Lake Brewster water efficiency project
Lake Brewster, Lachlan River, NSW
Total funding: Total funding: $12.5 million, with $7.5 million from the Australian Government, $2.5 million from the State Water Corporation funding (collected via water charges) and $2.5 million from the Lachlan Catchment Management Authority.
About the project
The project aims to improve the efficiency of Lake Brewster as a water storage on the Lachlan River in NSW. Lake Brewster will be divided into four management units: inlet wetland; two lake cells; and outlet wetland. The project is a joint initiative between regional natural resource managers, water delivery managers and water users on the Lachlan River. The project will reduce evaporative losses and at the same time provide environmental benefits for Lake Brewster and the downstream riverine ecosystem. This is an example of all stakeholders working together for a more sustainable, efficient and secure river operation.
Project benefits
The project will:
- generate water savings of up to 10 GL to be shared between a new adaptive environmental water access licence, State Water and water users;
- improve general security licence reliability;
- reduce time lags for water orders being met below Lake Brewster by up to 18 days;
- create 1,100ha of managed wetlands to improve water quality and habitat in Lake Brewster and water quality discharged to Lachlan River;
- reproduce more natural cycles for an ephemeral inland lake;
- manage flows to mirror more natural conditions in the river system; and
- create environmental benefits for the riverine environment downstream of Lake Brewster.
The project will advance the National Water Initiative objectives of providing greater certainty of management of water resources for both industry and the environment.
Progress
The capital works for this project are near completion. They include:
- The construction of a main dividing embankment to create two separate water storage cells
- Deepening of the outlet channel to increase discharge from the storage at low levels
- The creation of three spillways to pass inflows into the main storage cell from the inflow wetland
- The construction of an embankment for the creation of an inflow wetland
- The construction of a number of regulators to control the flow of water into and out of the wetlands and storage cells
Water Smart Australia projects are funded by the Australian Government's Water for the Future initiative.
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