Science Alert

Wednesday, 07 May 2008
By Roger Currie

The Beattie government was given approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) to build the Paradise Dam  (on the Burnett River, upstream of Bundaberg) by the Howard government under Minster Kemp on January 25, 2002.

On August 8, 2003 the minister varied the approval requiring the Queensland Government to comply with nine conditions to demonstrate successful mitigation to ensure that a “significant impact” did not occur to the Neoceratodus forsterii, commonly known as the Australian lungfish.

Condition 3 of the variation of approval was that: “Burnett Water must install a fish transfer device on the Burnett River Dam suitable for lungfish. The fishway will commence when the dam becomes operational.”

This variation was the result of scientific assessment of the potential impacts to the species and the requirement for upstream and downstream migration to spawning and feeding habitats.

A Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPIF) report by Brooks and Kind (2002) on the lungfish made a recommendation that a decadal study of the Mary River lungfish populations should be produced before any further dams or extraction was planned, or indeed carried out.

On April 26, 2006 the then Premier, Peter Beattie announced, without any public consultation process, that his government was going to build a 300,000 MGL dam on the Mary River at Traveston 15km south of Gympie. I was fortunate enough to be one of the 6,000 people who attended that announcement and who unanimously turned their backs on the Premier.

On June 14, 2006, my contract with the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency was terminated because I was accused of breaching the public service code of conduct: I had made comments in the media to the effect that the Beattie cabinet was ignoring the recommendations of the scientific report by Brooks and Kind.

After a concerted media and lobbying effort by the Anti Traveston Dam group, Widebay Burnett Conservation Council (WBBCC), Save the Mary River group (STMRG), and the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee (MRCCC), the Premier dug his heels in and responded to an accusation by Professor Jean Joss that the “fishway was ineffective and not complying with the EPBC approval” (ABC 7.30 Report), with the following: “The paradise dam lungfish ladder is working effectively and they are breeding effectively as far as I’m concerned.”

WBBCC lodged a freedom of information request to the Premier’s Office seeking documentation (scientific research papers or Cabinet briefing documents) to substantiate the Premier’s claims: “WBBCC is seeking access to all documents relating to the advice given to the premier on the functioning of the fish ladder on Paradise Dam on the Burnett River and lungfish breeding in the Burnett River”.

We obtained the following response:

A search was conducted of the records management system and physical searches were undertaken of pertinent areas of the office, however no documents were found … Certain documents were located which were initially considered to fall within the scope of your application, however processing your request involved consultation with third parties under S51 of the FOI act 1992, following consultation and examination, the documents were considered irrelevant to your request, as the Department does not hold any documents that fall within the scope of your application, access is refused under S28a (1) “An agency or Minister may refuse access to a document if the agency or the Minister is satisfied the document does not exist”.

After a meeting with Senator Ron Boswell at the mouth of the Mary River and communications with Senator Ian Macdonald, I was asked to attend the Senate Regional and Rural Affairs Committee hearing into the Traveston Dam proposal on June 11, 2007, to give evidence on the effectiveness of the fishway.

I used the FOI request and response, to show that the Premier had based his statement on personal opinion with no credible evidence or scientific results and was misleading the people of Queensland. Those of us from the Anti Dam groups who participated were successful in persuading Minister Malcolm Turnbull (the then Howard government Environment Minister) to agree to carry out an environmental audit of the Beattie (now Bligh) government’s compliance performance for the fishway on Paradise Dam.

The audit was carried out by officers of Minister Peter Garrett’s department late last year. Myself and other members of the Anti Dam groups met with Garrett in Gympie on February 25, 2008, where I explained to him that the compliance can not be met because the downstream entry point for the fishway is situated at 63m EL which is 6m above the current storage level of the dam, and this precludes downstream passage. The reason it is at this height is to ensure that successful fish passage does not compromise the economic performance of the dam, thereby rendering the “fish transfer device” unsuitable for lungfish.

This is in direct breach of condition 3 of the variation.

The minister’s officers make the following observations and determinations in respect of the “device”: “The Fishway has not fully commenced”.

Burnett Water P/L (a $2 Queensland government-owned corporation) responded:

It is BWPL’s view that this condition has been met and BWPL is compliant. Continuing drought conditions has meant that the Paradise Dam storage level has not reached the design operating range for the downstream fishway of EL62.0m. The fishway design process included extensive consultation with fish experts and government agencies and advice from fishway experts over an extended period of time. The operating range was considered to offer the best cost-benefit-risk outcome for all stakeholders that balanced protecting the lungfish with cost-effectiveness of the design. The Resource Operations Plan (ROP) established by the State Government specifies that the fishway is to have an operational range of between EL 62.0m and EL 67.9m. The highest the water level in the dam has reached since its construction was EL 55.62m.

The Department’s response:

The fishway was to commence when the dam became operational. It is DEWHA’s view that the dam became operational in December 2005. Only part of the fishway is currently operating (upstream). A rating of partial compliance is given when there is more than one element to the condition or requirement being assessed and the auditee has complied with some but not all elements. In this instance the fishway contains both upstream and downstream elements, and both of these have not been met, therefore a rating of partial compliance is appropriate. It is however noted, that the rating of partial compliance is due to drought conditions and low dam levels.

If we refer back to the variation for approval there is no mention of “partially complying”. The wording is distinct: “Burnett Water must install a fish transfer device on the Burnett River Dam suitable for lungfish”.

The Anti Dam groups are adamant: compliance has not been met; fish passage must occur in both directions. There can be no mistake, compliance with the conditions of approval have not been met by the Bligh government’s water operations entity Sunwater. The spurious claim that “continuing drought conditions” are to blame is a fallacy and easily debunked.

The dam is currently at EL 57m and falling and Sunwater is selling water on a daily basis. Rainfall at the Bureau of Meteorology gauge near Gayndah (upstream) for 2007-08 was above the 137-year median and rainfall in South-East Queensland was particularly heavy post Christmas and yet the dam has still not reached the EL 63m.

So in effect the dam was a Beattie government election promise built in an unsustainable catchment. It is unlikely that further large inflows will occur now; this will result in another year of non compliance with the conditions of approval leaving the Lungfish with no useable fishway.

It is then not unreasonable for the Anti Dam groups to put forward an argument that it is unlikely that compliance can be met in the foreseeable future unless the Federal Environment Minister applies to the Federal Court to force BWPL or Sunwater to repair or mitigate the damage that has been or is likely to be caused to a protected species - the Australian Lungfish.

Roger Currie is the vice president of the Widebay Burnett Conservation Council (WBBCC), holds a Degree in Protected Area Management from UQ and is a sole trader GIS/Biodiversity consultant carrying out contract work with the Fraser Coast Regional Council, State Government, NGOs, Burnett Mary Regional Group, and private clients in the Burnett Mary Region.