What is the point?
The need for Tillegra Dam was strongly questioned at the Wise Ways to Water Conference, which was held at Wangat Lodge over the weekend and attracted ten key expert speakers and over 100 participants.The Central Coast Shadow Minister for Water Utilities and Member for Terrigal, Mr Chris Hartcher, a guest of Wise Was to Water, said the Central Coast has its own solutions in place to provide water security to that area.
‘The Central Coast had a water problem long before 2006 and everyone from the Central Coast was amazed that in November 2006 the solution was a dam in an area no one had ever heard of,’ Mr Hartcher said.
‘The Central Coast now has a major pipe under construction which will alleviate its water needs and that, combined with recycling of brown water and storm water catchment is the solution for the Central Coast. We do not need Tillegra Dam.’
Dr Simon Fane for the Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology, Sydney, on Saturday set out ten arguments why we should not be building this Dam and stated it will be the Coalition’s task to get the message out that the State Government can spend taxpayers’ money far more fruitfully and far less destructively.
Graham Holt, Geologist in the Hunter region for over 25 years said that due to the instability of the land and the amount of fault lines within the inundation area of Tillegra Dam the cost of the dam was going to be “one hell of a lot more than $300 million, it’s more likely to be a billion dollars.”
One of the resounding questions that was asked throughout the weekend was who was going to be paying for this dam with the water users of the Lower Hunter and the Central Coast having to foot the enormous bill for this unnecessary dam.
Well known meteorologist and climatologist Mr Martin Babakhan from University of Newcastle argued that changing weather patterns would increase the reliability of rainfall in Hunter Water’s region in future, with the likelihood that existing reservoirs would be adequate for future needs.
The weekend also saw a new coalition formed to fight the Tillegra Dam. The Save The Williams River Coalition will bring together a number of different community, industry and environmental groups to join the fight against the NSW Government and Hunter Water’s proposed Tillegra Dam.
‘This is a major step forward in the campaign, it will increase awareness of this proposal, that the principal speakers agreed was highly contentious and unnecessary,’ Chairperson for the No Tillegra Dam Group (NTDG), Sally Corbett said.
The Save The Williams Valley Coalition will bring together highly qualified personnel to make submissions to Hunter Water’s Environmental Impact Statement to be published later this year. The Coalition will organise repeat presentations from the Wise Ways to Water speakers at events to be organised in Newcastle and Sydney.
‘We had people across the whole political spectrum gathered under one roof this weekend. The clear picture that emerged was that the Tillegra Dam is a political decision with no clear justification. We are strengthened in our opposition to the dam as it is a waste of money, a waste of prime farmland, and an unwarranted destruction of a precious riverine environment,’ Sally Corbett said.
Members of the local community and NTDG will be meeting with the Leader of the Opposition Mr Barry O’Farrell in Dungog next month to discuss the proposed dam and the findings of all the experts who took part in the Wise Ways to Water Weekend.