Farmer slams 'disgraceful' rainwater plan

[annielaurie]

Farmer slams 'disgraceful' rainwater plan

21 Oct/2009

A dairy farmer south of Warragul says it is unfair that farmers have to pay to use rainwater in their dams ...

Farmers have until the end of February to get commercial water licences or risk fines from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE).

Mountain View farmer Alison Drew says the water licence and associated costs will be more than $1,000.

"Every skerrick of water that we use on our farm is water we have caught on our own property," she said. "With that comes a huge cost anyway without DSE getting involved and putting a meter on our property for our own caught water. This is an absolute disgrace - it's bureaucracy at its finest."

The DSE's Patrick O'Halloran says legislation requiring farmers to licence their dams came in in 2002. He says farmers are given a chance to get a licence without being fined.

"They have had to licence catchment dams since 2002 and this program is providing them with an opportunity to do that without any penalties," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... ?site=news

Discussion ...

[Jovial Monk]

I ain't no farmer but from a catchment management point of view I guess they want to know what water won't make it down to resevoirs.

[boxy]

AFAIK, it only applies to huge dams, 50 megalitres and over.

Runaway bureaucracy is the price we pay for runaway population levels.

[JWFrogen]

.

Runaway bureaucracy is the price we pay for runaway population levels.

Don't blame me, I invested in Thunderdome.

[freediver]

Probably 90+% of rainwater falls on someone's farm or private property. Then it flows through several other people's properties. What do they expect the government to do? Come up with some plan that lets them divvy up all the water for themselves and let the rivers run dry? The rivers are communal property. The farmers have always been entitled to the water that falls on their land and stays there, but not the runoff. Nor are they automatically entitled to any gold etc they find on their property. This farmer is whinging about an age old law as if it was something new.

[boxy]

Actually, before 1999 there was no cap on what runoff you could collect. It is a change from the age old situation, so that now you are limited to around 10% of runoff.

http://www.water.nsw.gov.au/Water-Licen ... fault.aspx

[freediver]

My family has always had farms. There have always been laws governing this. Farmers have always complained about it. It is not something new. This is just another whinging farmer trying to pretend that a slight modification to an existing law is a whole new law that takes away their natural rights, justifying some new compensation. Australian farmers milk the 'aussie battler' thing for all it's worth. They are just another handout seeker pulling the heartstrings of an ignorant public. The fact that they work 16 hours a day for bugger all pay doesn't make them more deserving, just stupid.

[mantra.]

There are so few farmers left - most nations give their farmers a whole lot more support than we do. If we make life too difficult for them - we'll end up with all our grain and produce imported from some third world country - or even worse China.

There needs to be more of a compromise towards water. I would think most farmers use less water than heavy industry and mining which are the biggest guzzlers and are always situated on water basins and rivers. It's just another ploy to drive the few remaining farmers off their land. There are only a handful of dairy farms left thanks to the last government.

[Jovial Monk]

True, Mantra, there are few farmers left--it is all giant agribusiness these days.

[boxy]

"Stupid... like a fox!"

Don't know where your families farm was, but before the licensing change, dam construction was either unregulated or unenforced around here. You couldn't dam a permanent or semi-permanent creek/river, but otherwise it was open slather. It's only with more intensive agriculture that licensing became necessary.