Showing posts with label Tweed Shire Council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tweed Shire Council. Show all posts
Wednesday 21 August 2019
Tweed Shire Council abandons its principled stand on foreign multinational Adani's proposed Galilee Basin coal mine
In which Tweed Shire Council decides Australia doesn't need the Great Barrier Reef or the Black-throated Finch......
Echo NetDaily, 19 August 2019:
The Tweed Shire Council has performed a political back-flip on a 2017 promise to avoid hiring building companies contracted to Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine in central Queensland.
Councillors voted for the ban two years ago, with Tweed Shire Deputy Mayor Chris Cherry (Independent) saying they ‘wished to represent the views of the community’. Cr Cherry said Adani didn’t have any approvals to mine in Carmichael at the time but people on the Tweed were concerned about potential environmental impacts of the project on the Great Barrier Reef.
Labor councillor flips anti-Adani ban in favour of jobs
Last week, Cr James Owen (Liberals) tabled a rescission on the 2017 vote and won majority support, meaning the ban no longer applies.
Cr Ron Cooper (Independent) was absent from the meeting and had originally supported an anti-Adani stance.
But a change of heart from Cr Reece Brynes (Labor) was enough to change council policy as he joined forces with Councillors Owen, Pryce Allsop (Independent) and Warren Polglase (Nationals).
Cr Byrnes told Echonetdaily although he initially voted for the ban and continues to share environmental impact concerns, state and federal government approvals of the Carmichael project mean the council has to ‘accept realities’.
‘My priority and Labor’s priority is always about creating more local jobs in the Tweed,’ he wrote in an email, ‘I make no apologies that Labor’s priority is always about creating jobs’.
The council had to ‘move away from a position of protest’ to one that wouldn’t ‘prohibit or hamper future projects and jobs for people in the tweed’, Cr Byrnes wrote.....
BRIEF BACKGROUND
Environmental Defenders Office Qld, Case Explainer: Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme - Federal Judicial Review
Australian Conservation Foundation, Stop Adani's polluting coal mine
Lock the Gate, Coal Mining: Water Impacts of the Adani Coal Mine
Climate Council, Adani Mine Must Be Stopped
ABC News, What we know about Adani's Carmichael coal mine project
Labels:
Adani Group,
coal,
environmental vandalism,
mining,
Tweed Shire Council
Wednesday 10 October 2018
Community unhappy about Tweed Shire Council water mining consent at Rowland Creek
Image: Onthehouse |
Echo NetDaily, 6 October 2018:
Around 100 protestors
made their point before council ignored them by voting 4–3, to reject Mayor
Katie Milne’s rescission motion in regards to the September vote, where
the majority of Tweed Shire councillors gave the thumbs up to a water mining operation
at Rowlands Creek.
Councillor Katie Milne
moved that a DA for a bulk loading/delivery of extracted water and roadworks at
Rowlands Creek Road be deferred for several reasons including that NSW Water’s
response to the pumping study was a brief email, not a formal review.
She asked that council
seek additional consideration and hydrological testing from the applicant as
outlined in a report by Professor Peter Cook (Potential Impact of Groundwater
Pumping on Rowlands Creek) and that a suitably qualified university review the
applicant’s report and subsequent response as well as NSW Water’s response and
Professor Cook’s reports.
The motion also argued
that the costings of road damage (referred to in the report but not provided)
be publicly released; that the Rowlands Creek / Kyogle Roads intersection
problem (which has been acknowledged and considered by the applicant’s traffic
engineers but remains unresolved) should be referred to an independent expert
for an opinion on the best practice approach; that council refer the problem of
the Rowlands Creek Road / Mitchell Street intersection to the same independent
expert for opinion on a best practice solution; and, that Council staff report
whether they have investigated previously claimed discrepancies in the road
width on the straight close to Uki – if not, to do so and if the Bitzios report
is incorrect propose appropriate corrective measures.
The motion also asked
that council seek independent legal advice on whether its public interest
assessment meets Council and other legal obligations.
The 4–3 vote went Crs
Cherry, Cooper and Milne for the rescission, and Cs Byrne, Polglase, Allsop and
Owen against.
Cr Milne told Echonetdaily that
this is not the end of the issue as far as she and council are concerned. ‘The
developer has to gain final sign-off from councillors that the roadworks
required are properly completed before he can commence operations,’ said Ms
Milne.
‘There is another
application in the system for Dungay, the court judgement for the Urliup
expansion, and numerous applications for amendments required to rectify
non-compliances of other existing operators as well as whatever else comes in.’
The mayor added that
some of her greatest concerns include the safety of local residents, the impact
on Rowlands Creek, the viability of the State Significant Farmlands adjacent,
and the viability of locals’ stock and domestic water bores as well as the
enormous costs expected for residents for these ongoing road repairs.
The Tweed Water Alliance
submitted a hydrology report which suggested the water mining should not go
ahead yet council still voted to go ahead. Ms Milne says the report was
unequivocal and absolutely convincing. ‘It was done by one of the world’s
leading groundwater scientists. There are always councillors who put
development before the community. Unfortunately the Labor councillor
joined them this time.
‘This is an issue that
affects the whole community across the Shire. Apart from the water
security issues, I’m sure our residents and pensioners would not be keen on
subsidising ongoing road damage from these heavy trucks.’
Tweed Water Alliance’s Facebook page suggests that direct community action is now being
contemplated.
Labels:
people power,
Tweed Shire Council,
water wars
Thursday 26 April 2018
Everytime someone buys a bottle of water in Australia it has consequences for a community somewhere in the world
By November 2017 Tweed Shire's est. 93,458 residents faced a water security trifecta.
Floods in the first quarter of the year had affected water quality and local infrastructure, a tidal anomaly in August had caused saltwater to enter the Bray Park Weir, the following month Terranora Lagoon was contaminated by raw sewerage from the treatment plant and the walls of Clarrie Hall dam still needed raising to cope with urban water needs.
Water sustainability still remains an issue in 2018.
In this case it appears to be Black Mount Pty Ltd and Mt. Warning Spring Water Company's commercial water supply needs which are the main culprit.......
Echo
NetDaily, 13
April 2018:
A call for the halt of
water mining in the Tweed Valley has been made by NSW Greens MP and North
Coast spokesperson, Dawn Walker in state parliament this week and is
supported by the Tweed Water Alliance. Concerns over the
impact on underground water resources, alleged poor compliance with
extraction licenses and the damage caused by heavy vehicles have all been
raised.
‘Water is our most
precious resource and gigalitres of water beneath Tweed Valley are being sucked
up and bottled for commercial profit, leaving the community high and dry with
the impacts. Water mining licences are being handed out by the government without
adequate monitoring and in many cases, water meters haven’t even been
installed,’ said Ms Walker.
Water mining licences
are controlled by the state government while work on the property and
permission for truck movements are controlled by the local council.
‘We certainly support
the ban,’ said Jeremy Tager, spokesperson for the Tweed
water alliance
who believes the water extraction companies are ‘operating lawlessly’.
‘Extracting water is a
lose lose prospect for here and most other places. Water is taken away from
local users; it creates little or no employment as most of the operators are
water transporters. That means the trucks come in and get filled up and then
are taken away to be bottled elsewhere.
‘They only pay a a small
road contribution to drive these big trucks on rural roads that were never
designed for them.’
In December 2017 the
Tweed council voted to amend their LEP (local environment plan) 2014 to remove
the clause that the previous council had put in to allow water extraction for
bottling water in the Tweed shire. This has been sent to the state government
for approval as part of the Gateway process. If the state government decide
that the change can proceed then Tweed council will be able to put the LEP
amendment on public display.
The state government can
also request that a ‘savings clause’ be put in that would allow current
applications that are waring to be assessed to be allowed.
Echonetdaily asked
the state government what the time frame for responding to the Tweeds request
for removing the water mining clause from the LEP was and if they would request
the inclusion of a ‘savings clause’.
A spokesperson for the
department of planning and environment responded stating that; ‘The department
is currently in the early stages of assessing a proposal from Tweed Shire
council to remove the water extraction and bottling clause to the Tweed Shire
2014 LEP.
Local extractor takes
council to court
Larry Karlos, a local
water extractor, is currently taking the Tweed Council to the Land and
Environment court to appeal their decision not to allow them to increase the
size of the trucks they use to transport water from six meters to nineteen
meters.
‘The council refused the
application for 19m trucks because they felt that the road was no suitable for
that size truck,’ said Tweed Mayor Katie Milne.
‘Urlip Road is really
narrow and in some places it is only one lane. There are also areas where it is
very steep on one side and has a steep drop off on the other.
ABC
News, 21
March 2018:
It's the new battle in
the bush — the bottled water wars.
On one side is
Australia's $800-million-a-year bottled water industry and its suppliers, on
the other, rural residents who fear their most precious resource, groundwater,
is being squandered.
"It's dividing the
local community," said Larry Karlos, one of half a dozen water extractors
in the Tweed Valley in northern New South Wales.
He's been pumping water
from an aquifer beneath his property for 16 years.
But his recent bid to
increase the amount he sells to bottling companies has ignited local
opposition.
Fourth-generation farmer
Patrick O'Brien fears his children's future is being jeopardised for the profit
of the water industry.
"If they don't stop
this type of thing then, you know, what's going to be left?" he told 7.30.
“What's going to left
for future generations? No-one was really worried when they were trucking the
water out in small amounts, but then they want more, they want more trips, they
want bigger trucks."
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