Costly but possibly worth it: "I understand it is would be an expensive 18-kilometre trek, but certainly the apple industry, which is worth $30 million a year, could be given a substantial boost in these tough times if it had a more secure water supply than it currently has. I call on the water minister to instigate a cost-benefit analysis to see what it would cost to send this water south to Harcourt and compare that with the benefits that would accrue to the apple industry and other industries associated with the Harcourt Valley".
Scheme not efficient enough: Drum said: "The project will take about 15 megalitres a day from the Epsom area. It will go through Bendigo and up to the Spring Gully Reservoir. From there it will be sent to a few sports ovals and recreation reserves along the way. Some of it will be sent out to Eppalock to be used to replace environmental flows, but a large percentage of it is allocated to simply run back down very inefficient drains and back to fill dams on quite a few hobby farms". Under the current scheme quite a lot of this water will go, not to be wasted, but it will also not be put to its best possible use".
Reference: parliament of Victoria, Legislative Assembly Daily Hansard, Thursday, 15 March 2007
Erisk Net, 15/3/2007