Edition 22/2020
December 3, 2020
NorthernRiversTimes
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DUNOON DAM ‘DUPE’ By Alexis Galloway
AS uncertainty continues to leak throughout the community on the approval for the Dunoon Dam, a Lismore City Council (LCC) councillor has revealed letters were written by LCC and Rous County Council (RCC) to the NSW Government to encourage the development of the $220million construction – well before the completion of the community consultation process. Councillor Vanessa Ekins said the discovery of the letters was made after viewing the draft State Government Regional Water Strategy. “It was identified that the Government had received input from LCC and RCC and many of us (councillors) were unaware of this. “What that feels like to me is the wheels of bureaucracy are turning quietly in the background and yet at the forefront we are being told we are going through this community consultation process about the dam and no decisions have been made. “The documentation isn’t a secret, but the situation is, we have a mayor and a chair writing to government saying the council supports a particular position when the organisations haven’t even determined a position. These letters also failed to acknowledge the cultural and ecological impacts if the dam were to go ahead, all they
Cr Vanessa Ekins
Cr Isaac Smith
talk about is the government financing it. We need to rectify that record so state government understands what the impacts are on creating this dam,” Cr Ekins said. “At this stage what I urge people in the community to do is to contact their councillors at RCC because this month we will be making a decision on whether to progress with more investigations and spend millions and millions on consultation reports. I would
like to see how we can look at alternative water options. I think we need to hold the consideration of the dam. We need to stop going down the old fashion track of dams. They aren’t efficient…It’s time to halt the process and look at modern technology for how we use water – close the loop and instead take responsibility and reuse those big supplies in treatment plants.” Annie Kia of Water
Northern Rivers said on finding out about the letters she felt ‘duped’. “The community has written submissions regarding the Rous County Council (RCC) Future Water 2060 in good faith...It’s so demoralising and it undermines people’s faith in public institutions when this happens. “This shows they were lobbying before the consultation period and even before the results have
been made public. There is a widespread opposition to the Dunoon Dam because it would obliterate rare rainforest and Aboriginal heritage, and we now know that there are better ways to achieve a resilient water system,” Ms Kia said. “Regardless of this outcome we will continue to push on and turn this around. We want RCC to take the advice from Water Services Association Australia in its report – All options on the table. The peak water services body says new dams are high risk investments because they are vulnerable to drought.” First instigated as an option for water shortage around the 1990’s, it was in July this year the RCC released the Future Water Project 2060 with the Dunoon Dam as a recommendation. In the Dunoon Dam section of the RCC’s website it explains why the Dunoon Dam was preferred as a long-term water supply option for the Northern Rivers. It details: In considering options for the future, Rous County Council conducted extensive assessments to weigh up environment, social and economic impacts. The result of these assessments indicate the Dunoon Dam is the preferred long-term water supply option when compared to demand management and water conservation, groundwater sources and water re-use. Continued on page 2