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Byron Shire
April 26, 2024

Byrrill Creek dam a damn poor idea

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That councillors Byrne, Longland and Polglase have given notice that at the next Tweed Shire Council meeting on 10 December they will move that the 20 year moratorium (passed May 2012) on any dam proposal at Byrrill Creek for a period of twenty (20) years be rescinded is cause for concern.

A second dam on Byrrill Creek will destroy sites of the highest conservation riparian status in the Tweed.

The existing Clarrie Hall dam on Doon Doon Creek is only 6.5 km away and was built in 1981 to provide the water needs for a population of 160,000. Currently Tweed Shire has a population of 89,000.

There is no threat to water supply and availability. What is of concern is the approval of the mega size greenfield developments on the Tweed coast which are not required to be fitted with a dual reticulation recycled water system, large rain water tanks or any stormwater harvesting system. With no water saving measures except for those outlined in the antiquated BASIX requirements and a target population for 2036 that is unsustainable we are being manipulated into believing that the conservation of our natural resources is an impediment to progress.

Any further erosion of the Tweed’s bio diversity, further loss of the environmental integrity of the whole Mt Warning complex, flooding of Aboriginal sites, habitat for threatened species, fragmentation of wildlife corridors, destruction of endangered ecological communities and the inundation of lowland rainforest in Mebbin National Park which also includes the loss of the access to the National Park for tourists will be of no benefit to most residents of the Tweed.

Rather real estate developers will be the main beneficiaries of this wanton vandalism along with those councillors long associated with their shenanigans that in the best tradition of the National Coal and Gas Party suborn the public interest to vested private interests.

Martin Munz, Limpinwood

 


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1 COMMENT

  1. The Tweed Shire is connected to the north and the Qld summer rains and cyclones, so with increased Climate Change our rainfall is likely to increase.
    Just why is Clarrie Hall dam now overfull to the brim and streaming down the spillway during the dry months of September, October and November.
    We are overfull and have too much water.

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