RULES allowing irrigators to carry unused water from one season into the next are to be reviewed.
Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh said the rules needed to be reviewed, given they were designed during the state's decade-long drought.
"Now it has returned to normal, we need to make sure they're effective," he said.
A taskforce made up of members from Lower Murray Water and Goulburn Murray Water's irrigator committees would conduct the review.
Victorian Farmers Federation water council chairman Richard Anderson said most irrigators were happy with the current carryover rules and would be very concerned if they lost access to it.
As part of the review, Department of Sustainability and Environment staff will model the impacts of carryover rules on allocations of low-reliability water shares, formerly called sales water.
Initial DSE analysis indicates GMW's low-reliability water allocations would have been less than 10 per cent this season, if carryover did not exist.
But many Murray and Goulburn irrigators have questioned why there has been no allocation of low-reliability water this season, despite most dams reaching capacity.
Goulburn irrigators only gain low-reliability water once their system's dams hold enough water to supply 100 per cent of the current and following season's high-reliability water shares.
But the introduction of carryover on the back of last season's wet summer has meant more dam space has been used to store unused water from last season - plus this season's 100 per cent allocation.
