Lake Cowal is protected under two international agreements on migratory birds with Japan (JAMBA) and China (CAMBA), it is also listed on the national heritage register as a significant wetland, and home to many native and endangered species. Lake Cowal is an ephemeral lake that floods into the Lachlan river catchments which leads to the Murrumbidgie and Murray Rivers.

Lake Cowal is filled mainly from Bland Creek or by flood breakouts from the Lachlan River west of Forbes. The lake empties by outflow to Nerang Cowal and Bogandillon Creek to Bogandillon Swamp, Nerathong and Humbug Creeks and branches of the Lachlan River south of Condobolin. During major floods, the Lachlan flows into the Murrumbidgee River which connects to the Murray. When the lake level falls below that of Nerang Cowal, Lake Cowal then dries out by evaporation.

The Save Lake Cowal campaign is deeply concerned about excessive water usage by Barrick Gold at the Lake Cowal mine. 

Barrick uses up to 17 megalitres of water (equivalent to 17 Olympic swimming pools) every day. The water is pumped out of a borefield for use at the mine. This borefield taps into the sacred underground Dreaming track, also know as the Bland palaeochannel. The region surrounding the mining site endures its eighth year of drought.

The drought is affecting all businesses in the Central West. Farmers are directly affected by poor crops and lack of feed for animals and many businesses are tied to the farm.

A major drop in the underground water level near the Lake Cowal Gold Mine in central New South Wales had 80 landholders anxiously watching their stock and domestic supplies in October 2006. The water level had dropped from 20 metres to 50 metres below ground level. Although Barrick has now agreed to provide stock and domestic water to farmers, if the water table continues to drop, inevitably the mine will continue to have a dramatic impact on local bore water levels.

"Barrick Gold has also been granted water licences to sink four artesian bores and pump, up to 15 mega litres per day but not more than 3,650 mega litres a year over the next 13 years. This daily water consumption is more than the entire domestic use of Lismore district.

Be assured that Barrick will not be taking the water with them when they go. Permanently poisoned, it will be left behind in tailings dams - two of them each 1.2 km square."
- Cyanide Watch

The estimated final volume of the pit is 80,000 megalitres. An official New South Wales government report on Lachlan groundwater vulnerability list the vulnerability of Bland Creek, Lake Cowal and Nerang Cowal as 'Moderately High'. The potential for the lake, the river and groundwaters to be contaminated from mine tailings water is of great concern to many people - all that potentially poisoned, polluted and saline water when Australia has been in a drought for seven years.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE SAVE LAKE COWAL FUND