Submission Guide
NOTE: Please use the following example submission as a guide. We encourage you to personalise with your own wording.
Email your submission to council@rous.nsw.gov.au. Due 28 May 2021.
Important: CC your submission to the Rous Councillors also (otherwise they just get a summary):
sharon.cadwallader@ballina.nsw.gov.au, keith.williams@ballina.nsw.gov.au, basil.cameron@cr.byron.nsw.gov.au, cate.coorey@cr.byron.nsw.gov.au,darlene.cook@lismore.nsw.gov.au, vanessa.ekins@lismore.nsw.gov.au, sandra.humphrys@richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au, robert.mustow@richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au
Feedback Submission
Re: Revised Future Water Project 2060 – Integrated Water Cycle Management strategy
To:
General Manager, Rous County Council
PO Box 230, Lismore NSW 2480
From:
Your name
Your address
I appreciate the revision of the Future Water Project 2060, and the decision to remove the Dunoon Dam from further consideration in the revised IWCM. I also acknowledge the complexity of the Rous County Council’s job to provide water for our region.
I SUPPORT these aspects of the IWCM, for the reasons given in the IWCM
- Water loss management focused on Rous assets
- Section 15.4.2, development and implementation of direct potable reuse scheme beginning with a pilot scheme
- Section 15.4.3, indirect potable water reuse, especially its potential to recharge harvested aquifers
- Sustainable groundwater usage NOT from the existing upper level Alstonville aquifer
- Smart metering
- Drought management planning
- Sustainably powered temporary desalination plants on the coast
- Table 41, the disposal of land zoned for the Dunoon Dam
I support the general direction of the revised IWCM, and would like to reiterate why I continue to oppose Dunoon Dam. As the IWCM recognises, the dam has been, and continues to be, strongly rejected by the community, for reasons including:
- Destruction of important Widjabul Wia-bal heritage, including burial sites.(1)
- Destruction of an Endangered Ecological Community of Lowland Rainforest, in particular the very rare warm-temperate rainforest on sandstone in The Channon Gorge.(2)
- Lost opportunity to invest in system-wide water efficiency and stop potable water wastage. Only 2% of the Rous supply is used for drinking, the rest is down the toilet and in the garden. Efficiency is the cheapest & fastest way to ensure supply-demand balance. By focussing on system efficiency, Sydney added an additional 950,000 people without a rise in consumption.(3)
- 21st century water security requires diversity in water sources. Adding another dam to the portfolio decreases the drought resilience of the water system for our region (4)
- Industrial/construction zone for The Channon/Dunoon community; noise, machinery, trucks, visual impact. Ongoing sound impact from pump house etc.
The dam option has been rejected multiple times by both the community and the Rous County Council, and has been recognised in the IWCM as an inferior option compared to a “diversified portfolio of actions to meet the region’s water security needs”. I object to the wording of Section 8.13 as follows: The last sentences should read: “Further detailed studies would have been required prior to a decision to proceed with the dam option. These studies were expected to take three years to complete”. Further studies related to the dam are now redundant, and the IWCM wording should reflect that.
I urge Rous County Council to adopt the revised IWCM as exhibited and to proceed to implement it with urgency. This will lead our region forward with wise and well informed water options for a sustainable future.
Sincerely,
Your name
(1) Ainsworth Heritage, Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment, 2013
(2) SMEC Australia, Terrestrial Ecology Impact Assessment, 2011
(3) Metropolitan Water Plan 2006, NSW Government. Exec Summary section of the doc
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pu9898oq6kocrph/NSW%20Govt%202006%20MWP%20summary.pdf?d
(4) Australian Water Services Association, All Options on the Table, 2020