Ongoing concerns about sustainable water supply and environmental risk, Mullum NSW

Laverty's Gap Weir
IMAGE: Echo, September 2017

Byron Echo, Letters, 5 April 2023:

It seems our elected councillors are at odds with non-elected Council staff over the future of Mullum’s water supply.

My concern is that there is no consideration in the current arrangements for environmental flow in the Wilsons Creek/River below Lavertys Gap weir. This obviously didn’t seem like a big issue when the agreement was drawn up several decades ago and the population of the area was a fraction of what it is today.

However, our population is growing and every new house has flush toilets, showers and gardens to water. Might these houses be required to at least have water tanks as every roof is a perfect water catchment?

In the last drought (2019–20) the area downstream of the weir was almost stagnant. This is a vital habitat for platypus and many other native species. Local residents also rely on the creek to water food gardens.

It is crucial that we consider the long-term health of this important waterway and the survival of both native and human inhabitants.

We need to act now for the future and put in place a requirement for realistic environmental flow.

Please speak up for the river by contacting Council: council@byron.nsw.gov.au

Linda Grace, Wilsons Creek

 

The weir at Laverty's Gap supplies water to Mullumbimby. It is a Heritage-listed ageing structure in need of repair, which appears to block fish passage in that section of the Wilsons River and operates under a licence that does not require release of environmental flows to water the downstream environment. 

There is community concern that weir capacity only meets current population demand as the weir water supply currently services est. 1,890 residential and non-residential properties and, will not be able to meet need in future droughts given access to emergency water supply is limited to only part of the town. 

Water restrictions were imposed in Mullumbimby during the droughts of 2002/03, 2006/07 and 2019/20 and, there is community concern about the degree to which climate change will exacerbate future droughts. 

Coming to grips with the reality of Clarrie Hall Dam in 2022 - Tweed Shire Council seeking community feedback on its draft water release strategy

 

Tweed Shire Council, media release, 21 July 2022:

Feedback invited on draft Clarrie Hall Dam Water Release Policy

Learn more about how water is released from Clarrie Hall Dam

Clarrie Hall Dam is the Tweed's main water storage facility. Council is seeking community feedback on its draft Water Release Policy, with an information session to be held in Murwillumbah on 10 August.

Tweed Shire Council has drafted a new policy to clarify and formalise Council’s operational practices in relation to water releases from Clarrie Hall Dam.

The Tweed’s main water supply is the Tweed River. Opened in 1983, Clarrie Hall Dam is located on Doon Doon Creek approximately 15 km south-west of Murwillumbah. The dam has a catchment area of 60 km² and holds up to 16,000 megalitres of water. Releases from the dam help keep the Tweed River flowing when water levels are low.

Clarrie Hall Dam was designed for the purposes of water storage for water supply only and it has an uncontrolled spillway. As such, Council cannot regulate or change the flow of water through the spillway, change the Full Supply Level (FSL) of the spillway, or maintain a surcharge above the spillway level.

Council’s Manager Water and Waste Water Operations Brie Jowett said the draft policy aims to explain Council’s operational practices when it comes to water releases from Clarrie Hall Dam.

“Due to its design and purpose, Clarrie Hall Dam cannot be operated to release water ahead of rainfall events to provide any form of storage capacity for flood mitigation purposes,” Mrs Jowett said.

“We know there is some misinformation within the community about water releases for flood mitigation and during floods at Clarrie Hall Dam and we want to clear that up.

“We’ve put the draft policy on exhibition as we want to hear from all Tweed residents – especially those in flood–prone, downstream communities including Uki, Murwillumbah, Condong, Tumbulgum and Chinderah – to make sure they have all the information they need to understand how Council’s water release operations work.

“It’s important our community understands that it’s not possible to use the dam for flood mitigation. There is no capability to regulate or change the flow of water through the dam’s spillway, nor change the full supply level of the spillway.

“We are encouraging everyone to learn more about the dam’s design and how it is operated by reading the policy and let us know how to improve the policy to make it clearer.”

During a flood event, Council continuously monitors the safety of Clarrie Hall Dam and provides information to relevant authorities as per Council’s Dam Safety Emergency Plan.

You can review the draft and share your feedback by completing the online survey or attend the community information session on Wednesday 10 August at Murwillumbah Services Club from 4.30 pm. Registration is essential. For more details and to register visit yoursaytweed.com.au.

Submissions close on 16 August 2022.

The spillway at Clarrie Hall Dam does not allow for flood mitigation as there is no capability to regulate or change the flow of water through the dam's spillway.

Dunoon Dam proposal debate continues to concern many in Northern New South Wales

Echo NetDaily, 8 April 2022:

A locally-based NSW Nationals MLC was recently pressured over his lack of consultation with Indigenous custodians regarding the contentious Dunoon Dam proposal.

According to the February 24 Hansard transcript of NSW Parliament, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ben Franklin, was asked by Greens MP, Cate Faehrmann, if he had attempted to meet with the Widjabul Wia-bal people around their concerns about the impending destruction of 25 sacred sites, ‘should the Dunoon Dam go ahead’.

He replied in part, ‘The short answer is that I have not met with them yet. I do not think they have reached out to ask for a visit. I may be wrong, but I do not think that is the case. Of course, I would be happy to meet with them. I am happy to meet with any Aboriginal organisation or community across this State as much as I possibly can if my diary will allow’.

Mr Franklin also refused to pre-empt the outcome of any meeting, and said that, ‘We must genuinely collaborate and listen to their aims and ambitions and concerns in order to address them effectively’.

I am happy to meet with them

He went on: ‘Can we do that in every situation? No, because there are a range of competing interests within government and they must all be balanced. But I make the commitment that I am happy to meet with them’.

He added there was no plan on the table for the Dunoon Dam, ‘though there has certainly been discussion, and a different position has been promulgated by Rous County Council after the recent local government elections, which may lead to other actions. At the moment there is no plan on the table’. for the Government’s consideration. When there is one, obviously that will need to be considered’……

Ben Franklin has been a Nationals MLC for the last 7 years, first in the NSW Baird Government, then the Berejiklian Government and finally in the Perrottet Government. He has been Minister for Aboriginal Affairs as well as Minister for the Arts since December 2021. These are his first ministerial roles.

Despite living in Northern New South Wales, Mr. Franklin has a spotty voting history when it comes to protecting the aesthetic, environmental, cultural, social & economic values of local communities against the interests of industry lobby groups and party political donors.

On 4 February 2022 in the NSW Legislative Council as he danced around the issues of strong opposition of the Widjabul Wia-bal people to the widespread inundation of sacred land in order to create a second dam on Rocky Creek, along with the loss of 25 ancestral stone burial sites, he clearly stated that he was; “a very proud member of a resident of the northern rivers region of New South Wales and member of the National Party. As such, I understand the critical importance of building water infrastructure as well…..that we must look at what we need to do to build water and other infrastructure in this State”.

Mr. Franklin further stated that; “we must also be incredibly sympathetic to the concerns of Aboriginal people”.

Given his advocacy on sensitive issues often does not survive when it comes to the vote he casts in the Upper House, I am not all that hopeful that he will genuinely assist the Widjabul Wia-bal people to protect Country.

One suspects that he is likely to be more closely aligned with Kevin Hogan the Nationals MP for Page, one of only two federal electorates in the Northern Rivers, who clearly favours dam proposals.

There is political madness in the air as barely hidden agendas make a mockery of the ongoing trauma in communities hit by NSW Floods February-March 2022

 

Desperate to eliminate all discussion of climate change from the public debate ahead of the federal election campaign, the Morrison Government has given the nod for the CSIRO to be granted est. $10 million dollars via the federal National Recovery and Resilience Agency (NRRA) to study how to manage floodwater within the Wilson and Richmond river catchments with definitely no mention of funding for national, state or regional mitigation measures to tackle for the root cause of extreme flooding events - climate change. 

The Coordinator General of the NRRA, Shane Stone, is reported as stating that flood management study is expected to take up to two years.

According to one National Party member of the Morrison Government, Page MP Kevin Hogan (middle with Steven Krieg on his left), the results of this study are a done deal: "For too long, previous councils have debated the merits of flood mitigation. Today that debate is done. For everyone who is against engineering solutions to flood mitigation, the debate is over."   

Predictably, National Party-supported Lismore Mayor Steven Krieg blindly echoes this pre-empting of the CSIRO's study report while on the same breath assuring the region that is not what he is doing.

This bold pre-emptive statement hides a multitude of misconceptions about the function of a dam, because the primary function of a dam can be water sustainability/storage or flood mitigation.

Water sustainability/storage requires a dam to be constantly around 90 per cent capacity to fully meet its primary function and to justify the many millions spent on its construction and ongoing maintenance.

Flood mitigation requires a dam to always be almost empty and every time its water level rises significantly that water needs to be released back into the river system that feeds it in order to maintain flood mitigation capacity.

Trying to combine both functions in the same dam on a floodplain would require an enormous, over-designed dam built at prohibitive financial and environmental cost. A constant looming presence in the landscape likely to give downstream farmers and homeowners more than a few troubled nights.

And let's face it, there is actual income to be made out of water storage dams not empty dams, so the temptation for a gradual shift in purpose from flood mitigation to water sustainability/storage would be there from the very beginning - with the potential for lethal consequences during mega floods or a multiple flood year in the catchment when there is insufficient capacity remaining to retain all the floodwater reaching such a repurposed dam.

There is already renewed talk of damming and diverting water from NSW coastal rivers inland or across the NSW-Qld border and it appears that nothing would please the Perrottet Government more than finding an excuse for inter-catchment water transfer to satisfy the needs of rapacious councils, property developers and irrigators outside of the Northern Rivers region, as well as the wants of that unhealthy coterie of political donors/dodgy water traders. 

This motley collection of National Party ideologues and mindless political agitators need to stop acting as a wrecking ball and build on local knowledge and expertise in order to genuinely assess all the solutions being offered up Lismore and the Northern Rivers region.

BACKGROUND 

There are thirty-six signatories to this document sponsored by the Climate Council of Australia. 

MARCH 2022 Statement From A... by clarencegirl

https://www.scribd.com/document/566391016/MARCH-2022-Statement-From-Australian-Mayors-And-Councillors-Extreme-weather-is-hurting-Australia-and-our-communities-are-paying-the-price

Council Magazine, 7 March 2022:

The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) has called for a targeted $200 million per year disaster mitigation fund, for local governments to address the impacts of climate change and help increase Australia’s resiliency.

ALGA President, Linda Scott, said the Association is seeking the disaster mitigation fund as well as an extra $200 million over four years for a Local Government Climate Response Partnership Fund.

“In 2014, the Productivity Commission recommended increased investment in disaster mitigation, but currently less than five per cent of disaster funding in Australia goes towards mitigation and community resilience measures,” Cr Scott said.

“We appreciate the support that has quickly been provided by states and the Commonwealth to households and communities impacted by these devastating floods in Queensland and New South Wales.

“However, we need greater investment in disaster mitigation and climate change adaptation to reduce the severity and impact of future natural disasters.

“The current legislation allows for $200 million per year to be spent from the Federal Government’s $4.8 billion Emergency Management Fund.

“However, since 2019 the Government has only committed $150 million in total from this fund.

“This month’s Federal Budget is an opportunity for the Commonwealth to provide additional assistance that will help protect our communities from increasing disaster events.

“Investing in mitigation makes economic sense, and significantly reduces the costs governments incur during recovery.”

Cr Scott said ALGA is also advocating for a Local Government Climate Response Partnership Fund of $200 million over four years to help councils address the impacts of climate change in their communities.

“Across our nation, we are seeing floods and fires that are more severe, and more destructive,” Cr Scott said.

“Providing our councils with funding to address the impacts of climate change in our communities will help us increase our resilience to future natural disasters.”

The Guardian, 23 March 2022:

Lismore council has been gripped by in-fighting over whether it should make references to “climate change” following the flood disaster and a decision to pause its work on flood mitigation despite warnings the “optics” of doing so were “not good”.

The disaster-ravaged town is still in the early stages of recovering from an unprecedented 14.4-metre flood, which wiped out thousands of homes and businesses and brought Lismore to its knees.

On Tuesday, in a late-night sitting, Lismore council proposed a message of thanks to volunteers and the community for their efforts in the immediate response and clean-up effort.

It included a line saying the council “acknowledges we are likely to experience further disasters of this nature as climate change continues to escalate”.

The words “climate change” prompted a reaction from four councillors, led by independent councillor Big Rob, who attempted to have the reference removed and replaced with a line saying “we are definitely going to experience further disasters of this nature”.

Rob – who says he does not deny climate change but likes to “stir up lefties” – said he did not think a message of community support was the right place to make “political” statements about climate change.

“That motion was about thanking people, not being political about climate change,” he said…….

The effort to delete the reference to climate change failed. But it rankled other councillors, including Greens councillor Adam Guise, who first proposed the climate change reference be added.

“They tried to couch it as not politicising it,” Guise said . “But this is the whole thing about climate change, it’s not political, it’s science.”

The dispute came amid further divisions within council over a decision to halt the work of a key committee working to improve flood mitigation measures in Lismore.

That occurred despite councillors acknowledging the “optics” of pausing the flood mitigation committee so soon after a disaster were “not good”.

The council has also sacked members of the Lismore community who were on a community reference group advising council on flood mitigation.

On Tuesday, at 11pm, the council decided to pause the work of the floodplain committee to wait for more information from CSIRO, which has been given $10m to explore flood mitigation measures in the region.

Lismore council decided it should hold off doing any further work on flood mitigation of its own until it understood what CSIRO was doing.

But councillor Vanessa Ekins, who chairs the committee, warned that could take months. She said pausing the committee was “very dangerous ground” and would not look good to Lismore residents.

“We have just been through a big flood, we are still experiencing that and for us to send a message out there that we are pausing work that we have been working really hard on for years until we hear what the CSIRO are doing … they might take six months to tell us what they’re doing,” she said.

“This could take a really, really long time and meanwhile our community has no guidance from us, we’re not doing anything, we’ve paused the consultation we’re currently engaged in until someone else tells us what they’re doing.”

She said the decision was “absolutely outrageous”.

“It’s really important that our flood plain committee continues the work that it’s been doing for the last five years on mitigating the impacts of flooding on the CBD and residences,” she said. “We were in the middle of a consultation process with members of the community about various options.”

Others were furious that community members had been sacked from the committee so soon after the floods.

“We had community members on that committee with five years’ experience and expertise in understanding the mitigation options that were before us,” councillor Elly Bird said. “To throw all of that experience away, I don’t support it.”

Rous County Council's authoritarian members will ride forth at 9:30 am this morning armed with what can only be described as an anti-democracy revenge motion

Channon Gorge, site of proposed Dunoon Dam.
Photo David Lowe.
Image: Echo, 10 December 2020

It took a long hard campaign on the part of the Widjabul Wia-bal People and the people of Lismore to protect the area known as Channon Gorge and the river which runs though it - rich in cultural heritage as important today as it was thousands of years ago, high in environment values and biodiversity.

However, even when Rous County Council voted to take the proposed Dunoon Dam out of future planning in late 2020, it was obvious that the 'build it it and enough water will fall from the sky' brigade, along with those who appear to take umbrage at the thought of any Aboriginal landscapes escaping destruction, would be returning for another chance to submerge the Channon Gorge.

So the struggle continues and the Widjabul Wia-bal People are not backing down when it comes to protecting the land their ancestors also protected. On 11 February 2022, at their invitation, two members of the NSW Legislative Council met with their representatives at Channon Gorge.

Water Northern Rivers, retrieved from the website 15 February 2022:

Water Northern Rivers Alliance¹

Our region is at a critical point

The current challenge for the Rous region (Ballina, Byron, Lismore and Richmond Valley council areas) is to create a drought-resilient water system without destroying cultural heritage and irreplaceable ecology.

In the face of climate change and projected population growth, the Northern Rivers has become an important testing ground for modern water supply options.

Rous County Council’s revised Integrated Water Catchment Management Plan (revised IWCM 2021) meets the challenge. It is investigating and moving forward with diverse options, instead of the White Elephant Dunoon Dam.

Recent council elections resulted in a new Rous County Councillors being appointed. The new make is predominantly pro-dam, so the time ahead is crucial.

Channon Gorge
Photo David Lowe
Image: Echo, 17 December 2020

Echo, 14 February 2022:

Just when we thought we’d seen the last of the Dunoon Dam, over a year after it was scrapped in 2020, a Rous councillor is moving a motion to put it back on the table.

The 2021 LGA elections saw the Dunoon Dam used as a platform for swaying votes on December 4, often the choice of ‘toilet water’ or the dam the only possibilities offered by candidates.

Now that this term of local government has begun, Ballina, Lismore and Richmond Valley Council have seen pro-dam councillors elected to the Rous Country Council which is made up of eight councillors – two from each of the constituent councils of Ballina, Byron, Lismore and Richmond Valley.

With the swearing-in of this term’s representatives, councils chose Councillors Sharon Cadwallader and Rod Bruem for Ballina, Councillors Michael Lyon and Sarah Ndiaye for Byron, Councillors Andrew Gordon and Big Rob for Lismore and Councillors Robert Mustow and Sandra Humphrys for Richmond Valley.

Ballina’s new Mayor Sharon Cadwallader has been nothing if not desperate to see the dam approved and has gone to extraordinary lengths to see it become a reality.

Ms Cadwallader has been voted on to Rous and she joins at least five other dam supporters on the Council.

Apart from the Byron representation, this group of Councillors have been clear about their support of the dam….

One of the results of this gaggle of duly elected environmental vandals gaining what appears to be a strong foothold on Rous County Council, is the motion set out below authored by a Lismore City councillor with the legal name of Big Rob.^{2, 3} And I have a strong suspicion that this particular motion was not presented (for formal agreement) to a full sitting of councillors on Lismore City Council – the particular local government Cr, Big Rob is legally obliged to represent at Rous County Council meetings.

Rous County Council, Ordinary meeting business paper, Wednesday, 16 February 2022:

Notice of Motion

Council Meeting 16 February 2022

Subject: Dunoon Dam

I hereby move:

That Council:

1. Adopt Revision 7 of the Integrated Water Cycle Management (IWCM) Strategy (Attachment 1) and update Revision 7 of the IWCM to reflect the inclusion of Dunoon dam investigations as part of the Future Water Project 2060

2. Approve the completion of detailed cultural heritage and biodiversity assessments associated with the proposed Dunoon dam in consultation with relevant Traditional Custodians.

3. Defer implementing the resolution associated with the proposed Dunoon dam, resolved by Council at its meeting of 16 December 2020 (resolution [61/20] Item 2), until after Stage 3 options have been determined (Attachment 2)

4. Utilise existing budget allocations for Dunoon dam land management to progress the actions in Item 2.

Signed: Councillor Big Rob

Date: 19 January 2022

The meeting at which this motion will be considered today can be accessed by the wider New South Wales & Northern Rivers general public:

Rous County Council meeting 16 February 2022
Public access, 9.30am – 10.00am: Zoom link.
Council meeting from 10.00am: Zoom link.

A public meeting is being held before the start of Rous County Council proceedings:

NOTE:

1. Water Northern Rivers, retrieved 15 February 2022, excerpts:

Ecological impacts of Dunoon Dam site – cannot be offset

• Internationally significant ecological remnants are our responsibility

• Only 1% of our region’s Big Scrub rainforest remains. 6.7% is in the proposed dam site & would be destroyed or fragmented.

• These rainforests are part of the Endangered Ecological Community Lowland Rainforest of the NSW North Coast and Sydney Basin Bioregions.

• Water Gums and Grey Myrtles in The Channon Gorge are the largest on record.

• Loss of flora species is cumulative, relentless and ultimately terminal. 

• 52 ha of critical koala habitat and corridors would be destroyed.

• Extinction already seriously threatens multiple species including the iconic platypus.

Why Dunoon Dam would NOT HELP with DROUGHT RESILIENCE

• A second dam would only receive water from the catchment above Rocky Creek Dam when it overspills. But Rocky Creek Dam currently has no provision for overflow and is full only 30% of the time, so a new dam may take years to fill. (Rous does not measure water flows over the spillway).

• Dunoon Dam is 3.5 x the size of Rocky Creek Dam, but has half the catchment size.

• In drought, when overall rainfall decreases, the runoff decreases even more drastically.

• Dunoon Dam’s relatively catchment would deliver very little in a drought.

• Multi-year droughts, predicted with climate change, mean that after a 4.5 year drought we’d have TWO empty dams.  

2. Big Rob Archives – The Echo at https://www.echo.net.au/tag/big-rob/

3. Cr. Big Rob Archives – The Echo at https://www.echo.net.au/tag/cr-big-rob/

VALE: Stan Mussared, educator, campaigner for ecological sustainability and environmental warrior

The Environmental Legacy of Stan Mussared

Stan Mussared with "The Earth Charter In Action"
Reweavers Dinner 2017
IMAGE: Lyn Hoskings

Stan Mussared, a Clarence Valley resident for 58 years and a highly respected teacher at Grafton High School for 31 years, died in December 2021. For the last three and a half decades of his life he also played a significant role in the conservation movement in the Clarence Valley.

Stan’s concern for a healthy natural environment developed from the values of his mother who instilled in him compassion and a respect for all life. This became a guiding principle in both his personal and community life.

Magda & Stan in their garden 2017
IMAGE: Lyn Hoskings

His commitment to ecological sustainability led to the long-term re-vegetation project on the Waterview Heights block he and his wife Magda moved to in 1973. At that time there were only two trees – a forest redgum and an ironbark - on the degraded four acre block. Transformed gradually through their determination and hard work, their block is now covered by a wonderful native forest which provides healthy habitat for a variety of wildlife - including koalas which have been visiting regularly since 2008.

Stan’s involvement in public environmental campaigning began when he joined a small group of dedicated people who formed the Clarence Valley Branch of the National Parks Association to save the Washpool rainforest from logging. From all accounts it was a very tense battle from mid-1980 with conservationists on one side and sawmillers and timber workers on the other. The conservationists’ determined campaign eventually led to the NSW Government’s decision to create the Washpool National Park which ensured this magnificent natural area was saved.

1988 brought another threat to the local environment – the Harris Daishowa proposal for a massive chemical pulp mill in the Clarence Valley. Despite government and local council support for the mill, community opposition grew quickly with the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC) being formed to fight the proposal. Members of the new group included Stan, the Washpool campaigners and many others. One of the campaign highlights - the March 1989 public meeting at South Grafton High School - was attended by 1,000 people. Stan was a major speaker presenting the economic and social costs of the proposal at this meeting and others around the area. Months later the strong community campaign paid off with Daishowa withdrawing its proposal. People power had beaten Daishowa.

Stan retired from teaching in 1993 – which gave him more time for other activities including environmental campaigning. Over the next 25 years he used his teaching expertise and organisational and communication skills to explain the importance of protecting the natural environment for the benefit of the community of life.

Stan was also was involved in opposing the plan to divert water from the Nymboida River to provide the constantly growing Coffs Harbour with a long-term secure water supply. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s this resulted in more campaigning, more meetings to attend and more speeches from Stan and others about the danger to the Clarence River system of this inter-catchment transfer of water when better alternatives were available. Despite strong campaigning from the CVCC, the Clarence Environment Centre and Valley Watch this proposal went ahead with the construction of the Shannon Creek Dam and a pipeline to Coffs Harbour.

Campaigns on a variety of environmental issues continued and Stan’s leadership role was vital. He was Vice President of the Conservation Coalition for many years and served as its President for 9 years from 2010.

One of his most significant achievements was the founding of the annual Re-Weavers of the Tapestry awards in 2006. These awards honour and publicise the environmental work of individuals and groups who have re-woven green threads of sustainability into the Earth’s Tapestry to repair its wholeness. Local conservationists recognised include John and Pat Edwards (Shannondale), Peter Wrightson (Ashby), Kay Jeffrey (Iluka), Barbara Fahey (Grafton) and Russell Jago (Ulmarra). Others from further afield who have been honoured include Ashley Love (Coffs Harbour), Carmel Flint (Armidale), Jim Tedder (Grassy Head), Dailan Pugh (Byron Bay) Celia Smith (Armidale), and the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.

Over the years since he became an environmental campaigner Stan spoke strongly for the Earth Community through letters and articles in the local media, through membership of a range of local organisations as well as participation in Council and Government committees.

As a committed environmentalist Stan Mussared achieved a great deal in his 88 years. He was a wonderful advocate for the natural world and an inspiration to many people.

– Leonie Blain

Honorary Secretary, Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition.

Stan Mussared beside the Clarence River
IMAGE: supplied