There were fines (a small percentage of the value of the water) imposed and the irrigator brought their account back to positive by the end of the season.
In October-November 2019, Murray Zone 7 water was trading around $900/Ml and down to the $200s at the season's end. That is a difference of $700-800,000 per 1000 Ml of water, a huge saving to the irrigator and a loss to the water vendors
Surely Lower Murray Water has an obligation to enforce their rules about water in an account before usage.
Goulburn-Murray Water strictly enforces this rule and actually stops water flow on automated outlets the moment the account is fully drawn. G-MW prosecutes pumpers who pump when no water in their accounts.
The cost difference between the price of water when it is used versus when it is bought could be many millions of dollars if this practice is widespread.
The ‘profit’ in the above case is with the irrigator and the ‘loss’ with the water vendor.
There are many very large orchards in Zone 7 or South Australia that rely on the buying of temporary water to supplement their needs, and it is in everyone's interest to have an open and well regulated temporary water market with correct information to all parties.
If some irrigators don’t adhere to the rules and they are not enforced then the whole viability of trading water and the continuation of water users relying on temporary water trading is questionable!
Where such huge variations in a season occur the probability of water traders looking to take these profits is extremely high.
Lower Murray Water, if it doesn’t enforce its rules, could face a class action from legal firms seeking work to try and recoup some of the losses by water vendors.
Neither of these two things are really in irrigators’ interest. A fair and enforced system needs to the same across all Victorian irrigation districts
Graeme Oakes
Tatura
