| Kingston invites Garrett to Fraser Coast |
| Written by Jason Wilson | |||||
| Thursday, 06 March 2008 | |||||
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Dr John Kingston, candidate for the Fraser Coast Council, invites Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to come and check out the Taveston dam site in his tinny.
Dear Mr. Garrett, I would like to emphasise a few introductory points, namely that: 1.Seven of the 10 senators were against the dam, and 6 wrote dissenting reports. 2.There has been a lot of research by competent people since the Senate inquiry. The majority opinion by QLD environmental experts is that the hydrology in the EIS is wrong, and that additionally there is inadequate consideration of climate variation.. 3.The EIS concluded that there would be no impact on the Lower Mary. This is patently incorrect. The lower Mary has suffered bank slumping and shoaling as a result of the construction of the tidal barrage for the Lower Mary Irrigation Scheme – a consequence that none of us foresaw. The construction of Traveston will exacerbate those detrimental impacts. 4.The 2001 report by fisheries researchers Halliday and Robins emphasises that adequate and timely fresh water fluxes through estuaries are essential for recruitment of a large range of species important commercially and recreationally. Hydrologists calculate that there will not be the necessary fluxes, and thus recruitment is unlikely, leading to unsustainable fish populations. Commercial fisheries production in the Great Sandy Region is calculated as worth $58,701,500 ( Chrisweb 2007 ). Income associated with recreation fishing - $25,560,000. Tourism in the Great Sandy Region has a high dependence on fishing. Accommodation associated with tourism is calculated by DESR 2007 to be worth $30,863,000. The building of Traveston jeopardises this yearly income, which totals $115,124,500. How many jobs does that represent? 5.The EIS states that adequate fresh water flows into Hervey Bay. This is wrong. The only stream of any consequence without an impoundment, or multiple impoundments, is Baffle Creek to the far north. Some streams such as the Burnett have stopped flowing except in floods. The research of the health of estuarine fisheries by Halliday and Robins bears this out. Baffle was by far the healthiest. 6.The EIS states that all irrigation allocations will remain. An allocation without the water to fulfil its obligations is useless. Our local sugar industry is highly dependent or reliable irrigation. 7.You mentioned your legal obligation to intercede to protect “matters of national environment significance and internationally important Ramsar listed Great Sandy Strait wetland”. Your obligations include all species subject to international agreements to which Australia is a signatory. There are three major agreements: two covering migratory birds and the Bonn Agreement covering animals. We have endangered marine mammals and migratory birds in abundance in the large Ramsar area. Just one example, regular and reliable bird counts indicate that we have 5% of the world population of the Eastern Curlew feeding on the Ramsar wetlands which will be deprived of their annual nutrient replenishment by the Traveston Dam. I repeat my earlier invitation to come and look. I have a suitable boat and we can choose a mutually suitable tide. Cliff Greenhalgh, who has fished the Mary and Sandy Straits all his life, and I will guide you. We look forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I will post you a copy of Fred Pearce’s “When All the Rivers Run Dry” – compulsory reading for dam builders.
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