Get Smart be an Agent for Change
Lobby the Labor polies
This is a plea to all concerned citizens, community groups, catchment management authorities and anyone interested in ecologically sustainable development. The Cessnock State Electorate Council invited Water Minister Phillip Costa to speak on the subject of the proposed Tillegra Dam at an ALP fund raising event on 8 May, 2009. I hope he came well briefed, because he seems to not understand all the implications. The proposed Tillegra Dam is an extremely contentious issue within the Hunter community and beyond. Public opinion against this proposal has grown from a small community based group to a broad spectrum of angry ratepayers, community, environmental, and political groups (see this article on Newcastle Herald polls). Presently, an army of volunteers are working across marginal Labor seats, talking to voters and letterboxing, to inform the ratepayers of the Hunter that this infrastructure proposal is yet another bad decision by the Labor Government. Four Queensland Labor seats were lost over the Traveston Dam in QLD.
The proposed Tillegra Dam is a project, costing at last estimate $477 million and rising, that is not needed, is not necessary and stands to destroy the healthiest river system in the Hunter.
A key strategy of the Australian Water Industry Roadmap* is to review current infrastructure configurations with a view to facilitating emergence of more efficient systems. So what has the NSW Labor state government and its instrumentality Hunter Water Corp. come up with? Build a large surface area (shallow) dam in a catchment that is already dammed (Chichester Dam) and next to another dammed river (Paterson River – Lostock Dam), and then send the water down an open channel that will become a ditch – what is now the beautiful Williams River – how efficient is this! Blue-green algal blooms and evaporation will mean before too long another solution will be needed. Let’s get it right now. continue reading » »