26 C
Byron Shire
March 17, 2024

Ballina water supply

Latest News

Floodplain Mullumbimby

Mullumbimby is a floodplain. Every time we have a heavy downpour I am up and down through the night,...

Other News

Fridays4Forests demonstration outside Justine Elliot’s office

About thirty citizens gathered outside Richmond MP Justine Elliot’s South Tweed office on Friday to draw attention to the...

A ‘horrific spate of domestic violence related murders’

Domestic Violence NSW says that three women have been murdered owing to domestic and family violence since International Women’s Day, last Friday. 

Minns Government to throw more kids in prison?

The Greens say the Minns Labor Government is pushing through changes to bail and criminal laws that will result in more children being trapped in the criminal justice system and sent to jail. This is in defiance of the views of civil society, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and almost all contemporary evidence that shows sending young people to prison results in worse outcomes for both the child and society.

Councils using ticketless fines on notice

The days of receiving ticketless council parking fines in NSW are to end thanks to new directions from the Labor state government.

Global beats and lantern parades

Byron Bay’s free Harmony Day celebration on Saturday, March 23 starts at 3.30pm in Apex Park, Main Beach, with live global beats and dance from our region’s multicultural community.

Action needed on affordable housing and land banking say regional city Mayors

Regional Cities NSW mayors have called on the state government to take action on the worsening housing crisis outside of Sydney as they call for affordable housing and a way to stop developers land banking.

A recent Echo article regarding Rous County Council’s plans to access Alstonville ground water through bores for its Future Water Project 2060 via an ‘Alstonville Water Treatment Plant’ should ring alarm bells for the people of Ballina Shire.

Just where is the scientific evidence to show that there are aquifers capable to supply such a long-term project? How do you determine where the water is to be allocated? It would need stringent monitoring and allocations. Currently it is a ‘free for all’ despite so called ‘caps’. Recent reports show WaterNSW has lost control of its regulations. 

Comments made by Rous CC seem to suggest that aquifers/bores are not subject to rainfall shortages and droughts. Underground water is a worldwide inexact science, as such, how do they fill? By divine intervention? By fairies with buckets? No scientific body worldwide can agree on how long it takes for rainwater to reach an aquifer, some say up to 300 years. If so, someone else may use the Tyagarah water before it reaches the aquifer! 

If it takes so long to reach the aquifers, what about the poisons, chemicals, fertilisers and rubbish we have dumped in the last 300 years? Let’s hope nature can strip them out before they reach the aquifers.

Most bores require two separate holes – this means as you pump down one section the first bore can recharge back to original level. If the proposed bore on the Alstonville Plateau lasts until 2060, what happens after that? What do we leave our children and grandchildren? There cannot be such a short-sighted view.

Adelaide vegetable growers tried refilling bores with recycled water, that was not successful. In coastal WA it was found that too many spear point pumps had drained water out and the aquifer was refilled with sea water. The Chinese are buying properties in the NT with huge water licences from the NT Government with access to the Great Artesian Basin.

Has the public had a say? Or is it like the ‘water mining’ scenario on the Alstonville Plateau a few years ago, which my wife discovered in the Ballina Shire Council DA was described as a ‘Water Supply System’? Look what happened when the residents of the plateau were alerted to that! Ballina Council voted unanimously to reject it and stop future water bottling. What about all the problems in the Tweed Council area? There is a ‘knock on’ effect. The NSW chief scientist could not make any accurate assessment of the aquifers.

In 1987 we suggested to Ballina Shire Council the following:

• the need for ‘fresh clean drinking water’;

• to stop filling in tidal wetlands, floodplains and low lying areas;

• that all new houses have water tanks, and encourage refit of same on old homes (cleanliness of tanks was viewed as a health risk at that time, so the LEP would not allow tanks then).

2005 saw Ballina Council’s tip be fined $40,000 by the EPA for polluting the watertable. 

That cost to the ratepayers was $8 million to dump rubbish in Qld while it fixed the problem.

Our suggestion to have a ‘carbon dosing plant’ added to the new treatment plans for the Marom Creek Weir in Alstonville was accepted as it was, subject to blue/green algae.

1987–2022, 35 years of trying to forewarn BSC of the importance of water security by the Quicks.

2024–2060, 37 years of hoping and guessing by Ballina Council and Rous CC for water security.

Clive Quick, Rous 

Previous articleFor the record
Next articleEmergency radio tower

Support The Echo

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Time to tape up

Could I suggest that all flood-affected residents in Mullumbimby turn up to the Byron Council chambers by 8.30am for the next meeting on 14...

Two charged following alleged pursuit – Ballina

About 12.20am (Thursday 14 March 2024), police from Richmond PD Highway Patrol attempted to stop an allegedly stolen Ford Focus on the M1 Motorway at West Ballina.

NSW bans offshore mining and exploration for gas and oil

The NSW Labor government has now banned offshore mining and exploration for gas and oil in NSW waters. NSW is the first state to...

Extreme slip site on Tyalgum Road needs further work leading to road closure

The current work site on Tyalgum Road slip site has slipped further, after heavy rains affected both the site itself and the slope above the site.