This Public Environment Report (PER) has been prepared for the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) for the assessment and approval of an action that may have an impact upon Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
The proposed action is the modified operation of the fully modernised Goulburn Murray Irrigation District (GMID) in northern Victoria to be delivered by the Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project (NVIRP). The controlling provisions under the EPBC Act were determined to be:
- wetlands of international importance (sections 16 and 17B)
- listed threatened species and communities (sections 18 and 18A)
- listed migratory species (sections 20 and 20A).
This PER has been prepared in accordance with the Guidelines (Appendix 2) issued by DEWHA on 24 December 2009. The final PER has been amended to incorporate relevant comments received during the consultation period for the draft PER. DEWHA accepted NVIRP’s final PER on Friday 12 March 2010 and this triggered the assessment period of up to 40 business days for the Federal Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts to make a decision on whether or not to approve the action.
On Monday 10 May 2010 the action was approved by the Federal Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.
NVIRP is projected to return up to 175 gigalitres (175 billion litres) on an annual long term average to rivers and wetlands including the Murray River and Ramsar Wetlands, delivering the water at the right times for the best environmental outcomes.
NVIRP is confident that the operation of the fully-modernised system, with approved Environmental Watering Plans and management measures in place, will not result in significant impacts on wetlands, threatened species and listed migratory species of national environmental significance.
Environmental watering plans are being developed for sites of high environmental value to make sure they are not adversely affected by the project.