Thanks councillors Warth, Hauge, Ndiaye, Kay and Lowe for holding the line against the conservatives (Lyon, Dods and Labor) and Council staff, who all want to close Lavertys Gap Weir as a water source and use only Rous’s water for urban supply to Mullumbimby.
Rous is the supermarket of water in our region and its price rises are already on its books. Like the supermarkets did to dairy farmers, Rous is poised to squeeze the environment for more water.
Rous has been delighted to take on the new customers of Mullumbimby, before even knowing where the extra water will come from.
In this regard, Rous officially claimed that adding Mullum has no influence on whether it builds Dunoon Dam or not.
How can that be?
When I first dwelt in Byron Shire, we staved off Rous’s plan then for a dam on Wilsons Creek at Federal.
Then in the 1990s, Rous pivoted to its next choice, the Dunoon Dam.
Following intensive community consultation, it promised to find other ways of sourcing water and to never build Dunoon Dam.
But it didn’t sell the extensive real estate it had acquired for the project. Until Rous sells, we need to assume the DuD will be built.
The other ways of sourcing water include demand management – things like subsidising urban rainwater tanks. Both Rous and Byron Council have dropped this in recent years.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
