WBBCC would like to thank all the generous donations made to our organisation by members of the public and community groups. We greatly appreciate this dedicated support but to continue with our fight for the protection of our precious environment, more funds are needed. If you have the capacity to donate, then please do, it will help us help the environment.

The Paradise Dam Legal Case has been made possible by the generousity of everyone involved and we are nearly there! We have raised nearly enough to see us through but we really need to close the gap so please consider making a tax-deductible donation to assist us.

For more information, please navigate to the ‘Donate’ page.

Thanks again, your environment thanks you!

WBBCC.

After 12 months of planning, fundraising and more work than you could poke a stick at, the legal case WBBCC v Burnett Water Pty Ltd is finally set to being next Monday 9-11-09!  Two weeks ago Minister Garrett confirmed that he would not vary the approval conditions for Paradise Dam under the EPBC Act until the outcome of the legal is known! This was definately good news for us and a good indication that the Minister is following correct procedure and does not wish to interfere with the legal proceedings. His decision on the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam is due before next Friday 18-11-09, and we have our fingers crossed hoping he will follow through with the right decision for the protection of the environment. Please Minister Garrett, do not approve this project!

All that’s left too say is, if the Minister makes the right decision, then let the celebrations begin!

A week on from the QLD Governments controversial announcement that they had passed Traveston to Minister Garrett for approval, they continue to stand by their argument that “Traveston Dam is the best option”.

 The Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council (WBBCC) has rebuked this claim and argue that mandatory demand management and more sustainable water practices for agriculture and industry in SEQ, is a better option than a shallow dam at risk of serious evaporation.

 Roger Currie, Water Policy Officer for WBBCC said “The people of SEQ are currently using 200 litres of water per person per day, this low level of usage negates the need for Traveston Dam. The deputy Premier is using scare tactics, rather than stating the truth.”

 The Supplementary EIS for the Northern Pipeline Interconnection (NPI), designed to take water from Traveston to The Sunshine Coast and on to Brisbane, shows that the pipeline had to be redesigned to allow reverse flow capacity, allowing water to be pumped from North Pine Dam back to the Sunshine Coast. As quoted in the EIS, “On 20^th February 2009 The Honorable Paul Lucas MP Minister Deputy Premier and former Minister for Infrastructure and Planning announced NPI stages 1 & 2 could operate as a reverse flow pipeline, providing Link Water with the capability to transport water to the Sunshine Coast from the North Pine water treatment plant, during times of localised drought.”

 In reference to the above statement, Emma-Kate Currie Coordinator for WBBCC said, “The Deputy Premier stated in Parliament that they may need to pipe water from Brisbane’s supply back to the Sunshine Coast in times of drought. It indicates that the due to climate change modeling, the government has realized that Traveston is not capable of yielding the 70,000 megalitres per year to supply the needs of both Brisbane and The Sunshine Coast, therefore not ‘drought proofing the SEQ’ as it is claimed to do.”

 In response to statements made by The Deputy Premier to the ABC this morning: “It’ll be an extra desalination plant and it will be more expensive and people’s water will go up further,”   and

 “Traveston is a good solution, it is a good outcome, and if people say they shouldn’t be building Traveston, then they should be consistent and say we should never build another dam anywhere in Queensland”

 Roger Currie said, “The deputy premier is misleading the public by claiming that, because the ‘cost of Traveston dam’ does not include the costs of pumping the water to Brisbane, the economic and social costs to the people of  the Mary catchment and the economic costs to the fisheries and tourism dollars from the Great Sandy RAMSAR .”

 “When these costs are added to the $1.5 B, Traveston will actually cost $3B, which makes it the most expensive dam in the world, and more than 3 times the cost of desalination and recycling” said Mr Currie.

 The ABC story said, ‘Mr Lucas says while opponents have the right to protest, the dam is still important.’

 “WBBCC agrees with the Deputy Premier that Traveston is important: it is important because the federal Minister realizes that you can’t build a 45 M high dam smack in the middle of the Qld lungfish and Mary turtle habit, with no credible science based protection mechanisms, and expect them to survive, the science proves that, and the Federal court case concerning, Paradise dam will up hold it,” said Roger Currie.

 “The point we are trying to make is this: With all the controversy, all the heart ache, all the science to suggest the dam will evaporate and a legal case to challenge the ability of dams to effectively protect threatened species, is Traveston Dam, really, the best option?” said Miss Currie.

A picture of just how this ‘State of the Art Piece of Equipment’ works. As you can see the water level was well below the downstream entrance when this photo was taken. That has been Burnett Water’s arguement as to why the device does not work! Well we argue that in order to protect lungfish they must be able to gain access downstream regardless of water levels. Interestingly enough, since the water level had reached the 62m elevation neccessary for downstream passage, the lungfish are still just having a look at it and swimming away. This is a big concern because if they continue to hang around the dam wall and we get good rain, they run the risk of being washed over, like what happened at North Pine in June, and because Paradise is a much larger dam with a stepped spillway, the risks are even greater.

Does is sound like it works to you? And if this device is ‘Old Technology’ as Minister Hinchliffe claims, then why did QWI modell Traveston with the same device? If we hadn’t taken the issue to court, they wouldn’t have even considered looking at new options (of which they currently have none).

Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said yesterday the fish ladder plan would be subject to further tests as part of the approval process.

He told brisbanetimes.com.au the device at the Paradise Dam was based on “old technology”.

“The report finds technically the design that’s proposed (at Traveston Dam) works,” he said.

“This is the next generation of fish ladders.” (Extract from Brisbane Times Story by Tony Moore)

I find this facinating because QWI admitted to the Brisbane Times that they do not have a new model for Traveston, therefore is all of this statement based apon facts or fiction?

Facinating read, I wonder what the QLD Government will say in response to this???

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/8m-lungfish-damning-stats-prove-fishways-failure-20090915-fpl0.html

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26079348-3102,00.html

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/bligh-denies-claims-dam-technology-is-fishy-20090914-fn4p.html#commentStart

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/something-fishy-about-dam-project-timing-conservationists-20090914-fn4p.html

6 days after the legal case WBBCC v Burnett Water Pty Ltd (Paradise Dam Case), was adjourned pending a decision from Minister Garrett as to whether or not he will vary the approval conditions for the dam, the QLD government has chosen to give the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam the green light and forward a list of environmental conditions to the Garrett for approval. The timing is impecable! Not only is the proponent of the Paradise Dam, of which  Anna Bligh and Andrew Fraser just happen to be the biggest shareholders, seeking a ‘back door deal’ with the federal environment minister to avoid suffering the consequences of breaching environmental law, they also decided that now is the right time to get Garrett to sign off on Traveston! Last year the Premier announced that Traveston would be put off for 5 years, to further investigate the potential environmental impacts, but less than a year on, they have steam rolled the process.

It’s interesting that this all stems from the question “is the fish transfer device at Paradise Dam suitable for Lungfish?” In court last Monday, legal counsel for WBBCC submitted a signed and filed document containing factual evidence written by WBBCC’s expert witness in the case, and of which Burnett Water’s expert in the same field, agreed on 90% of the material. This clearly shows why Burnett Water suddenly decided to run to the minister for an ‘escape clause’ because their own expert, who also co-authored the ‘Lungfish Recovery Plan’, agreed that:

“Lungfish successfully passing through the downstream fishway would reduce the number of individuals that could potentially move over the spillway during the next spillway flow”      and

“Spillway overflow events at North Pine Dam support a conclusion that a significant proportion of  any Lunfish moving over the Paradise Dam spillway would experience significant injuries or death”

I’d say those facts may be what has scared the government into trying to get Traveston approved before the legal case resumes.

All we can do now is let the public know that this is happening and pray that Garrett remembers why he came to be in the position he is now.

The legal case WBBCC V Burnett Water Pty Ltd began on Monday 7th October but has been adjourned until 9th November.

Burnett Water filed a ‘motion for adjournment’  5 days prior to the opening of the case, after applying to the Federal Environment Minister (Peter Garrett) requesting that he consider varying the approval conditions for Paradise Dam under the EPBC Act.

Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council’s (WBBCC) Coordinator Emma-Kate Currie said today, “Although Burnett Water is well within their rights to make this request, it’s rather ‘convenient’ that the request was made within the weeks leading up to the trial. We were only contacted last week and informed of this latest development.”

 ”If the Federal Environment Minister agrees to vary the approval conditions, it will change the case entirely as the legal action is specifically based around the alleged breach of approval condition 3. We believe that Burnett Water has used this as a diversionary tactic to avoid a Federal Court Trial and are banking on the Minister’s decision going in their favour”, said Miss Currie.

Justice Logan made the decision to adjourn the case this afternoon after hearing arguments from both legal teams. As it is a test case, the boundaries differ from other environmental and litigation cases and Logan stated today that this case is a ‘peculiar species of public litigation’.

“WBBCC is now awaiting Garrett’s decision and can only hope that the Federal Environment Minister makes a decision that is within the best interest of the QLD Lungfish, not the economic interests of the corporation.”