Dam construction threatens lungfish-7.30 Report
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in "Don't you worry about that", Captn Bligh, Environmental, Environmental Impact Statement, Freedom of Information, QWIPL
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 05/10/2009 (View here)
Reporter: Peter McCutcheon
Queensland’s attempt to build what it calls “Australia’s greenest dam”, is about to be put to the test. Green groups and local residents have long argued the project would result in serious environmental damage and one particular issue they’re focussing on is the plight of the Australian lungfish.
Transcript
KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Queensland’s attempt to build what it calls “Australia’s greenest dam” is about to be put to the test. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett will be asked to adjudicate on whether the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam, north of Brisbane, can go ahead. Green groups and local residents have long argued the project will result in serious environmental damage, and one particular issue they’re focusing on is the plight of the Australian lungfish. The Queensland Government says it will use leading-edge technology to ensure this vulnerable species is protected, but even the technology is now under serious question. Peter McCutcheon reports.
PETER MCCUTCHEON, REPORTER: These meandering waterways are home to a bizarre evolutionary throwback. The Australian lungfish is not only a living fossil, it also stands in the way of the Queensland Government’s plans to build a massive new dam on the Mary River.
Do people really believe they have a chance of stopping the dam?
DAVID KREUTZ, SAVE THE MARY RIVER: I genuinely believe there’s a feeling in the community that the science just doesn’t stack up.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: The science under scrutiny is this engineering marvel; a high-tech way of getting the lungfish from one side of the dam to the other.
We’ve retrieved data which indicates that basically the device doesn’t work at all.
STIRLING HINCHLIFFE, QLD INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER: We need to use, and I’m sure we will use, the latest and best science to develop a working fishway to support all of the species.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: For nearly four years, the Queensland Government has weathered a storm of protest over building a dam at Traveston Crossing about 150 kilometres north of Brisbane. This week, Queensland’s coordinator general is expected to submit his final report to the Federal Environment Minister asking for approval.
STIRLING HINCHLIFFE: The Traveston Crossing Dam is an important fundamental part of supplying and confirming and providing water security for south-east Queensland for many decades to come.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: But for those who still live in the Mary Valley and have resisted government attempts to buy them out, the dam heralds the end of a way of life.
LEONA SMITH, MARY VALLEY RESIDENT: Why sell? Why sell? I don’t want to sell. So, we’ll just hang out till the end, the bitter end.
DAVID KREUTZ: The last four years has been an ongoing nightmare.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: David Kreutz is secretary of the ‘Save the Mary River’ coordinating group which is pinning its hopes on the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett stopping the dam from going ahead.
DAVID KREUTZ: This is all gonna be removed by the dam. They’re gonna scalp this and improve their pondage.
I think there’s a process involved here. It’s not all over till Mr Garrett sings.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: And one of the main environmental objections voiced by a number of years by biologist Professor Jean Joss is the effect the dam will have on the habitat of the Australian lungfish, a creature which once lived with the dinosaurs and is now listed as vulnerable.
JEAN JOSS, LUNGFISH EXPERT (7.30 Report, 2006): They can put the dam on the Mary River and they will go on living, but they won’t be reproducing. There’ll be no recruitment. And with no recruitment, they’ll eventually be dead.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Queensland Government denies this, and argues the lungfish will be able to breed normally in the dammed river with the help of a fishway. Such a device is currently in operation at the Paradise Dam on the Burnett River near Bundaberg and is designed to carry fish over the dam wall.
Three years ago, the then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie told the 7.30 Report this Paradise Dam fishway was working well.
PETER BEATTIE, QLD PREMIER (7.30 Report, 2006): It seems to be effectively working, as far as I’m concerned, and I understand the lungfish are breeding as effectively as normal.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: But documents tabled in a recent Federal Court case reveal a very different story.
ROGER CURRIE, WIDE BAY BURNETT CONSERVATION COUNCIL: Well we discovered basically what had been happening was that the downstream fishway effectively wasn’t operating at all because the water levels weren’t up to a point where that could operate, and we also discovered that basically the upstream fishway had barely been functioning in the previous three to four years up to the instituting of the legal proceedings.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: Roger Currie is the vice president of the Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council, which is taking legal action against the operators of the Paradise Dam for allegedly failing to protect the lungfish.
And that’s the fish ladder there?
ROGER CURRIE: That’s the upstream fish ladder.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: So how many fish have gone in there?
ROGER CURRIE: Basically, it appears that 38 fish actually have come and had a look.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: Lungfish?
ROGER CURRIE: 38 lungfish have come and had a look at that slot. Of that 38, only about five have actually gone into the channel and had a look, and at this stage, the data reveals that only three juvenile lungfish - non-breeding lungfish - have actually decided to go into the hopper and take the trip up over the top of the wall.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: That’s three tagged fish over three years?
ROGER CURRIE: Three tagged fish over three years of operation, yes.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: Now, this information is based on documents discovered through a court case that is set down to be heard next month. The operators of the dam have previously admitted to problems with the fishway, but deny any environmental breaches and are not commenting on the lungfish data while the matter is before the court.
The only existing fishway in the world that’s been designed for the lungfish is at Paradise Dam, and so far, that’s failed to work effectively. Why would Traveston be any different?
STIRLING HINCHLIFFE: Well, I’m not wanting to comment on the issues surrounding the Paradise Dam. That’s the subject of a legal matter at the moment, as you’d be aware. But fishways aren’t bought off the shelf. They need to be responsive to the conditions and the circumstances of each individual dam.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Traveston Crossing Dam’s environmental impact statement clearly states the fishway will be based on the technology operating at Paradise Dam. But Queensland’s Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe insists the controversy over Paradise Dam won’t affect Traveston’s chances of gaining environmental approval.
STIRLING HINCHLIFFE: In the end, this is about a project that contains and includes an operating and working fishway. Whatever the design of that may end up being, built upon and based upon experience that we’ve had in the past.
PETER MCCUTCHEON: The residents of the Mary Valley expect to find out by the end of the year whether their neighbourhood will be flooded, and doubts over the protection of the lungfish give them some hope of a reprieve.
DAVID KREUTZ: Peter Beattie said if it didn’t stack up environmentally, he wouldn’t build the dam. Anna Bligh has said if it doesn’t stack up environmentally, they won’t build the dam. So the idea here is that the science should prove, before you approve.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Peter McCutcheon in Queensland.
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Lungfish navigation mechanism ‘never worked’
Water manager Sunwater has conceded its mechanism at Paradise Dam to help fish navigate the dam wall has never worked in both directions. The fish ways were designed to assist vulnerable fish including the rare lungfish to continue to travel through the system.
***MOST VIEWED ARTICLE ON SWAMPNEWS***
Can the Queensland Lungfish use fish ladders?
Darren Edward
Photos of the effects of the Fish Ladder on Burnett River Turtles
Believe it or not, this the entire extent of technical information contained in the 1600 page + Traveston EIS detailing the construction and operation of the fishway that will ensure the survival of the Mary River Cod, Mary River Turtle and Australian lungfish. This REALLY IS figure 4.18 of the EIS document. Believe me. Check it out. I’m not joking. It is really there (and that is all there is). This is the SUM TOTAL of design information about the fishway. Aaaaaaagh!
SWAMPNEWS Artist’s interpretation of how the fishway will actually work (below)
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JOINT MEDIA RELEASE
6 October 2009
Natural habitat essential for Mary River Turtle: Australian Freshwater Turtle day
On Saturday, 3 October, Australian Freshwater Turtle day celebrations stressed that natural habitat is the best way to ensure the survival of unique freshwater turtles like the Mary River turtle.
“If built the proposed Traveston Crossing dam would not provide natural habitat,” said David Kreutz, secretary of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group. “It will flood areas that are essential for breeding and for the survival of young turtles. The proposed dam is a direct threat to the survival of the Mary River turtle.”
“The Mary River turtle occurs nowhere else in the world, but the Mary River,” explained Darryl Stewart, president of the Greater Mary Association. “A long list of international turtle experts are concerned about the future of the species. After all, the IUCN has listed it amongst the 25 most endangered turtles in the world.”
John Cann, one of Australia’s leading turtle experts has spoken directly with Peter Garrett regarding his fear that the dam would mean the end of the Mary River turtle, a species which Mr Cann first introduced to science in 1994.
Evidence of the impact dams can have on freshwater turtles can be found in Mr Cann’s encyclopedic volume, Australian Freshwater Turtles. The book documents mass starvation of turtles caused by a dam in Victoria in 1990.
“We know that dams can kill turtles,” explained Mr Kreutz. “We’ve seen turtles being crushed and maimed by overtopping of dams and operation of fish transfer devices in other rivers in the region. This is the exact opposite of Queensland Government claims,’ continued Mr Kreutz.
Dr. Gerald Kuchling, who wrote an independent report to inform Minister Garrett’s decision regarding Traveston confirmed the importance of natural habitat for survival of the Mary River Turtle.
Dr Kuchling, who recently received a prestigious award for his turtle conservation work at the International Turtle Symposium in the USA wrote “the Traveston Crossing Dam (TCD) would modify, destroy, remove, isolate and decrease the availability and quality of habitat to the extent that the Mary River Turtle (Elusor macrurus) would be likely to decline.”
Australian Freshwater Turtle Day occurs Saturday 3 October each year and was initiated by the Australian Freshwater Turtle Forum. The celebration this year took place at the Australian Freshwater Turtle Conservation and Research Centre (www.aftcra.org.au).
Background
Excerpts from Dr Kuchling’s 2008 report which assessed the impact that the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam would have on the Mary River Turtle
P20
… the overall nesting population and the total egg production in the TCD area would still be likely to decrease due to changes in the aquatic habitat and drowning of nesting beaches in the impoundment. The usefulness of the relocation of nesting beaches is unknown.
The general focus in the EIS on short-term, reactive mitigation and management techniques distracts from the most critical issue - the maintenance of natural habitat and the provision of an environment in which the long-lived, late-maturing Mary River Turtle (Elusor macrurus) can sustain and complete its entire life cycle.
P21
None of the proposed mitigation measures would ensure that the area of the impoundment could remain the significant breeding and juvenile recruitment area of E. macrurus it represents today.
The net outcome of captive breeding and headstarting programs for E. macrurus in the planned Freshwater Species Conservation Centre would unlikely be beneficial for the conservation status of Elusor macrurus in the wild since it would dependent on the construction of the TCD which would heavily impact on the best remaining E. macrurus population and which would eliminate the majority of the best remaining juvenile habitat in the Mary River.
According to EIS… nesting sites in the immediate area of the dam (48.5%) would be totally inundated by the storage and another 3 (4.5%) would be partially inundated. This would likely cause a disruption of the breeding cycle of about 50% of the population in the area. Mitigation measures like nesting bank relocations are unlikely to fully compensate for this loss.
The TCD would modify, destroy, remove, isolate and decrease the availability and quality of habitat to the extent that Elusor macrurus would be likely to decline… All available data indicate that the current population in the TCD project area has the highest density of individuals of any E. macrurus population in the world and has a high proportion of juveniles (EES 2007). According to the current knowledge of E. macrurus populations, any decline of the population in the TCD area through impacts on its habitat will quite likely also lead to a decline of the E. macrurus population.
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