Local First Nations people have raised serious concerns about the amount of water being maintained in the Deua River, west of Moruya.
The Eurobodalla’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee is concerned about how much water is being pumped from the waterway by Eurobodalla Shire Council to provide drinking water to the northern part of the shire.
Committee Chair Ben Stainer said the river is really starting to suffer.
“One of our Elders who has lived on the Deua River for 50 years has noticed there’s green pooling especially when the level gets to ten percent,” Mr Stainer said.
“Once it gets to ten percent they stop extracting but that doesn’t stop the evaporation if you don’t get rain so the flows have stopped in turn it pools and they get green, green algae in there which effects the habitat,” he said.
The Committee Chair has called on the council to increase the minimum water level in the Deua River before habitats are destroyed.
Mr Stainer said water should be pumped from the new Southern Dam at Bodalla to top up the Deua River.
“I would hope the council would be concerned about the Deep Creek Dam and changing the minimum level to 20 or 30 percent,” he said.
“I’m no expert on exactly what the exact healthy level would be but if we’ve got excess here (new Southern Storage Dam) and it can be pumped anywhere in the shire our minimum should be increased.”
