Could Lake Coolah, near Narrandera, become the site of a dam. Photo: Showcasing the Riverina Facebook.
Narrandera Mayor Neville Kschenka has announced his council is seeking funds to conduct a feasibility study into transforming the nearby Lake Coolah and Lake Mejum into a water storage site.
For many years, Riverina councils and irrigators have urged government to consider creating a channel to make the two natural lakes located 12 km from Narrandera a permanent 50,000 megalitre dam.
Advocates argue this water storage could help ‘drought-proof’ the region and become a tourist attraction.
“The Lake Coolah Mejum area has been identified as a potential source capable of saving water by providing a mid-river storage location, and the project meets the criteria of the Australian Government’s Resilient Rivers Water Infrastructure Program,” Mayor Kschenka said.
Narrandera Council says the project would focus on improving water logistics, water quality and meeting the goals of the Australian Government to recover 450,000 megalitres of water for the benefit of the environmental program, while sustaining the economic viability of the regional agricultural and agribusiness commerce and employment.
“While this Lake Coolah water storage opportunity has been studied from the 1930s through to the 1980s, significant advances in modern technologies in the design and operation of water storage present an opportunity to undertake a contemporary feasibility assessment,” Narrandera Council said in a statement.
“With the introduction of the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) Plan, water trading, water as an investment assets class, permanent higher valued tree and vine cropping, and off-farm processing investments, there is ample reason to investigate the viability of this project for both environmental goals, regional drought security, and regional food production sustainability beyond 2025.”
In 1980, a NSW Government body called the Water Resources Commission published a paper outlining the benefits of a Lake Mejum water storage scheme and what was needed to make it happen.
“The concept of the Lake Mejum Scheme is based on the utilisation of water derived by diversion to the lakes of surplus Murrumbidgee River flows arising from spills and other storages, contributions from downtown tributaries, oversupply and irrigation cutbacks. Additionally, the presence of a large body of water in close proximity to the centre of demand will further increase the efficiency of utilisation of the present resources of the Murrumbidgee River,” the paper stated.
The program has been floated many times since then but never progressed. Leeton Shire Council also asked government to consider the lakes as a site of a new dam in 2014 and 2021.
Narrandera Shire Council has engaged Arche Consulting principal Mr John Madden to develop the scoping study to support its current application.
Council will host a community information session to discuss the grant application and proposed feasibility study of Lake Coolah and Lake Mejum water storage. Interested stakeholders and the public are invited to attend at 6:30 pm on Wednesday 6 November at the Emergency Operations Centre, 17 Twynam Street, Narrandera.
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