 | Salinity |
| Salinity |
Audit examined the management of the Government's Salinity Control Strategy and commented on the effect of salinity on some of the State's significant environmental assets such as lakes and rivers.
Key findings included:
the economic cost of the environmental impact of land degradation on the value
of farm production in Victoria is estimated to be in excess of $500 million annually; tree clearing over many years has been instrumental in accelerating salinity and
tax incentives for such action, available up until 1983 are now offered to assist in tree planting programs; when watertables in the Kerang Lakes area are at their lowest level in the
annual cycle, groundwater has a similar salt content to the Pacific Ocean; and a monitoring scheme to evaluate the performance of the Salainity Control
Strategy against its goals and objectives has not been established even though more than
$150 million has been spent on the program since 1985.
