October 29, 2008

MARY Valley anti-dam campaigners have welcomed comments by Premier Anna Bligh that alternatives to the Traveston Crossing dam will be investigated, saying a failure to do so already is a major weakness in the government’s pro-dam case.

Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group chairman Kevin Ingersole says the government’s own documents, specifically in the Queensland Water Commission’s Draft South East Queensland Water Strategy, show the dam is unnecessary.

He said the documents proved the current Western Corridor recycling scheme and the Tugun desalination plant would meet demand.

New urban growth, often blamed for increased water demand, could solve its own problems (without the need for water restrictions) with “water sensitive urban design”, according to research by the Institute of Sustainable Futures.

Mr Ingersole said stormwater capture in Brisbane alone would more than solve urban water supply problems for the whole South East Queensland region, according to researchers from the Urban Water Security Research Alliance.

“They found in 2007 that South East Queensland’s total urban water consumption (450 gigalitres) was just over half the amount of stormwater lost each year in Brisbane alone (870gL).”

Fellow activist Glenda Pickersgill said Salisbury, in South Australia, had shown the way on stormwater capture 30 years ago, when they began collecting rainwater, cleaning it through wetlands, storing it underground and then re-using it when required.

“Today the city supplies billions of litres of water annually to homes, industry and playing fields from the wetlands, and is planning to extend into northern Adelaide and harvest a further 6.3 billion litres of stormwater each year,” she said.

“Clearly there’s a case for the Queensland Government to pick up on preliminary research being done by the Brisbane City Council and others.

“We’re delighted to hear the Premier admit to needing to investigate alternative options. The failure to adequately investigate viable alternatives has been a major flaw in the Environmental Impact Statement into the proposed Traveston Crossing dam.

“We believe that when this investigation is properly undertaken, it will conclude that Traveston is a white elephant and not in our economic or environmental interest.”