Water flows to parched New South Wales wetlands where an urgent rescue mission to save dying wildlife unfolded are a step closer to resuming after legislation passed the state parliament’s upper house.
The water minister, Rose Jackson, told the parliament on Thursday night the impact of a halt to environmental flows in the internationally significant Gwydir region had been “devastating” as she introduced legislative amendments she said would allow flows to resume.
It came after NSW experienced its second driest April on record. A former senior environmental bureaucrat called for an investigation into separate revelations of repeated delays of environmental watering in favour of farming by the NSW environment and water department.
WaterNSW stopped flows to the Gwydir region in March after concerns were raised about flooding of private land. Scientists were filmed digging turtles out of mud in a rapidly drying waterhole in the Gingham watercourse, while a grazier described the deaths of birds, frogs and sheep on separate wetlands on his property.
Jackson told the parliament the legal amendments were necessary to ensure the state water agency was not exposed to civil liability claims when it carried out its usual operations.
She said the legal uncertainty was not confined to environmental flows and could also extend to water released for operational or consumptive purposes.
The changes amend the laws that govern WaterNSW to clearly state the water manager is protected from such liability claims.
“The impact of ceasing these flows on the environment and landholders is already evident and devastating,” Jackson said. “Turtles, fish, frogs, birds and livestock are fleeing or dying downstream of Copeton Dam.”
Jackson said if the situation continued, long-term disruption of environmental water delivery “will result in major and extreme impacts to the vegetation communities of the Lower Gwydir wetlands and the dependent fauna”. She said the situation was particularly urgent as NSW entered a drying cycle, with predicted potential for drought this year.
Data released by the Bureau of Meteorology shows the broader Murray-Darling basin experienced its driest April since 1997, while NSW’s total rainfall for April was 13% of the 1961-90 average.
The changes passed the upper house with the support of the Greens and some crossbench MPs as part of a larger bill that will enable water easements acquired by the government to be transferred to WaterNSW. The bill is expected to be voted on by the Legislative Assembly next week and, if passed, could mean flows quickly resume.
The Greens water spokesperson, Cate Faehrmann, told the parliament passage of the amendments was urgent because it could take a month for any flows to reach the area where the turtles had been found.
After travelling to the area and filming scientists rescuing turtles in April, Faehrmann described the scene as an “environmental catastrophe”. She told Guardian Australia the passage of the bill was “a win for the community too”.
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