GRIFFITH Business Chamber has threatened to launch a High Court class action to force the government to compensate locals for financial losses caused by the basin plan.
The chamber is considering the dramatic step to give community members the opportunity to recover losses in property value, employment and industry as a result of the proposal to take billions of litres of water out of Griffith's irrigation networks.
Evidence of the uncertainty caused by the impending Murray-Darling Basin plan emerged this month when RP Data figures showed a substantial drop in average house prices in basin communities.
Griffith's market saw a 7 per cent decline.
Former local Julie Campbell has seen the result first-hand, recently dropping the asking price on her North Griffith house to $40,000 less than she paid for it.
"I put it down to a lack of confidence and a lot of talk about jobs going due to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan," Ms Campbell said.
"Once people lose jobs, you lose families, then you lose teachers and businesses - there's a lot of impact on communities when that sort of thing happens.
"If I can't sell it I will have to get someone to rent. I know the renters' market is good in Griffith at the moment and that's probably because people aren't sure enough about their job security to buy."
When homeowners are able to sell, they are often letting properties go for much less than their preferred price.
Local man Adrian Brain has recently sold houses in West Griffith and Yoogali.
He was not convinced the basin plan was the cause of a loss on the Yoogali house, but felt the low asking price on other local properties had brought his down.
"In these tough financial times, you have to have one of the best 10 asking prices in town for people to believe they are getting value for money," Mr Brain said.
"As a result, we were pretty competitive on our pricing - but we did take a hit."
Chamber president Paul Pierotti said farmers were being compensated through the money they were paid for their water and irrigation bodies were being compensated through infrastructure funding, but ordinary residents were not receiving any reparations at all.
"There was an implicit promise from the government when the Snowy Hydro Scheme was implemented that the MIA was not a temporary project but was there for future prosperity," Mr Pierotti said.
"If the government tampers with the MIA and that affects any individual, they should be held to account and they should compensate that person."
Uniting Church Reverend Brian Brown also put out the call for compensation during a recent tour of the Riverina, reinforcing the chamber's confidence in the case.
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