The Burdekin's rising groundwater and salt inundation could turn fertile farmland into wasteland

QCAR (Queensland Cane, Agriculture & Renewables) water committee chair and Clare cane grower Cy Kovacich said groundwater was rising from the underground aquifer in the Burdekin River Irrigation Area (BRIA).

The BRIA covers 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) and involves up to 400 farmers, the majority of whom are canegrowers.

Mr Kovacich said groundwater had been steadily rising from the underground aquifer and in places was meeting the surface.

"Salt in the water is coming to the surface and affecting anyone who attempts to grow cane in those areas," he said.

"There are some areas worse than others in the Burdekin depending on their geology and geography."

Mr Kovacich said the State Government had known about the issue since it first started selling blocks in the scheme back in the 80s and 90s.

He said if nobody addressed the problem, they would continue to lose hectares of fertile country to a problem that was virtually identical to the one in the Murray Darling Basin.

He said government knows this, but they "continue to pass the parcel around" from one department to another.

"Growers have been pursuing this issue for the past 20 to 25 years," he said.

From the 1960s to 1980s, salinity increasingly affected farmers, wildlife and the environment in the Murray Darling Basin. In 1988, the relevant state governments with the federal government developed the Salinity and Drainage Strategy to address salinity and its causes in the basin.

In a written statement, Water Minister Glenn Butcher said the Queensland Government and Sunwater continued to work with grower groups in the Burdekin to tackle groundwater challenges.

"This includes Sunwater delivering the Lower Burdekin Rising Groundwater Mitigation Project, to investigate and pilot off-farm actions to mitigate rising groundwater in the region. The four-year, $25 million project will utilise a range of preventative measures and intervention techniques to counter the threat of rising groundwater levels and high water salinity," he said.

"Rising groundwater is a complex problem and the Queensland Government will continue to work closely with grower groups, conservation groups, the Australian Government, local government and other stakeholders."

Mr Kovacich said groundwater at his place in the Burdekin delta used to be 18 metres below ground level in 1990.

"It currently sits at about 2.5 metres and...it reaches ground level in some places during the wet season," he said.

"In the end it requires money spent to fix the problem and government departments are reluctant to do that."

Mr Kovacich said he could not say how many cane growers were affected at the moment as some farmers could be affected and not realise it.

"It's not just that we're trying to pre-empt this issue, it's getting worse simply because it's been rising steadily over the years and we feel we're not far from the issue really raising its head," he said.

"So under nearly every farm in the Burdekin, there is some part of the aquifer...some bores that have been good in the past are now unusable because of the mineral salts."

Mr Kovacich said the government knew the groundwater would rise when they sold the blocks to farmers and they now wanted the government to take action.

He said they did not want compensation, but they wanted recognition of the issue and action taken.

"We don't want compensation. That's a dirty word in any conversation, especially with government - they will shut their ears when you say that word and that's not where we're heading," he said.

Mr Kovacich said one solution was to line some of the BRIA channels in the scheme that carries water to farms and extends for hundreds of kilometres.

"Because these channels were not lined at the time when they were created - they were just earthen channels - they go through sand ridges in places and it's well documented that they leak into the underground," he said.

"What you're talking about is a large hydraulic effect - there's a lot of weight of water sitting there pushing into the earth over time and they were built through clay and sandy sections.

"So because they've put these channels through these sections, in some places the water goes straight into that and fills up the underground aquifer. They are part of the problem.

"Sunwater recognises the problem, but they've never done anything about it. Only recently they're starting to acknowledge it and starting to talk about doing something about it."

But Mr Kovacich said not all the blame goes to Sunwater.

"Some of the blame goes to farmers as well, that's undeniable and we've never shirked that," he said.

Mr Kovacich explained that the current pricing structure for water did not encourage any water efficiencies by farmers because the water allocation component of the cost was much larger than a farmer's water usage charge.

"So they (Sunwater) created a system with a zero incentive to save water. (Under the new pricing structure) they were guaranteed more money and it did not encourage any efficiencies through that action," he said.

"Farmers still try not to waste water, but through sheer economic forces they haven't been inspired to do any further efficiencies - and that is exacerbating the issue of rising groundwater and through that rising process it brings whatever salts that are in that water up towards the surface."

Mr Kovacich said if funding was allocated to the issue he would spend the money on lining the channels where it had been identified as a problem.

"I'd also spend it on an economic incentive through a (new) pricing structure to drive efficiencies on farms by farmers and on education for growers to do more best practise," he said.

"If no money is allocated, then several thousand hectares of land will be lost for decades - it will be unproductive. It will be the Murray Darling situation on their hands if they don't do anything."

Background information from the Water Minister's office states that "groundwater levels have risen across most of the Lower Burdekin since intensive agriculture commenced there in the 1980s. This issue is not isolated to the Lower Burdekin, with rising groundwater impacting a number of irrigation areas across the country."