Tasmanian Irrigation has an unwavering commitment to environmental and sustainability excellence.
The Company’s Environment Team is responsible for ensuring Tasmanian Irrigation operates and develops irrigation schemes that are environmentally sustainable, as well as monitoring environmental compliance obligations, supporting regulatory approval processes and promoting sustainability and environmental awareness within the organisation and across the wider community.
Tasmanian Irrigation implements a range of procedures to ensure all activities undertaken meet environmental statutory requirements and are conducted in an environmentally responsible manner.
All monitoring programs in 2021/22 again found no discernible impacts from Tasmanian Irrigation operations. No incidents of environmental harm were recorded, and no listed aquatic weeds were detected in Tasmanian Irrigation’s storages.
In accordance with State and Federal approvals, surveys continued across schemes for the presence of native and pest fish, aquatic habitat quality for burrowing crayfish and giant freshwater crayfish, progress of rehabilitation, and to detect any erosion impacts from water releases into receiving waterways.
All surveys continue to show minimal impact from Tasmanian Irrigation activities.
Tasmanian Irrigation’s Environment Team has also developed Operational Environmental Management Plans (OEMPs) for all operational schemes. Phase one of the project involvs auditing all schemes and gauging each Scheme Operator's understanding of environmental requirements.
The next phase involves the preparation of an overarching OEMP with sections on weed and pest management, chemical handling and storage, water quality monitoring, biosecurity and maintaining water licence data records, and scheme specific coversheets with detailed requirements particular to each scheme.
The third phase involves the formal training of all Scheme Operators on the requirements of the plans.
Regular review of the OEMP and scheme-specific aspects is undertaken to ensure currency.
Tasmanian Irrigation understands that its environmental obligations extend beyond the development of schemes to include their enduring impacts once operating. It is a requirement that water from schemes developed by Tasmanian Irrigation may only be applied on land and dams in accordance with a completed Farm Water Access Plan (Farm WAP). Farm WAPs contain water, soil and biodiversity modules to ensure that the application of water accords with modern sustainability principles.