This was the message from Namoi Catchment Management Authority chairman Jim McDonald, who released the CMA’s long-awaited extractive industries policy yesterday.

“There is a clear need for a development control approach that takes into account the cumulative risks of numerous individual and isolated consents,” Mr McDonald said.

He cited the excessive granting of groundwater irrigation licences as an example.

“Even in the early 80s, the irrigators were saying stop issuing licences; however, successive governments continued to for nearly a decade,” Mr McDonald said.

“While each licence was not damaging in its individual impact, the cumulative effect is a mess we’re all dealing with in the Murray Darling Basin.”

Mr McDonald said the face of the region would change significantly in coming years as extensive mining exploration came to fruition.

“The BHP and Shenhua projects in particular are of substantial size and will dramatically increase the scale of mining in the region,” he said.

“They will also dramatically increase the potential impacts on the natural resource and particularly, water.

“And with so many more smaller developments planned throughout the catchment, the potential impacts on the environment grow alongside.”

Mr McDonald said the Namoi CMA would be proactive in considering extractive industries developments.

“We will oppose any new mine approvals in the Namoi Catchment in the absence of a rigorous risk management assessment of cumulative impacts.”