Traveston Dam: Travesty of Justice?

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has questioned the Queensland Premier’s claim that the Traveston Crossing dam will be “Australia’s greenest ever dam” and the Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council is pleading with Federal Minister Peter Garrett to wait until after a Federal Court case on effective dam fishways before he makes a decision on whether the threatened lungfish could be protected in the proposed Traveston Dam.

By Jo Skinner FOR abc News (8 October 2009):

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has questioned the Queensland Premier’s claim that the Traveston Crossing dam will be “Australia’s greenest ever dam”.

Anna Bligh has told State Parliament the dam will be the most environment friendly dam in the country.

“The Traveston Crossing dam is set to be Australia’s greenest ever dam,” she said.

“It will bring a wealth of community benefits for the Mary Valley with $75 million allocated in this year’s budget and a long list of environmental, job creation and community support projects awaiting the Federal Government’s approval.”

But the WWF has its doubts, after the coordinator-generals’ report to the federal Environment Minister listed 16 threatened plant species and 13 endangered animal species in the dam’s footprint – and 1,200 environmental conditions that need to be met to protect them.

Nick Heath from the WWF says there is no way the Premier can make the dam environmentally friendly and the size of the report is proof the Government is struggling to prove it can be.

“The substance of it is, can you make a dam green? Whilst there may need to be a dam here and there, in this case, this dam – you can’t make it green,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Bligh has vowed to visit the Mary Valley when a decision is made on the fate of the controversial dam.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett is expected to announce his decision on the project within 30 days.

Ms Bligh has told State Parliament she and the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning will visit the Mary Valley community to discuss the implications of Mr Garrett’s decision.

“When we have that decision from the Federal Government and we know one way or the other, yes I will be, as will my Minister, be meeting with appropriate organisations and individuals in the Mary Valley and in affected regions to talk through what the implications of that final decision are,” she said.

Source: www.abc.net.au

Tony Moore in Brisbane Times (7 October 2009):

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has been asked to delay his decision on the controversial Traveston Dam until after a Brisbane court ruling in November.

The Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council (WBBCC) has taken Federal Court action in Brisbane to challenge whether Burnett Water – a State Government-owned company – breached their approval conditions when building the Paradise Dam.

WBBCC argues Burnett Water did not had an effective fishway in place before the Paradise Dam began operating in December 2005.

They believe a similar situation could happen at Traveston.

The court case is due to resume on November 9, just a few days after Mr Garrett is due to rule on the future of the Traveston project on November 5. However, he can request more time to reach his decision.

WBBCC this morning pleaded with Mr Garrett to wait until after the Federal Court case in order to make an informed decision on whether the threatened Queensland lungfish could be protected.

The conservation group presented evidence in July that just three lungfish used the fishway in the three years between March 2006 and March 2009.

Burnett Water argue the drought kept the dam levels below what was needed to make the fishway operate successfully.

WBBC vice-president Roger Currie said the Paradise Dam model had not worked, and it was essential to find a system that did work before approving Traveston.

“We know from Paradise (Dam), that you can’t get lungfish to go from below high dams to above high dams,” Mr Currie said.

“So we believe that at the very least any consideration should be made after the court case is finalised because then the Minister can make an informed decision on whether they can actually protect lungfish at Traveston or not.”

Mr Currie said Mr Garrett currently had a brief before him on whether to put in place alternative approval conditions for Paradise Dam.

A response has been sought this morning from Mr Garrett.

Queensland Co-ordinator General Colin Jensen’s report into the Traveston Crossing Dam, sent to the Federal Government yesterday, lists 1200 conditions which must be met as part of the dam’s construction.

The Queensland Government yesterday provided three letters from experts who supported efforts from Queensland Water Infrastructure (QWI) to help the lungfish, Mary River Turtle and rare frogs.

Gordon Grigg, the Emeritus Professor in Zoology at the University of Queensland, on June 4, 2009, wrote that: “I realized (sic) that the considerable mitigation measures that were proposed by QWI had the strong likelihood of improving the situation for lungfish, and indeed for the all of the four nationally-listed species which occur in the dam footprint.”

Source: www.brisbanetimes.com.au