Rogercurrie's Weblog

EXIT STAGE RIGHT?

rogercurrie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:11:47 +0000

There goes our water

12:00a.m. 12th July 2008

The state government has delayed building part of its water grid, instead planning to siphon 65 million litres of water a day from Baroon Pocket Dam until late 2011.

That is the amended completion date of the second stage of the northern interconnector pipeline, coinciding with the timeline for constructing the Traveston Crossing dam.

Sunshine Coast mayor Bob Abbot said he was concerned that taking that much water from Baroon Pocket could threaten the region’s water security. He said there was no guarantee the regular downpours of recent times would continue.

The opposition said the delay in building stage two of the pipeline was a sign that the Traveston dam was less likely to proceed.

 HOWEVER, infrastructure minister Paul Lucas said the decision was based solely on increased supplies being available on the Sunshine Coast.

“The good rain we’ve had this year on the Sunshine Coast means stage one of the pipeline will be able to supply the water we need through until 2011,” Mr Lucas said.

“The Sunshine Coast’s dams were filled to overflowing by rain in June and the combined levels remain over 95%. Stage one is now more than 70% built and on track to finish by the end of this year.”

The coalition’s infrastructure spokeswoman Fiona Simpson said the delay could be an indication that the government was preparing to dump the Traveston dam down the track.

“I think it is a sign that Traveston dam might be wobbly because you wouldn’t build one without the other,” Miss Simpson said.

“The cost of stage two of the pipeline has increased from $400 million to $500 million in the last estimates and it would be an expensive white elephant without the dam.”

Mr Lucas dismissed the suggestion it was planning an exit strategy.

Just to underline that, he revealed a preferred route for stage two of the pipeline.

He said the additional time would allow it to follow existing easements and reduce the impact on landowners and the environment. “This will provide certainty not just for the people affected, but also anyone whose property has been looked at previously but isn’t on this route,” Mr Lucas said.

“I’ve directed LinkWater Projects (which will build the pipeline) to start contacting people immediately and also make this route available online.

“There are 95 landowners around Yandina and Bli Bli who will receive letters explaining they are no longer affected.”

Mr Lucas said the Environmental Impact Statement for stage two was expected to be released for public comment by the end of this year.

CARBON NEUTRAL TRAVESTON?, NOT LIKELY

rogercurrie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:56:36 +0000

Michael Madigan and Glenis Green

July 08, 2008 12:00am

THE proposed Traveston Dam near Gympie could pump up to 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere each year, a new report says.

The University of Technology Sydney report said the Queensland Government had not accounted for thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions which would be produced each year by pumping up to 70 million tonnes of water from the dam to Brisbane.

The report put the $1.7 billion project, the state’s biggest piece of infrastructure, squarely at the centre of Australia’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme.

It raised serious questions about whether it would stack up financially if emissions permits sold for the expected $20 a tonne under the ETS.

But Infrastructure and Planning Minister Paul Lucas said a forest was being planned to offset emissions from the project and said it eventually would be carbon neutral.

“When complete the entire 2000ha of timber plantation will offset up to 850,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – more than offsetting the 140,000 tonne construction carbon footprint of the dam,” Mr Lucas said.

Parts of the report by the university’s Institute for Sustainable Futures were commissioned by Mary Valley councils opposed to the dam.

The report said the State Government neglected to consider emissions from pumping water and emissions coming off the dam’s surface when assessing its carbon footprint.

“Even desalination, itself a last resort in a severe drought, would result in fewer emissions at 280,000 to 350,000 (annual tonnes) to yield the same quantity of water,” the report said.

National water expert Professor Stuart White estimated 110,000 to 270,000 tonnes of methane and carbon dioxide could be released from the dam’s surface each year.

“Not only are these impacts a cost to the environment but the forthcoming national emissions trading scheme, as recommended by Professor (Ross) Garnaut, will mean these emissions place a significant financial burden on the community,” he said.

Anti-Traveston Dam campaigners, led by Kevin Ingersole and Kandanga farmer Glenda Pickersgill, yesterday suggested that Premier Anna Bligh’s pro-dam position might have softened in recent months.

“Previously the Premier and other ministers have been saying they are absolutely determined the dam would proceed,” Mr Ingersole said. “Now they are adding the caveat ‘if it stacks up environmentally’.”

The claims of co2 sequestration from the plantation are innacurate , the figure is likely to be the total capture for the life of the pantation , 30 years . Pumping is a yearly emission figure , and totals 1.2B tonnes for 30 years.

The Minister for Sustainability ( CO2 emissions) travelled to Bali for the Kyoto meeting with Peter Garrett , and yet he still claims the science stacks up , what science ?, the EIS does not contain a shred of science .

GREEN DRAGON SLAYS CAPTAIN BLIGH

rogercurrie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:28:42 +0000

Save the Mary Campaign awarded recognition at Homage to Defenders of Rights for Rivers and Life.

For immediate release 7th July 2008

The World Expo city of Zaragoza, Spain erupted into Worldwide community action over July 5 and 6. Homage to the Defenders of Rights for Rivers and Life were held in a historical Zaragoza Theatre. Filmed excerpts from people suffering the consequences of draconian policies of Government imposing large dams and privatization of water were shown. Musicians, dancers and poets performed along with presentations and speeches of selected community action groups.

Australia was included as one of the eight selected case studies to be awarded recognition for their efforts in the “Save the Mary River” campaign. Glenda Pickersgill representing the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group received the world activist award ‘The Green Dragon’, founded from the initial actions on the Erbo River where the symbol was used on the front of activist’s boats.

“The people of the Mary River catchment have already suffered unjustly by this dam proposal. The Australian Government has good water policies. But the eyes of the world will be focused on this water shed decision that Peter Garrett must make in the next few months as to whether the damming of the Mary River will be stopped’, she said to the international audience. ‘In the face of climate change there are more reliable and lower cost alternatives including demand management, water recycling and desalination for water supply.’

This campaign to save the Mary River from destruction of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam has been taken to heart by other non government organizations in Europe, Americas and Asia. This is the first time grassroots groups from Australia have joined their counterparts overseas.

The production was followed by a demonstration and street march through the historical city of Zaragoza.

End

Media contact and further background information:

Glenda Pickersgill 0061 411443589 pickerg@bigpond.com;

Wayne Cameron alanacameron@optusnet.com, b4c@bulimbacreek.org.au or

Heather Barns (Bulimba Creek Committee) 07 34204800

SaveTheMaryRiver website www.savethemaryriver.com.

The el faro pavilion www.elfaro2008.org

HAPPY LITTLE ALP VEGEMITES

rogercurrie — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:48:48 +0000

From the Fraser Coast Chronicle , yesterday , Mr and Mrs Smiley , i think not.

LET THE WORLD SEE ALP ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM

rogercurrie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:31:28 +0000

Traveston Dam protest goes to Hervey Bay
Damian Bathersby & AAP

Queensland government ministers are poorly informed on the impact of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam, protesters say.

The Greater Mary Association yesterday gathered more than 300 people to protest against the $1.7 billion dam at the government’s community cabinet meeting in Hervey Bay.

It follows the anti-dam rally at the state Labor conference on the Gold Coast on June 22.

Inside yesteday’s Hervey Bay protest, the group met with premier Anna Bligh and six other ministers, including treasurer Andrew Fraser, water minister Craig Wallace and primary industries minister Tim Mulherin.

The government is standing by the unpopular dam, proposed for the Mary River near Gympie, north of Brisbane, to help solve the region’s water shortage.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett will have the final say in coming months.

Greater Mary Association spokeswoman Tanzi Smith said tourism minister Desley Boyle refused to meet the group, revealing a lack of understanding about how the dam could impact tourism.

“A lot of people come here for boating and the whale watching industry, and all that depends on the health of the eco-system,” she said.

“It would be essentially starved of nutrients and fresh water which would have such a negative impact on everything tourists come to see.”

Ms Smith said there was a general ignorance about the dam among the ministers.

“They often say the project will benefit the Fraser Coast region, but when we asked them why, they really couldn’t answer those questions in any detail,” she said.

The group says the issue could see Hervey Bay MP Andrew McNamara, also the environment minister, lose his seat at next year’s election.

“It’s about time he started to really listen to what the people say and stop kidding himself (by) thinking that only people who don’t vote Labor are opposed to this dam,” Ms Smith said.
Meanwhile, Traveston Dam opponents will be in the international spotlight this week when the project is featured as one of the world’s most inappropriate water developments at the 2008 World Expo in Spain.

Glenda Pickersgill from the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group is heading to the expo where she will join Wayne Cameron from Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee, and others in the team, to tell a global audience about the Queensland Government’s proposal to dam the Mary River.

The European Rivers Network has supported the Mary River campaign by including it in a major international display at the 2008 World Expo, which runs for three months.

The exhibit highlights the effects of water infrastructure developments throughout the world on the communities they displace.

The Queensland Government’s actions against residents of the Mary River basin have been included in the list of 22 inappropriate water developments chosen by the European Rivers Network to be placed under the spotlight of international shaming at the expo.

WONGI WATER HOLES REPORT

rogercurrie — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:17:11 +0000

Below is a link to the report I presented to the Premier , Deputy Premier, Minister for Water Resources and the Local Member and Minister for Innovation , Climate Change and Sustainablity . The report details both the Febuary and June flood innundations of the water holes and recommendations for the potential offences .

report1

WHITE ANTING THE COMMUNITY

rogercurrie — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:05:46 +0000

Dam blackmail on timber museum

June 28, 2008

ANGRY Gympie wood workers had a few choice words for the State Government yesterday, as their beloved WoodWorks Museum became an indirect victim of the proposed Traveston Crossing dam.

While many of the relics are now claimed by Queensland Museums, CEO Ian Galloway said this did not apply to all exhibits and it was possible most of the collection would remain on display in the Gympie region if the dam is built.

“We have entered into a memorandum of understanding with Queensland Water Infrastructure,” he said, adding that QWI had offered to house the collection “on the shore of the Traveston Crossing dam.

“We’ve got a few things to say,” Gympie and District Woodworkers Club secretary George Venz said at a formal “thank you and good-bye” function yesterday for the club members whose volunteer efforts have helped keep the museum going.

“Frustration is only a small word for what we’ve felt in the past few weeks,” he said.

“Before we came here today we didn’t have too much of an idea of what’s going on. We have a little better insight now.

“We welcome the chance to talk to you later,” he told Department of Primary Industries regional director David Loch. “There are some things that concern us deeply about the museum,” he said.

Mr Loch presented certificates of appreciation to the wood workers and others, including Gympie identity Clyde Kunst, who helped maintain and operate the museum’s rare steam sawmill. Mr Loch later explained that DPI forestry operations had now been corporatised and department needed to concentrate on its “core business.”

He said the entire Fraser Road forestry site, including its conference centre, training facilities and the museum, was rented from its owner, the Public Works Department, which intended to sell the site.

Gympie MP David Gibson yesterday expressed his disappointment at the closure, saying he had been told the overall complex operated at a loss of about $300,000, including rent of $313,000 a year.

http://www.gympietimes.com.au/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3777004

POLITICAL CLIMATE CHANGE?

rogercurrie — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:12:01 +0000

The Gympie Times
26th June 2008
page 7 (not available online)

Quote:

New report to put end to Mary River Dam idea

A new state government climate change report should rule out the Traveston Crossing dam, Gympie MP and Shadow Sustainability Minister David Gibson said yesterday.

Mr Gibson said the government’s latest assessment of potential negative impacts from climate change showed the dam would be increasingly unreliable.

Accusing Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara of being two-faced about climate change and the dam, he said: “You can’t release a science-based report from your own Office of Climate Change, which is headed by the Premier’s husband, Greg Withers, and then ignore one of its principle warnings on future rainfall”.

“The Minister says Queensland already had one of the most naturally variable climates in the world, and now he’s saying our climate will become even more variable and extreme.

“But what he isn’t saying is that the data he and his government used to justify building Traveston can no longer be relied on… the rainfall data used to justify what is the most environmentally controversial project in Australia is no longer valid.

“You can’t have it both ways.

“You can’t have the Office of Climate Change, headed by the Premier’s husband, issuing what we’re told are genuine, science-based reports on how our climate, including rainfall patterns, are going to change dramatically, and then ignore it all when it suits.

“I’m calling on the Minister and the Premier and the Premier’s husband to clearly explain exactly how their Climate Change projections sit with the old rainfall data they have used to justify Traveston.

“The people of Queensland need to know,” Mr Gibson said.

BRISBANE ENGINEERS DUMP TRAVESTON

rogercurrie — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:02:50 +0000

The Gympie Times
26th June 2008
page 7 (not available online)

Quote:

Engineers say no to dam

The Traveston Crossing Dam proposal has been rejected hands down – literally – by a meeting of leading Australian engineers in Brisbane earlier this month.

Engineers Australia called the meeting, in association with its Queensland Division Water Panel and the Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering, to consider the engineering profession’s response to the government’s draft strategy for drought proofing south-east Queensland.

The strategy is now being administered by the Queensland Water Commission and is subject to public submissions until the end of July.

One contentious point is that it lists the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam as “existing or committed infrastructure”, even though it does not yet exist and has not yet received federal environmental approval.

More than 120 paying guests crowded the Brisbane venue, at Engineering House in Edward Street.

Mary River Catchment Co-ordinating Committee representative Steve Burgess, who spoke at the meeting, said attendees, including State Government representatives, heard reports on legal and technical aspects of the dam.

Mr Burgess said they were then surprised to be put on the spot with a request from the Chair that anyone interested in advocating the case for the dam should raise their hands.

No-one did.

“You’d expect an audience of engineers would include some in favour of the dam, but there was an awkward moment as people kept their hands down,” Mr Burgess said.

“Then there was another awkward moment when you could see people looking around and realising that no-one else had their hand up either.”

The meeting heard addresses from Dan Spiller of the QWC, Alex Kazaglis from the University of Technology Sydney, kayaker and senior water engineer Steve Posselt, who recently paddled from Brisbane to Maryborough and back to draw attention to the Mary River issue and environmental lawyer Melanie Simmonds from the Brisbane firm Deacons, as well as Mr Burgess.

Mr Spiller is the QWC’s acting executive director of regional planning and policy. Mr Kazaglis is senior research consultant for his university’s Institute for Sustainable Futures, (which strongly criticised the dam in its report to Mary Valley Council of Mayors convenor and then Cooloola Shire Mayor Mick Vernados). Mr Burgess is a Mary Valley Resident and MRCCC catchment officer. Ms Simmonds is a lawyer advising local government, developers and resource and energy clients, particularly on environmental issues.

Us eng-uh-neers might like to boast that we can build anything, anywhere - given enough money - but we still have an intrinsic hatred of STUPIDITY. There were representatives there from the QWC, the Department of Natural Resources, and most (if not all) of the major companies invited to tender for the dam project. But not a single engineer willing to raise his/her hand in support for the project in front of a his/her peers. Why? Not because it can’t be done, but because it’s so obviously STUPID it clearly shouldn’t be done.
_________________
“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything” - anon.
“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies” - Walter Lippman

10,000 SUBMISSIONS = 10,000 ANTI DAM VOTES

rogercurrie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:13:06 +0000

This sunday is the ideal opportunity for the 10,000 citizens who signed submissions against the Traveston Dam , to make the wish come true .Local member and Bligh cabinet Minister , Andrew Macnamarra has stated that he would , ” change his mind if the science did not stack up “ , being a politician he will only respond to community perceptions ,not scientific evidence , so numbers count , the cabinet is shaky after the protest at the Gold Coast ALP conference , an invitation from Garretts advisors was issued yesterday to an anti dam group , to send reps to discuss Traveston.

This was a result of the protest at the conference , we have them on the back foot , sunday is the opportunity to have a regional response to show Macnamarra that he is not safe at the next election , if he does not back away from Traveston .

I urge you all to make an attempt to be at the Tafe College in Urraween rd at 12.30pm to make a statement to him and the Cabinet .