Where's Wally? (2)

The Clarence Valley continues to look under large rocks and peer into deep hollows in an effort to find those 5 gigalitres, which aspiring water raiders appear to believe rushes down the Clarence River each year in an orgy of wastefulness.

However, suspicions are growing.

Perhaps the water raiders are expecting every millimetre of annual rainfall to actually make its way into the river system?

In does seem that, in an effort to cobble together data, a percentage of river flow volume contains water which may in fact have been counted twice.

But what is most disturbing is that the SMEC desktop study indicates that, below the alternate proposed 100,000ML/Yr extraction storage sites, no thought appears to have been given to the cumulative effect of this new extraction and existing extraction elsewhere in the Clarence River system.

Or that by the time the Clarence River is about 20kms below Copmanhurst, it will be expected to conservatively lose an estimated 136,000ML to 167,000ML of natural freshwater inflow annually.

Any increase in Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour population will potentially increase this annual freshwater loss, as will any decrease in average annual rainfall.

Shades of the Murray-Darling.