Gold Coast Hinterland ‘water mining’ outrages locals

RESIDENTS on Tamborine Mountain fear commercial water farming is sucking their community dry — and council is powerless to stop it.

RESIDENTS on Tamborine Mountain fear commercial water farming is sucking their community dry — and council is powerless to stop it.

Tamborine Mountain does not have a reticulated sewerage network or town water service, which means households and businesses rely on groundwater or rainwater to meet their consumption needs.

However, residents fear the high volume of water being extracted from local bores and sold for ‘non-domestic use’ is causing long-term deterioration in the quality of Tamborine’s groundwater system.

Scenic Rim Council has no jurisdiction over groundwater but can refuse applications for commercial operations under planning and development laws.

A group of residents is currently fighting an appeal by Gillion Pty Ltd, which has been extracting water from a residential property in Power Parade, bottling it and selling it as spring water in supermarkets.

After a court ruled the extraction was “unlawful”, Gillion Pty Ltd applied for a material change of use to have the property rezoned for commercial use.

When council rejected the application, Gillion appealed.

The case, which returned to court his week, has been tied up in the Planning and Environment Court since 2012.

If the company wins, residents claim it will be able to “lawfully” extract more than 23 million litres of water a year from Power Parade.

The mountain is home to numerous facilities approved for domestic and commercial water extraction.

Concerns about the extent of water farming have prompted Scenic Rim Council to fund a three-year study into the long-term sustainability of ‘water farming’ on the mountain.

The Tamborine Mountain Aquifer Project will see council team up with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for a longitudinal study into groundwater sustainability on the mountain to be helmed by Dr Lucy Reading, from QUT’s School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Mayor Greg Christensen said residents on Tamborine were concerned at the volume of water being extracted from local bores for non-domestic use.

“Although council is not responsible for groundwater management on Tamborine Mountain, which rests with the State Government under legislation, we are ultimately accountable to our community and we are responding to their concern about the long-term sustainability of the Tamborine Mountain aquifer,” he said.

Cr Christensen said the State Government’s position was that the current groundwater system had a low risk of failure, based on available data.

“That said, we want to ensure that Tamborine Mountain’s groundwater resources are managed in a sustainable manner to ensure that water supply and natural ecosystems are protected and supported,” he said.

“This includes supporting this type of important research to gather evidence-based information which will help to better inform future decision-making.”

Residents on the Tweed are also fighting to stop water mining.

The Tweed Water Alliance has called on the Tweed Shire Council to stop the proposed expansion of water mining at a property on Urliup Road, Bilambil, when it meets today.

“Initially, it was five million litres now (the property owner) wants to take over 60 million litres of precious water that belongs to the entire community and he’s already talking about even more,” alliance spokesman Jeremy Tager said.

“The community is already seeing a reduction in water in their creeks, springs and bores.”