrage, near the Murray mouth, was 22,990, while at Meninie 5,448. If a weir is built at Wellington, and according to the SA Govt there's a 70-80% certainty it will, what will happen to all those tonnes of salt suspended in the River Murray with no where to go?

"The mouth of the Murray speaks a thousand words about the health of its catchment and its capacity to provide us with the ecosystem services we take for granted," asserts Dr Kerri Muller. Without the lower lakes and Coorong acting as the river's lings and kidneys, "the cancer will spread up to Lock 1 then above Lock 1 then...?" warns Muller.

In 1888, scientist HR Russell stated: “in a new country like this with its local variations in the laws of nature...the fact is forced upon us in a 1,000 ways that we must know or we suffer.”

In 1985, Ralph Jacobi, Federal MP, added: “We, and future generations, will suffer because of our neglect, our ignorance and our abuse if we fail to understand the unique nature of this great river and the fragility of its ecosystem.” Jacobi advocated “impartial and national approaches” to sweep aside “paraochial and vested interests.” He concluded that “Knowledge is the key if we are to solve this...”

[Who Owns the Murray? p280]

Is duilich burn glan a thoirt a tobar salach. It's difficult to draw pure water from a dirty well.