The DEH has released the draft long term plan through the Murray Futures program titled:
Securing the Future, A Long-Term Plan for the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth.
This report is 122 pages long and 2MB to download. It was first made available to the public to read starting 15th of December. The public has until 18th of January for comments. Not much time given the time of year.
Download the report (2MB) here.
A quick search for 'seawater' (pg 94 in pdf) produces this reference below.
"If the barrages were opened in the absence of adequate freshwater flows, the evaporation of water from the surface of the Lakes, coupled with the limited mixing of water that can take place through the Murray Mouth, mean that there would be an increasing concentration of salt, leading to extremely saline conditions. Modelling indicates that if seawater were to enter Lake Alexandrina in sufficient volume, then in
the absence of adequate freshwater flows, the great majority of the Lake will be hypersaline within two years (39). Without adequate freshwater flows, letting seawater enter Lake Alexandrina is a recipe, not for a healthy estuarine or marine ecosystem, but for an increasingly degraded hypersaline one.
Removal of the barrages would also make the Lower Lakes more vulnerable to projected sea level rise."
The reference for this statement comes from this report titled, "Risk assessment of proposed management scenarios for Lake Alexandrina on the resident fish community". Read it for yourself and see if you would come up with the same conclusion.
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