Fear of invasion as Snowy 2.0 gushes through region

The expansive Snowy Hydro Scheme is threatening to destroy a $70m local fishing and tourism industry.

Fly fisherman Mark Fountain catches rainbow trout on the Murrumbidgee River at Ashvale, near the Snowy Mountains town of Cooma. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

“On!” Mark Fountain bellows over the thumping water rushing down granite boulders clustered on a bend in the Murrumbidgee River, as the fly-fisherman reels in his line to reveal a glistening rainbow trout.

It’s just 10 minutes after he waded into the frosty alpine waters of the NSW Snowy Mountains near Cooma on a foggy morning at dawn, a sign of a healthy river system teeming with brown and rainbow trout.

While the fish is too small to take home, the thrill of the catch is enough to get Mr Fountain out of bed at 5.30 before he goes to work as a carpenter building houses in a neighbouring town.

Mark Fountain is all for the thrill of the catch. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

But the trout fishing renowned among anglers across the country is now at risk with the expansive Snowy Hydro Scheme threatening to destroy a $70m local fishing and tourism industry.

Scientists have warned a noxious redfin perch – present in the lower Talbingo Dam – is likely to make its way up into Tantangara Dam, when water is pumped and cycled through the system during the process of renewable energy generation.

They fear fish will inadvertently make their way from the Tantangara Dam into the greater river system which includes the Eucambene, Jindabyne, Murrumbidgee and Murray-Darling once Snowy Hydro 2.0 is under way.

A small, critically endangered native fish called stocky galaxias also live upstream of Tantangara and will be under threat if the invasive fish are transferred.

Monaro Acclimatisation Society president Stephen Samuels, who led negotiations with Snowy Hydro to ensure $5m was invested to develop a captive breeding program for the threatened fish species and install fish screens to minimise the risk of pest species being transferred downstream, said the invasion of redfin was a “distinct possibility”.

The Snowy Hydro 2.0. Tantangara site Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

While the best option would be for Snowy Hydro 2.0 to not go ahead, Mr Samuels said plans were under way to build a breeding facility to bolster the stock of large trout that would eventually be released into the dams in the hope they would overtake the predatory perch.

“The issue with Snowy is its probable, or distinct possibility and we needed something built and ready to go to make sure the economic value of fishing is maintained,” Mr Samuels said.

“We’re always concerned but we had no other option. We looked at trying to screen the tunnel, sound barriers, electrical barriers, everything.”

The area’s river systems may be further imperilled according to environmentalists, who have warned against a plan to dump unearthed rock into two major reservoirs amid concern the acid-forming substance could pollute the water and rivers downstream.

Snowy Hydro plans to dump four million tonnes of spoil – unearthed rock excavated during the project’s construction – into the two major reservoirs of Talbingo and Tantangara at the completion of the project.

Peter Anderson is a Cooma local who has been railing against the project for years amid concern it could affect the national park where he spent his childhood.

Mr Anderson moved to the region with his father, who was a worker on the original Snowy scheme, and said excavated spoil from the original project was still lying around in parts of the park. Mr Anderson was concerned this could happen again but this time on an industrial scale.

“There are costs and benefits to everything, but the cost has changed from $2bn to much more and the government is trying to minimise the costs and exaggerate the benefits,” Mr Anderson said.

“It’s time for the new government to figure out what is going on, through a review or an inquiry into it. It is time to reassess what is going on, and ensure that they have done the things that are required to see what else is needed.

“They’ve trashed the environment more than what was first suggested and the footprint is much larger than what they first suggested. At what point do we say enough is enough?”

Snowy Hydro said the project was critical to Australia’s decarbonisation to ensure the rapid transition to a renewable future, and that the construction footprint covered just 0.10 per cent of the park.