A former state agriculture minister has re-submitted a plan to extract 24 megalitres of water a year from a licensed bore on his Uki property and sell it to a global soft-drinks giant’s bottling plant.
Jack Hallam, who was agriculture minister under the Wran Labor government in the 1980s, retired to his ten-acre property a few kilometres from Uki over a decade ago.
In October his consultant lodged a plan to use the existing 25-megalitere a year licence from the NSW Office of Water on the property for ‘bulk loading and delivery of extracted water’.
The plan involves taking a maximum of 24 megalitres of water from the existing bore by large semi-trailer tankers (2.5-metre wide, 28,500-litre capacity) to the commercial bottler and distributor, believed to be linked to the Coca Cola company.
The proposal is for up to three loads a day (six trips), six days a week from 7am to 6pm.
The development application was withdrawn from Tweed Shire Council on 1 December 2017 after neighbours met on 29 November to organise their opposition to the plan.
According to Tweed Shire Council’s DA tracker, the proposal was re-lodged on 21 December, just days before Christmas.
Neighbours have previously expressed concerns regarding the potential impacts on the area’s underground water supply and the impact of heavy truck movements on the rural road.
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