Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River
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Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River RECOMMENDATIONS Revision E July 2006 Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River – Recommendations Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River RECOMMENDATIONS L:\work\NRG\PROJECTS\2005\042 Gellibrand\02\03 Recommendations Paper\Recommendations_RevE.doc Document History: ISSUE REVISION AUTHOR CHECKED APPROVED DESCRIPTION DATE NUMBER Dec 2005 A C.Stephenson L.Roach C.Arnott Preliminary Draft Draft Jan 2006 B C.Stephenson L.Roach C.Arnott Recommendations Draft Feb 2006 C C.Stephenson L.Roach C.Arnott Recommendations Revised May 2006 D C.Stephenson L.Roach C.Arnott Recommendations – Reach 3 July 2006 E C.Stephenson L.Roach L.Roach CCMA Comments Natural Resources Group Earth Tech Engineering Pty Ltd ABN 61 089 482 888 Head Office 71 Queens Road Melbourne VIC 3004 Tel +61 3 8517 9200 All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form by any means without the written permission of Corangamite Catchment Management Authority. Intellectual Property Rights All Rights Reserved. All methods, processes, commercial proposals and other contents described in this document are the confidential intellectual property of Corangamite Catchment Management Authority and may not be used or disclosed to any party without the written permission of Corangamite Catchment Management Authority. © Corangamite Catchment Management Authority Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River – Recommendations Contents Contents .................................................................................................................. i Tables....................................................................................................................... i 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Outline of this Report ...................................................................................................................4 2 Approach to EWR Analysis .......................................................................... 5 2.1 Flow Analysis ...............................................................................................................................5 2.2 Philosophy of Flow Determination................................................................................................5 2.3 Rates of Rise and Fall..................................................................................................................6 3 Reach Recommendations............................................................................. 7 Reach One – Love Creek Catchment .......................................................................................... 8 Reach Two A – Gellibrand River at James Access Bridge......................................................... 13 Reach Two B – Upper Gellibrand River (downstream of 2A) ..................................................... 18 Reach Three – Carlisle River Catchment................................................................................... 23 Reach Four – Gellibrand River Mid Reach................................................................................. 28 Reach Five – Kennedys Creek Catchment ................................................................................ 33 Reach Six – Estuary................................................................................................................... 38 4 Flow Recommendation Comparison.......................................................... 42 5 Supporting Recommendations .................................................................. 44 6 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 45 7 References................................................................................................... 46 Appendix A Environmental Flow Needs of the Gellibrand River Estuary Tables Table 3-1 Flow Processes and Components – Reach One .....................................9 Table 3-2. Flow recommendations for Reach 1 – Love Creek Catchment .............12 Table 3-3 Recommended average and maximum rates of rise and fall (expressed as the change in discharge of the event divided by the length of the event, ML/day/day) ....................................................................................................12 Table 3-4 Flow Processes and Components – Reach Two A ................................14 Table 3-5. Flow recommendations for Reach 2A – Gellibrand River at James Access Bridge .................................................................................................17 Table 3-6 Recommended average and maximum rates of rise and fall (expressed as the change in discharge of the event divided by the length of the event, ML/day/day) ....................................................................................................17 Table 3-7 Flow Processes and Components – Reach Two B ................................19 Table 3-8. Flow recommendations for Reach 2B – Upper Gellibrand River (downstream of 2A).........................................................................................22 Page i Recommendations_Final.doc July 2006 Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River – Recommendations Table 3-9 Recommended average and maximum rates of rise and fall (expressed as the change in discharge of the event divided by the length of the event, ML/day/day) ....................................................................................................22 Table 3-10 Flow Processes and Components – Reach Three...............................24 Table 3-11. Flow recommendations for Reach 3 – Carlisle River ..........................27 Table 3-12. Recommended average and maximum rates of rise and fall (expressed as the change in discharge of the event divided by the length of the event, ML/day/day) ....................................................................................................27 Table 3-13 Flow Processes and Components – Reach Four.................................29 Table 3-14. Flow recommendations for Reach 4 – Gellibrand River Mid Reach ....32 Table 3-15. Recommended average and maximum rates of rise and fall (expressed as the change in discharge of the event divided by the length of the event, ML/day/day) ....................................................................................................32 Table 3-16 Flow Processes and Components - Reach Five .................................34 Table 3-17. Flow recommendations for Reach 5 – Kennedys Creek Catchment ...37 Table 3-18. Recommended average and maximum rates of rise and fall (expressed as the change in discharge of the event divided by the length of the event, ML/day/day) ....................................................................................................37 Table 3-19. Risk Matrix for Flow-related Environmental Risks...............................38 Table 3-20. Major ecological processes by which reduced estuary flows can impact estuarine ecosystems (based on Pierson et al , 2002 and cited in Sherwood, 2005)...............................................................................................................39 Table 3-21. Comparison of Flow Recommendations for the Estuary and Reach 4 (immediately upstream of the Estuary) ............................................................41 Table 4-1 Flow Comparison ..................................................................................42 Please cite this document as: Earth Tech (2005). Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River – Recommendations . Unpublished report to the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority. Page ii Recommendations_Final.doc July 2006 Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River – Recommendations The Gellibrand River Environmental Water Requirements Technical Panel (the Technical Panel) consists of (in alphabetical order, with fields of expertise): Chris Arnott Chair of the Technical Panel & Project Manager Tim Doeg Macroinvertebrate ecology and fish Ross Hardie Geomorphology James Kaye Riparian vegetation Lisa Roach Hydraulic modelling John Sherwood Estuarine processes The Steering Committee for the project consisted of: Mee Teng Barwon Water Greg Williams Corangamite Catchment Management Authority Steve Nicol Department of Sustainability and the Environment John Whitewood Wannon Water Cameron Welsh Southern Rural Water The Advisory Group consisted of: Ivan Sharp Irrigator Ian Vesey Irrigator Kevin Ferrari Irrigator Robert Maxwell Irrigator Terry Harris Irrigator Gavin Bone Irrigator Steve Theodore Recreational angler Chris Tipler Environment Victoria Peter Gstrein Southern Rural Water Jill Fleming on behalf of Ian Voigt Department of Sustainability and Environment Gary Summers on behalf of Darren Shiell Parks Victoria Troy Duthrie on behalf of Graeme Hannel Fisheries Victoria Denis Lovric Corangamite Catchment Management Authority Anne-Marie McCarthy on behalf of Environment Protection Authority Alexander Jovcic Page iii Recommendations_Final.doc July 2006 Assessment of Environmental Flow Requirements for the Gellibrand River – Recommendations Acronyms/Abbreviations Used in this report: BE Bulk water Entitlements CMA Catchment Management