Warragamba Dam: Government pushes for wall to be raised
The state government says green tape could be a stumbling block to getting the wall of Warragamba Dam raised as a way to protect thousands of vulnerable Sydney home from flood.
NSW
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A senior state Minister fears environmental activists and bureaucratic green tape will scuttle the plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall to protect thousands of homes from flooding.
Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres is concerned huge biodiversity offset costs enforced by government departments and pressure from green groups will make the dam wall project unviable.
Mr Ayres said no one was speaking out for the families and businesses at risk of flooding and that the dam wall must go ahead.
The dam was filled to 100 per cent capacity on Wednesday, with Mr Ayres warning Sydney the risk of flooding was at its highest in decades.
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“We face a real prospect that a green movement stops the dam wall being raised. Should green tape be the thing that stops us from protecting people’s properties from future floods in Western Sydney?” Mr Ayres said.
“The green groups get listened to but the people without the voice – the mums and dads and small business owners who have the biggest interest in the risk of a flood – are getting lost in this debate.”
The plan to raise the dam wall was announced by Mike Baird in 2016, but a previous version of the idea was mooted as early as the 1995 election and then dropped.
Leaked documents have revealed the federal Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment was critical of the project because it had not properly factored last summer’s bushfires into the ecological impact of a higher dam wall.
Other concerns have been raised about the impact on species including the greater glider and the swift parrot.
The government has previously estimated the dam wall raising will cost $700 million, but this does not include the price of heavy biodiversity offset fees.
Mr Ayres said the taxpayer should have the fees measured on a lesser, temporary basis because the higher wall would only lead to flooding in up to 0.04 per cent Blue Mountains World Heritage Area on rare occasions according to Water NSW.
An environmental impact statement is currently being worked on by Water NSW, and is expected to be finalised and made public by the end of the year.
The government agency says raising the dam wall by 14m would reduce the number of homes in Penrith impacted by a catastrophic flood from around 2000 to fewer than 20.
In Windsor/Richmond, the bigger dam would mean 4500 homes would no longer be impacted by a flood equivalent to the worst on record.
Mr Ayres said he believed impacting only 0.04 per cent of the World Heritage Area was “worth it to protect people’s property and lives on the other side of the dam”.
He said the intention was to start construction in 2021 or 2022 if the project could be approved.
“I’ve been through these debates before with the western Sydney airport and WestConnex. But people in Western Sydney deserve jobs and should be able to move around,” the Minister said.
“They deserve the government to protect them from flooding.”
Originally published as Warragamba Dam: Government pushes for wall to be raised