A public meeting is being held this evening at the Uki Hall to discuss a proposal from an ex state government minister to extract water from a bore on his property to sell to a bottling company.
The meeting was called after it was revealed that property owner Jack Hallam had re-submitted a plan to extract 24 megalitres of water a year from a bore on his Uki property to sell it to the bottling plant.
Mr Hallam was agriculture minister under the Wran Labor government in the 1980s.
His consultants lodged a plan in October last year to use an 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. The proposal is for up to three loads a day (six trips), six days a week from 7am to 6pm.
Organisers of the meeting this evening have confirmed that Tweed’s deputy mayor Chris Cherry would be attending, along with media.
Opponents of the plan have expressed concerns about the potential impacts on the area’s underground water supply, as well as the proposed heavy truck movements.
The meeting at the Uki Hall begins at 7pm.
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