The inclusion of a recent controversial CSIRO Richmond River flood report into Lismore City Council’s Flood Risk Management Plan has been defended by Mayor Steve Kreig, with him telling ABC North Coast, ‘It’s about having the most up to date scientific info and preparing for future flooding events’.
While there are two options tabled – Bundles 1 and 2, Cr Kreig’s mayoral minute adopts the more extreme and much larger option, Bundle 2.
Within CSIRO report, Bundle 2 proposes up to 10 mega temporary detention dams that would mitigate flooding for Lismore and downstream tributaries which impact other towns. The proposed benefit is around 2m in floodwater reduction in Lismore, so does not guarantee a flood-free Lismore and comes with an estimated cost into the billions.
ABC North Coast presenter Bridie Tanner said yesterday that Mayor Kreig’s mayoral minute on Wednesday moved that Council incorporate Bundle 2 in the Flood Risk Management Plan.
Mayor Kreig spruiked the science within the report as ‘world leading’, and was reviewed by two leading academics.
‘The science is sound’, he said, admitting that while it does not stop flooding, it’s ‘about how much it could ease floods’.
Mayor Kreig admitted there was yet to be feasibility studies, ‘but that will come’.
‘If it all stacks up, we will see what appetite there is to fund it’, he said.
Feasibility study commits to unachievable proposals
Lismore Greens Cr Virginia Waters said she does not support progressing to a feasibility study. She wrote on social media, ‘In my view, that would commit further public money towards investigating proposals that I believe are ultimately unachievable, create false hope for flood-affected communities, and have the potential to cause unacceptable ecological, agricultural, cultural and social impacts’.
‘Our future lies in climate adaptation, strengthening community resilience, restoring natural systems and continuing the difficult but necessary conversations around planned retreat from the highest flood-risk areas; not shifting flood impacts from one community to another’
‘If a feasibility study is contemplated, it cannot simply become an engineering exercise. The people whose properties, livelihoods and communities stand to be directly affected must be involved from the very beginning not consulted after options have already been developed. Local knowledge is essential’, she wrote.
Little awareness of the report
A Rock Valley resident spoke to ABC about a recent meeting held on the issue, and says there is little awareness of the report and its implications. ‘There is no concept of the scale of these dams, nor the cost benefit analysis’, they said.
‘Just for the Rock Valley Detention Dam alone – it is proposed to be 39m high, 390m wide, and would be 6.7 times the size of Rocky Creek Dam’.
‘This would impact the road,’ they said, adding there is no obvious way to get around its 10km length.
‘There is no social licence, and there are many unanswered questions – would the power lines have to go? How would it impact the farmland and vegetation?
Another ABC caller said CSIRO had withheld the flooding maps.
‘This is about intentionally flooding rural communities – what are the impacts?
‘Local knowledge has not been included in this report,’ they added.
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