A member of a committee that advises Byron Council on water and sewer issues says she is concerned that Council staff are bypassing community consultation and water and sewer committee advice, and are again pushing to connect Mullumbimby’s water supply to Rocky Creek dam, which is managed by water utility, Rous.
While other Byron Shire towns are connected to the dam, Mullum’s water is managed by Council, and is supplied from Laverty’s Weir in Wilsons Creek.
Within Report No. 14.4 of the upcoming August 24 Council meeting, Dominika Tomanek, Executive Assistant Infrastructure Services, recommends that Council does not adopt the committee recommendation, but instead adopts the management recommendation: ‘That Council permanently connects the Mullumbimby Water Supply to Rous as the Council’s Bulk water supplier’.
Tomanek claims that Mullumbimby’s supply is currently at capacity under the revised climate change modelling criteria.
‘Therefore, delaying and holding up a decision to permanently connect to Rous is putting future development and current users at risk. In the event of the last natural disaster, where Mullumbimby ran out of water, the permanent connection would ensure this risk was mitigated’.
But water engineer and community member on the Water and Sewer (W&S) Advisory Committee, Elia Hauge, told The Echo, ‘Byron Council and the W&S Advisory Committee (made up of four councillors and four community members) have both passed resolutions to investigate an off-stream storage for Mullumbimby’s water supply’.
‘Back in May 2021, the Advisory Committee was presented a ready-to-finalise report recommending that Mullumbimby be permanently connected to Rous Water. It was clear that the consultant’s values – not the community’s values – had dictated decision-making. The consultant also works for Rous Water. Four options were examined for Mullumbimby: “do nothing”, groundwater, an off-stream storage taking water from our existing supply but storing it in a new location, and permanent connection to Rous Water’.
Hauge said, ‘The Committee felt the off-stream storage was the most appropriate option for our community. In this time of rolling climate crises, an important principle for resilient water supply is diversity of sources’.
‘Permanent connection to Rous puts all the Shire’s eggs in one basket, leaves us at the mercy of Rous’s pricing decisions, and aligns us with the potential Dunoon Dam – a destructive project that would flood important Indigenous and ecological sites.
‘Byron Shire Councillors adopted the W&S Committee advice on April 27, 2023 to investigate off-stream storage. Imagine our surprise to see Council staff this week overriding both previous decisions and asking Council to recommend permanent connection to Rous.
‘Who should decide on the future of Mullumbimby’s water supply? The answer is simple: the Mullumbimby community should’.
Yes !! Mullumbimby community should make an informed decision on the future of their water supply.
Council should advertise for operators to come in and manage the Mullumbimby water supply for five or ten years. This will maintain public ownership of the supply, keep it local and make a profit for Council.
And the Echo hasn’t done a story on the report in Rous’s latest August Business Paper where they have spent nearly $500k on the existing Alstonville bores – basically repairing them and checking their capacity. These existing bores take water from the Alstonville Aquifer, yet Rous’s study from more than two years ago said that Rous was going to drill a new bore at Convery’s Lane and take water from the deeper Clarence-Moreton Aquifer. If they are going to take water from the deeper aquifer why spend $500k on the existing bores that go into the Shallow Aquifer?
More than a year ago Rous said that that they had drilled a bore at Convery’s Lane into the Clarence Moreton Aquifer. If so, what is the capacity and water quality of that bore. If the quality and quantity of water available from the deeper aquifer is unsuitable for water supply purposes (as stated in a CSIRO report on the Clarence Moreton system) why doesn’t Rous say so, and abandon the Alstonville Aquifer as a potential water source.
Rous said they need a new water supply by 2004. Well they have 4 months to get their new water source operating. It seems that the Alstonville Aquifer is another disaster like the Wilsons River Scheme, that will cost tens of millions (probably $50m+) and deliver very little water.