The lack of fresh water being let out of the Sydney Catchment Authority-controlled Tallowa Dam is hurting oysters in the lower Shoalhaven River and the river itself according to Shoalhaven River Oysters Inc co-ordinator Lyn Desoto.

“The current environmental flow is 90 megalitres per day. It should be 270 megalitres per day but the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) won’t change it until Warragamba Dam is over 70 per cent full.

“But they’ve taken the water restrictions off Sydney when it reached 68 per cent, so figure that out,” she said.

Ms Desoto said the SCA was pumping water to add to flows down the Hawkesbury River.

“So Shoalhaven River water is being used to help with the Hawkesbury River environmental flow when our river needs it.”

She said the impact on the oyster industry was that salinity was too high, the water temperature has dropped dramatically and there isn’t as much ‘food’ in the water.

“The water they’re releasing from the dam is dead. It’s from the bottom of the dam and it’s too cold, isn’t oxygenated and has little nutrient in it.

“Sydney Catchment Authority swear to us that it’s oxygenated and warmed by the time it gets to us. Yes it’s oxygenated but that’s it.

“Our water temperatures are down by four degrees on what they should be and it was a pretty rapid drop.

“That’s not normal for this time of year, it goes down slowly and regularly. To drop like this is pretty strange.

“The river is saltier too. In drought the river is saltier than the ocean but our river is still saltier now, because we’re not getting enough flow.”

Ms Desoto said the SCA has plans to cut a gate into the top of the wall to help, but she said

the big question is when that will happen.

“It’s not just hurting oysters,

it’s everything else that has to do with the health of the river too,” she said.