All catchment management bodies and Governments will plan to achieve a balance of effort between protecting high priority assets within a tributary river valley, and contributing equitably to protecting water quality downstream, under the Basin Salinity Management Strategy. End-of-valley targets, measured as salt concentrations and loads, will 'cap' the future allowable river salinities and set the outcomes of catchment and land and water management plans.

WHY ARE THE PLANS NEEDED?

For over a decade the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) and its partner Governments have supported the development and implementation of irrigation Land and Water Management Plans (LWMPs) and dryland catchment management plans. Catchment management organisations are currently developing new plans or reviewing existing plans, within the context of the (BSMS), the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) and State Salinity Strategies.

Irrigation LWMPs and joint salt interception works under the previous Salinity & Drainage Strategy have delivered substantial improvements in water quality in the Lower Murray. However these improvements are now threatened by the impact of dryland salinity and have to accommodate the growing requirement in irrigation regions for salt disposal entitlements (SDEs). The BSMS recognises that Basin-wide action is needed to tackle the salinity problems of the Basin, and provides the framework for coordinated effort by irrigation LWMPs and dryland catchment management plans.

A key feature of the BSMS is Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council's adoption of end-of-valley salinity targets for each tributary valley and a Basin target at Morgan in South Australia. The Basin target, which is for the shared rivers, is to maintain the salinity at Morgan at less than 800 EC for 95 per cent of the time. The targets in themselves do not represent the full range of outcomes sought, but are a way of measuring progress towards achieving the Strategy's objectives.

While the targets need to be adaptive and flexible, they will only be changed where there is adequate justification. This will provide certainty and integrity for the strategy and will ensure that our efforts are directed to finding creative and innovative ways to meet the targets. A monitoring network for collecting continuous flow and salinity data to agreed standards will assist in the complex process of assessment of progress towards end-of-valley targets.

WHAT IS PLANNED?

An interim set of end-of-valley targets for stream salinity and salt loads were developed by the partner Governments, and these were considered by catchment communities during the public comment period for the draft BSMS. New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia will finalise end-of-valley targets by March 2002, while Queensland will finalise its targets by March 2004. The current, Council adopted targets are detailed on the MDBC website: www.mdbc.gov.au

The design and delivery of outcomes from individual catchment plans will be essential to achieve Basin-wide outcomes. To assess the effects of various options and work through the trade-offs, salinity and salt load predictive tools will have to be developed. These will include flow and salinity models for the tributaries to the Murray and Darling rivers, and local to regional catchment hydrology models that can link with geophysical and other spatial information (for example, the distribution of salt in the landscape).

Under the BSMS, the States and the MDBC will assist individual catchment plans to assess the contribution of actions proposed to meeting the end-of-valley and Basin targets. The salinity effects of these actions will be recorded in end-of-valley report cards and Commission salinity registers, which will become an important mechanism for regional, State and Basin annual reporting.

The valley report cards will include both the predicted future and assessed impacts to date of the legacy of history and in-valley actions, including:

• assessed baseline conditions (as at 1 January 2000) for end of valley salinity, salt load and flow regimes;
• expected legacy of historic impacts on end of valley salinity, salt load and flow for 2015, 2050 and 2100;
• agreed end-of-valley salinity and salt load targets;
• predicted effects of proposed significant in-valley actions on end of valley salinity, salt load and flow conditions at 2015, 2050 and 2100; and
• assessed effects of significant in-valley actions undertaken to date, on end of valley salinity, salt load and flow conditions for the current year, and at 2015, 2050 and 2100.

States will each prepare a consolidated annual report card for all valleys reporting to the Commission.

WHO IS INVOLVED?

States and catchment organisations are responsible for within-valley issues associated with implementing the BSMS, and will need skills and resources to predict salinity and salt load trends and assess the effects and trade-offs associated with salinity management options. The partner Governments will assist catchment organisations by improving both access to and use of the knowledge and decision tools generated by salinity research and development.

The MDBC and partner Governments will administer a comprehensive 'knowledge generation' program to support Basin scale and within-valley planning and implementation. Priority project areas for knowledge generation include:

• flow and salinity models for the Murray and Darling rivers;
• regional catchment hydrology models;and
• Basin scale geophysical, land use, ecological, and socio-economic information.

The MDBC will support the States by:

• facilitating cross-border collaboration;
• coordinating data collection and analysis;
• encouraging the development of consistent salinity modelling and prediction tools; and
• assisting them communicate results.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Murray-Darling Basin Commission
Level 5, 15 Moore St Canberra ACT 2601
ph (02) 6279 0100
email: website:www.mdbc.gov.au

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