Call for lake flushing channel

The water health of Lake Ewlyamartup near Katanning could continue to decline, rendering the popular recreation spot unusable if funding to build a flushing channel is not approved by State Government.

Katanning Landcare district officer Andrea Salmond said the lake’s water health was on the crux of a tipping point but high salt and nutrient levels could be returned to safe levels with the implementation of the proposed flushing channel.

“Lake Ewlyamartup is a fairly unique body of water; where most lakes have an inlet and an outlet stream, which keeps the water moving, Ewlyamartup doesn’t have an outlet,” she said.

“So what they want to do is install a flushing channel with a gateway to allow excess water, once the lake is full, to flow out.

“It is the movement of the water flowing back out that will help move some sediment and take away the waste and keep salt levels under control.”

The Department of Regional Development presented the completed engineering plans for the flushing channel and the business case they plan to submit to Cabinet in August at a town hall meeting in Katanning on Tuesday night.

Department of Regional Development project officer Jeanette Marlow said the Cabinet submission would take place in August, but there was no way of knowing when it would make it on the Cabinet agenda for consideration.

“It depends on what else is a priority on the Cabinet agenda,” she said.

“In any case, we have some time as the works on the lake are better done when it’s a bit drier, so even if the project was approved as soon as it was submitted in August, the works would not start until early 2017.”

Ms Salmond said farmers had done a great deal of work to help improve the health of lake, including planting thousands of trees to aid filtration.

“There has been so much done that I’d hate to see that go to waste while we are waiting to hear if the project funding is approved,”she said.

If the project is approved, the project will be managed by the Wheatbelt Natural Resource Management group.”