Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 07:46AM by stevem

Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 08:02AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 07:20AM by stevem

Mayor Bob Abbot wants the state government to stop draining the Sunshine Coast’s water supply after Baroon Pocket Dam this week came close to its lowest level in more than two years. The controversial northern interconnector pipeline has siphoned 7800 million litres of water since it was completed in March, while the Coast region experienced less than half its normal rainfall during a long dry winter. The Bureau of Meteorology has also predicted below average rains this summer, with a similar El Nino effect forming to that experienced in 2002, which preceded the worst drought in Queensland’s history. Baroon Pocket’s level dropped by nearly 10% in the past two months and an average of 1% a week to its current level of 86%.

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Campaigners who have successfully stopped the construction of the proposed Traveston Crossing dam were today calling on the Premier to “stop the scaremongering” over the price of water in the wake of Minister Garrett’s decision regarding the proposed dam. “We are responding to the repeated claims by the Premier that now that the Traveston Crossing dam has been knocked back by Garrett, water prices will have to go up in Brisbane,” said Glenda Pickersgill, president of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group. “The independent assessment Minister Garrett commissioned found the economic analysis used to justify the failed Traveston Crossing dam to be seriously flawed. This report vindicates criticisms that we, and many other groups have made over the last three and a half years.” “Are they using the same flawed economic analysis to support the statements made last week about the increase in water costs? - asked Ms Pickersgill. “The figures suggested by Minister Robertson last week certainly don’t stack up in our view and we are very concerned that the Premier is making the same mistakes all over again.” “If prices go up, the numbers show it would be no fault of Minister Garrett but the fault of the Queensland Government for their dogmatic approach to water management, their consistent economic bungling and repeated cost blowouts in their water infrastructure projects.” The Coordinator General himself admitted in his report on the Traveston Crossing dam proposal, that even with the highest population growth predicted only 20 billion litres more water would be needed in South East Queensland by 2026.

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LAST month’s announcement that the federal government would demand a say in planning the future of Australian cities saw Queensland premier Anna Bligh immediately jump in with a suggestion. Ms Bligh applauded prime minister Kevin Rudd’s approach but said her state already had the answers. Lauding her government’s infrastructure plan as an international award winner, Ms Bligh said it could be the model to guide the growth of the “big Australia” Mr Rudd envisaged. There is fat chance of that now. Central to that SEQ infrastructure plan was her government’s $9 billion water strategy which now lies exposed as an exercise in pure folly.

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THE Sunshine Coast will have more than enough water to keep it flush well beyond 2017, even though the Traveston Dam is absolutely off the table. The Australian Water Association’s Queensland conference was held yesterday at the Hyatt Coolum, just days after the dam was rejected by the federal government. When state minister for climate change and sustainability Kate Jones addressed the meeting yesterday, she said even after federal environment minister Peter Garrett “made the wrong decision in relation to the Traveston Crossing Dam”, our region still had a very secure water supply. Ms Jones opened her speech by saying, “At the outset, let me say the AWA sure knows when to schedule its regional water conference”. She said Mr Garrett’s rejection of the dam proposal, highlighted the strength of the region’s water grid, even without the giant piece of infrastructure.

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THE Sunshine Coast is in danger of losing its identity and becoming “another suburb of greater Brisbane”. The convenor of next Friday’s Sunshine Coast State of the Region Summit, professor Scott Prasser, warned rapid population growth and development in south-east Queensland was having serious consequences on the region. Prof Prasser said it was turning into another Gold Coast due to the encouragement of the “east-west sprawl”. “Now is the time for some of this to be remedied, but it requires rigorous planning and a commitment to stick at it long enough to make a difference,” he said.

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DROUGHT has dragged the water-guzzling Cubbie Station to the brink of collapse, with administrators poised to take over the nation’s biggest cotton producer. The National Australia Bank is seeking the urgent repayment of a $320 million mortgage over the 93,000ha southern Queensland property, which can store enough water to fill Sydney Harbour. Cubbie Group chairman Keith De Lacy - a former Queensland Labor treasurer - refused to say yesterday if voluntary administrators would be appointed this week. But he told The Australian on Monday that none of the five bidders in a firesale of the property had offered enough to cover the massive bank debt, and said the bank “wants to get its money back”.

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BRISBANE ratepayers will receive a separate water bill from January, following the formation of a huge council-owned water distribution company. The change is likely to coincide with another hike in water charges, expected to push the average Brisbane household water bill above $600 a year, nearly double what it was five years ago. The company, Queensland Urban Utilities, will handle the distribution and sale of all water to homes and business in Brisbane, Ipswich and towns in the Lockyer Valley.

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THE Sunshine Coast has been bingeing on water over the past two weeks while Brisbane residents remained conservative despite lifted restrictions to allow for cleaning-up after the dust storm. But it is not residents of the Coast who have been letting the taps flow, rather it is the influx of tourists over the school holiday period who have been the main cause for rising water consumption, Sunshine Coast Water manager for planning and sustainability Michael Lukin said.

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“The design is flawed,” Mr Roberts said yesterday. Mr Roberts said advice he had received from the Northern Pipeline Alliance indicated that its planning no longer matched either the environmental impact statement or supplementary impact statement produced for the project. Stage two roll-out of the water grid pipeline will cut through the Coast to Cooroy and the Noosa water treatment plant. It would eventually connect to the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam if it is ever approved.

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One of the world’s largest water companies has been accused of misleading and deceiving South Australians over a contract signed 14 years ago, prompting the Rann Government to launch legal action for damages that could run into tens of millions of dollars. Acting Premier Kevin Foley said the unprecedented legal action by a state government was filed in the SA Supreme Court today against United Water, which is owned by giant French company Veolia. The contract at the centre of the dispute was signed in 1995 by the then Liberal government when it privatised the management of South Australia’s water and wastewater systems. The pricing structure was signed off again by the Liberals during a 2001 review.

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