Hunter Water caught out again
Hunter Water is not a Reliable Environmental Manager!
Save the Williams River Coalition claims today that Hunter Water Corporation (HWC) cannot be trusted to manage its environmental impacts on the rivers, lakes and estuarine systems in the Lower Hunter region.
‘Recent reports on the pollution of Lake Macquarie from inadequate sewerage operations are just the tip of the iceberg,’ said Wilderness Society campaigner, Sam East.
‘There are many other examples across the Lower Hunter region of inadequate environmental management and reporting by HWC.’
A key issue of concern for many environmental groups is HWCs inability to manage any environmental flows for the proposed Tillegra Dam. Management of the environmental flow rules from Chichester Dam clearly shows ongoing breaches of the regulatory requirement.
‘HWC is required to release up to 14 million litres of water per day depending on storage inflows, but they often don’t do that for repeated periods. Recent environmental reporting from HWC is hard to find on their website,’ said Bev Smiles from Hunter Environment Lobby.
‘Environmental releases are important to protect the wildlife and plants in the Williams River. If HWC cannot presently manage the Chichester Dam environmental flows, how can they be trusted to manage the environmental flows from the proposed Tillegra Dam where the impact on the downstream Hunter Estuary Wetlands could be catastrophic?’ Ms Sally Corbett from the No Tillegra Dam Group stated.
‘It is time for HWC to make public its plans for environmental releases from the proposed Tillegra Dam on the Williams River. The public has little confidence in HWC after the effluent debacle in Lake Macquarie and therefore will be looking to the Federal Government to protect the Wetlands through the EPBC Act and halt this unnecessary dam,” Ms Corbett concluded.