Rous
County Council
- which
has bulk water supply responsibilities across the Ballina, Byron,
Lismore City and Richmond Valley local government areas - in
a 5 to 3 vote put
aside the 253ha
Dunoon Dam proposal
for the next four to
five years
to enable comprehensive
talks
to occur with
Widjabul
Wia-bal traditional owners before
going back into the plan.
Instead, it is exploring groundwater and recycling
options with the aim of securing water supplies by 2024-2030.
However,
there
are objections to this course of action within the county council and
in the broader community, along with disturbing echoes of colonial racism.
 |
Section of the Channon Gorge, the proposed site of the Dunoon Dam wall
IMAGE: David Lowe
|
The proposed Dunoon Dam would be the second dam in the Rocky Creek sub-catchment, which if it becomes the preferred option would leave only approx. 4 kms as the crow flies between these two bodies of stored water.
North Coast Voices readers will probably not be surprised to find that NSW Nationals MLA for Clarence, former property developer & mining consultant Chris Gulaptis, the Nationals MLC for Bathurst small business owner & recent undeclared candidate for Leader of the Nationals Sam Farraway and, Nationals candidate for the Lismore electorate in the last state election Austin Curtain, all support inundating a river valley to build this dam and including this proposal in the long-term regional water strategy.
The
Echo,
Letters,
3 November 2021:
If
councillors in favour of the Dunoon Dam (DuD) are elected in December
we will see several things happen.
Water
resilience will collapse. The ‘10,000 signatures’, on which the
pro-dam candidates base their political stance, demanded that all
options be taken off the table, except for a second dam on a small
creek: being completely dependent on increasingly erratic rainfall
flowing through that small creek would intensify our climate risk.
Water
shortages would be incurred soon because demand exceeds supply in
three years, but the dam could not possibly be built until at least
2030.
Local
jobs, which would have been boosted by diverse water options and
long-term conservation measures (eg large-scale refitting), would be
axed in favour of a short-term boost to a huge non-local company to
build a dam.
Water
rates would escalate rapidly to pay for a large one-off project.
Government contributions are unlikely, leaving current ratepayers to
foot the bill. The poorest people would be paying the most because
water is non-discretionary, like food.
The
Widjabul Wia-Bal people would be told, yet again, that their opinion
does not matter. The burial sites, which have been compared by the
Native Title Services Corp to the Juukan Cave in WA, would be lost.
The living heritage of our own citizens would be discarded.
The
Endangered Ecological Community of Lowland Rainforest, part of the
remaining one per cent of the Big Scrub, would be severely reduced.
In The Channon Gorge, the rare warm temperate rainforest on sandstone
would be almost completely destroyed.
Opposition
to the DuD, including direct action, would escalate, causing
increased social division and unrest. When a large dubious project
lacks social licence, the outcomes for local politicians pushing the
project are never good.
There
are plenty of alternatives to the DuD but the pro-dam candidates are
going for the least efficient, most expensive, slowest, and most
reckless option for water in the future.
We
can have more water more cheaply and more quickly without needing a
dam or groundwater; just by water efficiencies alone. But the pro-dam
ideologues are not interested.
We
have a problem here with local would-be politicians who want to
capitalise on anxiety about water in order to score political points.
They are not genuinely interested in water security. This is easily
proved by their refusal to discuss anything other than one
unrealistic and unsafe option.
There
is a terrific opportunity here to pull together to solve our water
problems. It may be lost owing to the political ambitions of a few
cynical dog-whistlers.
Nan
Nicholson, The Channon
ABC
News,
4
October 2021:
Australia's
national science agency is to investigate how to best manage the NSW
far north coast's long-term water supply and river health.
The
state's Water Minister, Melinda Pavey, has announced that scientists
from the CSIRO will provide independent advice reviewing options
proposed in last year's draft Far North Coast Regional Water
Strategy.
"It
developed from a lot of conversations around the strategy and a view
from some community members that we haven't dealt enough with issues
in relation to flood mitigation and water quality on north coast
rivers, as well as long-term future supply for an area with a strong
population and a lot of rainfall," Ms Pavey said.
The
review will look at water security and flood risk management,
particularly for the flood-prone city of Lismore.
"This
will be really important foundational work that could be relevant to
other parts of NSW," she said
Keith
Williams, chair of regional water supplier Rous County Council, has
welcomed the study and believes it will dovetail with council's
existing priorities outlined in the Northern Rivers Watershed
Initiative.
"About
what we can do to decrease downstream flooding and a lot of that
involves trying to re-establish wetlands, replanting river banks that
exclude stock, and generally slowing water down within the
landscape," he said.
"To
have the CSIRO helping with that work would be fantastic. I don't see
any threat to Rous from further scientific studies; we would welcome
it."
Study
will include Dunoon Dam option
Ms
Pavey confirmed that a new dam at Dunoon would be included in the
study.
A
majority of Rous County councillors voted earlier this year to
shelve the dam option from its future water strategy.
Robert
Mustow, who was one of three councillors who advocated for the dam
option to remain in the mix, welcomed the CSIRO input….
"This
study will now reveal everything and it will be scientific-based and
that's how it should have been to start with."
The
CSIRO work is expected to be completed within a year.
What Minister Pavey is careful not to mention is that this 'review' is likely to be used to bolster the NSW Perrottet Government's preference to increase the size of the Shannon Creek Dam in the Clarence River catchment area [Draft North Coast Regional Water Strategy, "Long List of Options", March 2021] in order to allow the Coffs Harbour City LGA to increase its water draw from the Nymboida River and this large side dam (these being Coffs Harbour's only source of urban water) AND at the same time allow yet another local government area outside the catchment area to draw water via the Shannon Creek Dam. Thereby placing an unsustainable water draw of the Nymboida sub-catchment for a combined est. resident population of 142,519 persons [ID Community Demographic Resources, 2020].
BACKGROUND
EchoNetDaily, 14 December 2020:
Widjabul
Wia-bal traditional owners of the area between Dunoon and the Channon
have told Rous County Council not to follow Rio Tinto with the
destructive Dunoon Dam.
They
have told the General Manager of Rous County Council, Phil Rudd, that
they will not accept the building of the proposed dam, which would
inundate ancient burial sites and extensive evidence of occupation in
the past and in recent times.
John
Roberts, a Senior Elder of the Widjabul Wia-bal said, ‘I was one of
the stakeholders consulted in 2011 about the impact of the Dunoon Dam
on cultural heritage.
‘In
the 2011 Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment prepared for Rous, we
stakeholders said with one voice that no level of disturbance was
acceptable to us. We still say that. Nothing has changed. There is no
need for another study. Our opinion has not changed.
‘Our
cultural heritage is a direct connection to our ancestors. We have
been here for thousands of years. These sites provide us with a link
to our traditions, our land and our living heritage. They allow us to
educate our young ones in their history.’....
Echo,
22 July 2021:
 |
| Proposed Dunoon Dam, now scrapped. Rous County Council. |
Dunoon
Dam divides councils
The
council itself is almost evenly divided: the traditionally more
conservative Richmond Valley Council representatives further south
want to consider a dam (and also want to connect Casino up to the
Rous County Council water supply) while Byron’s representatives in
the north are publicly opposed to the dam and Lismore’s
progressives have cited concerns over cultural heritage.
Ballina
is less cohesively represented in the Rous County Council, with each
of the shire’s two representatives taking opposing sides on the dam
idea....
The Daily Telegraph,
4 August 2021, p.11:
Lismore
Mayor Vanessa Ekins said lobbying the NSW and federal governments to
force the Dunoon Dam back into Rous’s Water Future Strategy was a
political manoeuvre by conservative councillors and MPs ahead of
upcoming elections.
“I
think there is a bit of local lobbying going on, people are gearing
up for an election and trying to position themselves with a little
project,” Ms Ekins (pictured) said.
“(The
dam) doesn’t relate to the science, technical expertise and decades
of thought and work that has gone into coming out with the Future
Water Strategy…..
SMEC
Australia Pty Ltd, Dunoon
Dam Terrestrial Ecology Impact Assessment*,
November
2011:
One
endangered ecological community (EEC), Lowland Rainforest which is
listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act),
was recorded during field investigations. In addition, nine flora and
17 fauna species (including one frog, one mammal, one fruit-bat, six
microbats and eight birds) listed as threatened in NSW under the
TSC Act were also recorded. Of these species, eight flora and one
fauna species are also listed nationally under the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). An
additional seven fauna species listed as migratory or marine under the
EPBC Act as well as two Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (RoTAP)
and three regionally significant plant species were also recorded.
Note:
*
SMEC, a member of the Surbana Jurong Group, is a
global engineering, management and development consultancy. SMEC field studies were undertaken in April 2010 - October 2010 and targeted threatened species within the study area.
