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Planned pipeline puts Macquarie River in jeopardy

THE Macquarie River is facing an uncertain future under a state government-approved pipeline project.

Pumping more than 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools of drinking water a year to Orange, the planned pipeline will likely put at risk an internationally-protected wetland, as well as decimate this popular native fish fishery.

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, University of NSW researchers have claimed modelling for the plan is “wrong”, that it “underestimates the impact on the Macquarie Marshes” and that the modelling used “assumes there is spare water in the system, when in fact there is none”.

While a final federal decision on whether to build the pipeline is expected within weeks, both the state and federal governments have already committed $38 million to fund the project, which requires digging a 39km pipeline from the Macquarie River to Orange.

Read the full article on the Sydney Morning Herald website.

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