Water Security State of Play: NSW Northern Rivers December 2020

 

As of 26 November 2020 an estimated 80.5 per cent of the NSW Northern Rivers region was not in drought. However, 1 per cent of the region was in full-blown drought, another 10 per cent drought affected and 8.2 per cent recovering, according to the NSW Dept. of Primary Industries.

By 2 December urban water supply in the region was coping but beginning to fall markedly. 

Clarence Valley Council sources its urban water from the Shannon Creek Dam and the Nymboida River Weir. Currently Shannon Creek Dam is at 84 per cent capacity and water flow at Nymboida Weir is well below safe extraction level. Level One water restrictions are in place across the valley.

Ballina Shire Council, Byron Shire Council, Lismore City Council and Richmond Valley Council all principally source their urban water through Rous County Council. The two dams in this cluster are currently at 90 per cent (Rocky Creek) and 89 per cent (Emigrant Creek). With Mullumbimby in Byron Shire sourcing its water from council’s own Laverty’s Weir. Everyday water restrictions apply in all four local government area ie., recommended water use of 160 litres per person per day.

Kyogle Shire Council draws its urban water from a weir on the Richmond River, a natural weir pool on Tooloom Creek and the small Petrochilos Dam with under gravel pump extraction from nearby Peacock Creek. Level One water restrictions are in place across the shire.

Toonumbar embankment dam on Iron Pot Creek about 30 kilometres west of Kyogle was at 55.7 percent of capacity on 30 November 2020.

Tweed Shire Council draws its urban water from the freshwater section of the Tweed River at Bray Park Weir, Clarrie Hall Dam and the weir pool on Tyalgum Creek (Oxley River). Due to low rainfall the Tyalgum district is now on Level Two water restrictions.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology rainfall and temperature predictions for January to March 2021 show that though the rest of summer may be hot across much of the Northern Rivers region there is reason to hope that rainfall will be adequate to meet our needs.

Wannabee water raiders re-positioning themselves for another attempt to dam and divert water from the Clarence River catchment?

Once more the usual suspects are eyeing of North-East NSW as a source of water for urban and industry expansion. 

It isn’t hard to imagine which river system is top of their wish list. Their obsession with rivers within the Clarence River catchment is well-known.

The Chronicle (Online), 1 December 2020:

The Toowoomba Regional Council will join the Western Downs, Southern Downs, Goondiwindi, Lockyer Valley and Tenterfield in the alliance, which will seek to access millions in state and federal government funding for new water security studies.

Cr Antonio said it was an important first step for the councils, and hoped more local governments would join.

“We’re looking at firstly water mapping and where we can get future water from,” he said.

“I’m excited about it – it should’ve been done years ago but we’ve done it. We’re going to do mapping first, and one of the first things we’ve got to do is get it from the State Government.”

WATER Northern Rivers Alliance launched a campaign for smart water options in the Northern Rivers, instead of the Dunoon Dam

Cr Antonio said the agreed vision of the group was about winning new water to provide for generational urban, rural and industrial outcomes.

“Water security is a national issue, and the new alliance would work together to tackle it at a regional level,” he said.

“Improved water security would be a significant driver of regional growth and potential economic activity, particularly from private sector investment.

“The broader region of the Darling Downs and northern New South Wales is suffering through lack of long-term water security options.

“We believe that further investment in water security by all levels of government at a regional level is vital to seize the wealth of opportunity before us.”

The Chronicle (Online), 24 November 2020:

TRC Mayor Paul Antonio said water security was a national issue, and federal support would be needed to tackle it on a regional level.

“The broader region of the Darling Downs and northern New South Wales is suffering through lack of long-term water security options,” Cr Antonio said.

“At the meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, we asked for $5 million in funding assistance from the Federal Government to initiate planning of long-term water security through a broadbased regional feasibility study.

“Improved water security would be a significant driver of regional growth and potential economic activity, particularly from private sector investment..... 

Meme of the Week

 

via @Earth1stlinda2

Quote of the Week

 

“Just to give a shout-out for our friends the trees, I'd like to put on the record that trees are renewable and they are recyclable. We believe that we will manage them in a sustainable way. They are carbon-positive and they are a resource that belongs to all Australians. If you were going to go out and invent the absolutely perfect product—as the big man who invented trees in the first place did—you would invent a tree. I'm sure that trees were put on this earth in the very first instance because they were able to be cut down, because they would grow again and because they would provide a resource for myriad different things—not just for possums and for people to go and look at for a tourism adventure…”  [ South Australian Liberal Senator Anne Rushton, Senate Hansard 8 February 2018] {my yellow highlighting}

On keeping faith with the environment, biodiversity and our natural landscapes

 

Wildlife Crusaders For Our Environment shared this letter on Facebook. It was written by Catherine Cusack, Member of the NSW Legislative Council since March 2013, to Friends of Kalang Headwaters:

Dear Friends of Kalang Headwaters,

Can I say I am incredibly flattered by the invitation and if I could be there without cancelling other commitments I would 100% be there.

Apart from the many good reasons to join you, the best part of my job is first hand seeing our incredible ancient landscape with people who understand it and can explain what I am looking at, what has happened and the actions we need to take.

The real heroes in our state are those who care, whose deep knowledge is the result of years of observation, concern, research and trying to share with their communities and people like me in politics who they believe have a duty to respect and act upon the facts.

I cannot find words to adequately describe my respect for all that work and advocacy for our environment. And I would add the word worry. People are really worried about past mistakes, how we can address them and where things are headed. Anxiety for our precious and fragile landscape and the species in trouble because it’s their home and we failed to respect that. All of it is local. All of it is respectful and all of it is informed by science - and I am just the blow in whose contribution is simply to listen and absorb the information. Information that has taken years of work to discern. The briefings I receive are beautifully prepared often people take time off work and fit in with my program. I cannot tell you how lucky I am in this job and how duty bound I feel to act on the information I am given. There is patience even when it’s forced because frankly past mistakes for whatever reason make me angry and so I can only imagine how local communities who live through the errors must feel.

I voted against my Government's Bill because it was just wrong and a big mistake - the suffering was all about being disloyal to my team who gave me no choice.

The messages of support I received were completely unexpected and overwhelming. I was stunned and of course very grateful because it was a big fall for me - and people who I don’t know reached out to put me back on my feet again.

I have thought so much about how surprised and pleased people were by my vote. I can only guess they have become used to disappointment in decisions and how “the system” just isn’t hearing what they are saying. These people I am referring to have poured their lives into helping our environment and while I am grateful, I am also sorry it was an unexpected surprise. I get it because I worked hard before the Bill was debated in Parliament and well know that sinking feeling - this is super important and nobody is listening to me.

After the vote they played Tom Perry’s song “I won’t back down”. I certainly experienced a rush of affection for them but needed to message that wasn’t the song I was listening to as I dragged my sorry self up to Parliament that morning. The song I was playing on a loop that I will always associate with that issue was The Eagles “Take it to the Limit”. Because for me that song was all about OMG I am failing but I have got to keep trying and when I fail again I need to try harder.

I tell this story because these feelings I recognise in every passionate person trying to assist our environment. I sure know that weariness and so when in spite of being so tired you keep going - well that’s what inspires me.

There is a Bobby Kennedy quote I first heard as a child. This is off topic but google Bobby Kennedy’s son Robert Kennedy Jnr environment podcasts and get ready to be inspired.

Anyway this is his father’s quote and I love it because gives me so much optimism about the power of community activism.

“ Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

There are ripples of hope crisscrossing our state and all of you know this to be true because you are the ripples of hope. And it is becoming a mighty torrent.

Last week the torrent was unleashed on a government Bill I voted against. It happened to be me - but I was just the end product of a massive shift in opinion driven by local activism. I wouldn’t be there or be able to do that if not for you. What you are doing is reversing political currents in politics it is making a difference and the power only grows because of perseverance in the face of disappointments and adversity.

Please never stop or feel disheartened. It is making such a difference.

In my speech I mentioned the sad fate of a local koala colony in Ballina Shire impacted by the construction of the Pacific Motorway. I tried so hard at a really early stage of the project and to cut a very long story short, I failed. It is an experience I say honestly, I am embittered by what happened; there were other options but no, it was the koalas who copped it. In some ways my decision to block the LLS Bill is rooted in that defeat. I am not interested anymore in “mitigation” or “offsets” we are so far beyond those ideas as viable strategies. Nothing will restore what happened there in the Blackhall Range and nothing can console the adoring community who knew each koala and cared for their habitat. I share that story of a lost battle because it contributed to the defeat of the Bill last week. Losing battles can sometimes win wars - I am bewildered as to why this is so hard but it is and we just push through it regardless.

I applaud the conservation proposal for the Kalang headwaters. I love that river and I am jealous of everyone who is present at the ceremony. Thank all of you for caring for the river it’s ecosystem and wildlife.

Please never stop believing politics can be better than it is. My personal motto is the longer it takes, the bigger the party when we get there! Let’s try together to get there.

Thanks for keeping the faith.

Individuals and communities in New South Wales are feeling the emotional and social stress of two horror years in a row

 

One can hear the stress, fatigue, sadness, helplessness and sometimes despair behind a great many of the tweets and posts on Australian social media - especially from those living in regional areas around the country.

One NSW Labor MP recently observed to me that so many people are now in a dark place.

So sadly, this article comes as no surprise…..

The Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2020:

It was thrust into the national spotlight when 33 people tragically lost their lives in last year’s deadly bushfires. But the NSW south coast holds another unenviable title — the suicide capital of NSW.

In a grim reminder of the mental health battle facing our state, the area from Bateman’s Bay to the Victorian border lost 68 people to suicide between 2015 and 2019.

This is compared to the 33 lives lost to the bushfires which ravaged the region from September 2019 through to January 2020.

Analysis of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data reveals the south coast has a suicide rate of 21.5 per 100,000 people — the highest rate in NSW and an increase on the previous year.

Taree, Inverell, Yass and the Clarence Valley are the next worst affected. “We are seeing in the coastal regions the cumulative effects of the bushfires, social dislocation and the consequent effects of further trauma through COVID-19,” Professor Ian Hickie of the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre said. “These are the areas where there are already economic impacts, disruption and now there are additional effects. We talk about this idea of stacked distress.” The figures also reveal a yawning gap between suicide rates in the bush and Sydney, where the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals live.

Gosford and Wyong on the Central Coast are the second and third-worst areas in Greater Sydney, behind the Sydney CBD which has a suicide rate of 14.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

Yet there are 27 other rural and regional locations with a higher suicide rate. Youth mental health expert Professor Patrick McGorry said the statistics “are so shocking — it’s like a war zone”.

“There’s more than 15,500 people who have died in that five-year period (nationwide). If the cause of death were something different — like drownings or car accidents — it would be in people’s faces and on the front page,” he said.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

[my yellow highlighting]

By January 2019 drought affected 99.8 per cent of New South Wales and most of the state was still experiencing drought in January 2020.

The devastating 2019-20 bushfire season commenced early in regional New South Wales. The Clarence Valley fires started at the beginning of June 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic reached New South Wales on 15 January 2020 and first appeared in the NSW Northern Rivers region on or about 16 March 2020. 

In New South Wales in October 2020 unemployment stood at 6.5% and the number of people in the state who were unemployed for periods ranging from up to 4 weeks to 52 weeks and under 104 weeks rose by 148,300 individuals between October 2019 and October 2020.

By July 2020 the employment growth rate stood at 0.0% to -2.4% across the NSW Northern Rivers region.

Fire, drought, fear of infection, public health orders and economic recession significantly affected how coastal communities have lived their lives in the last two years.

According to the federal Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing:

The newly established New South Wales Suicide Monitoring System, launched by the NSW Government on 9 November 2020, reported 673 suspected suicides in NSW from 1 January to 30 September 2020. This is similar to the 672 suspected suicides reported for the same period in 2019 (NSW Ministry of Health 2020). Three-quarters of suspected suicides in 2020 were among males and more than half of all suspected suicides occurred among those aged between 25 and 55 (NSW Ministry of Health 2020).

Again, according to the same source, in New South Wales in 2018 there were a total 899 deaths registered as suicide and in 2019 at total of 937 deaths registered as suicide.

 

The number of registered deaths in 2019 exceeded the 22 year high of 1997 which saw 935 deaths registered as suicide.

The rate of NSW ambulance attendances for mental heath issues in 2019 was 114.3 persons per 100,000 population.

In 2018-2019 a total of 297 males and 388 females were hospitalised for self-harm on the NSW North Coast.

The rate of NSW Northern Rivers hospitalisations for self-harm by females in 2018-2019 ranged from Tweed Valley 181.5 persons per 100,000 population, Clarence Valley 128.3 persons, Richmond Valley-Hinterland 169.6 persons, and Richmond Valley-Coastal 104.2 persons. There are as yet no published figures for 2020.

In Australia this summer "heatwaves may not reach the extreme temperatures of recent years, but may be longer duration and more humid, which can still have a significant impact on human health"

Heatwave Situation for Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday (3 days starting 30/11/2020)

Areas of low-intensity heatwave experienced through northern WA, central NT, most of QLD, northeastern SA and northern NSW. Areas of severe heatwave experienced in southern and western QLD and inland northern NSW. An area of extreme heatwave experienced in south central QLD and over the NSW border.

Clarence Valley Independent, 1 December 2020: 

Australia can expect a wetter than normal summer, but bush and grass fires cannot be ruled out completely, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Summer Climate Outlook released today. 

The outlook for summer has been issued as Australia continues to experience an active La Niña event which is expected to remain until at least the start of autumn. 

The Bureau’s Head of Operational Climate Services Dr Andrew Watkins said this means large parts of eastern Australia have an increased risk of flooding. “While the last three weeks have been dry in many parts of the country – due in part to unfavourable tropical weather patterns – it does not signal a weakening of La Niña. 

“Our climate outlook is the opposite of what we experienced last year in Australia. This summer, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are expected to see above average rainfall, meaning we face an increased risk of widespread floods. 

Dr Watkins said that while the risk of bushfires isn’t as high as last summer, fires will occur. 

“There’s a great chance of grass fires in some areas as recent rain and warm weather have led to vigorous vegetation growth. South eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions in the world. 

Even short periods of hot and dry weather increase the risk of fire in summer.” Dr Watkins said the outlook was also a reminder for communities to be prepared for heatwaves over the coming months. 

“Every summer we see heatwaves across southern Australia. This summer heatwaves may not reach the extreme temperatures of recent years, but may be longer duration and more humid, which can still have a significant impact on human health. 

“Daytime temperatures in summer are likely to be near average, but there will be periods of high heat combined with milder periods. 

“It’s important to keep up to date with the Bureau’s heatwave service.”.....