The Impact and Issues of Increased Farm Dam Development on Victorian Water Resources

In Australia, the growth of agriculture has led to an increased need for water at the farm level. With the decline in construction of major dams, this demand for water is increasingly being met by the development of various sized farm dams, both on and off-waterway within water catchment areas. Such developments are most likely to impact on the adequacy of policies and standards currently in use by resource managers and regulators. Of particular concern are the difficulties posed in planning and managing Victoria's water resources, maintaining adequate safety standards, minimising environmental effects and the absence of sufficient information to undertake relevant studies. This paper describes a methodology to assess catchment yield in a dammed catchment and highlights the trend in farm dam construction and the drawbacks in the current irrigation licence assessment. A case study is presented and discussed on the current methodology within the context of implications for environmental flows downstream. General comments are made on safety aspects, resource management and licensing issues.