The Hawkesbury River County Council's modern new weed harvester is the latest addition in the fight against noxious weeds on the Hawkesbury/Nepean River, funded by the Federal Government.

Lindsay federal MP David Bradbury said with the new harvester there was now a plan to rid the river of weeds.

The harvester cuts weeds 1.5metres below the surface and the cuttings float back onto a conveyor belt for storage and later dumping.

Noxious weeds inspector Keith Rossiter said

there were native weeds and grasses protected in the harvesting process but Penrith fisherman Richard Coid said the harvester could never solve the problem because the weeds were part of the river system.

``It reduces the quantity of the weed but still dislodges smaller particles that flow downstream and they colonise in new areas,'' he said.

Steve Defina from Bass2bait said the harvester is too slow, spends more time taking the weeds back to shore than cutting and lets some cuttings grow elsewhere.

He said he approached Nathan Rees when he was the Water Minister with an idea to flush the river with water from the environmental bank at Warragamba Dam.

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``It all comes to back to not enough movement in the river we need a good slush of water, we need rain and we need the dam to be full.''

Mr Defina said only 50 metres near the Nepean Rowing Club had been cut but he understood the council was due to return soon and cut more weeds for five to six weeks in Penrith.