Court dismisses environmental challenge to Snowy Hydro 2.0 power lines

The Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme is free to clear land in Kosciuszko National Park for above-ground transmission lines after a NSW court threw out a legal challenge by environmental activists.

The National Parks Association of NSW sought judicial review of a 2022 decision by the then NSW minister for environment and heritage James Griffin which exempted the Snowy 2.0 project from a long-standing ban on new overhead power lines in the park.

The $12 billion Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro project has been besieged by delays and cost blowouts.Credit: James Brickwood

Before the change, the park’s plan of management required “all additional telecommunication and transmission lines to be located underground”.

The NPA estimated more than 100 hectares of parkland would need to be cleared for the new transmission lines, while the government previously put the figure at 81 hectares. Kosciuszko National Park is about 690,000 hectares in total.

The association’s challenge before the NSW Land and Environment Court claimed the department secretary failed to consider environmental and conservation objectives, as required by the National Parks and Wildlife Act, before preparing and publicly exhibiting the draft amendments to the park’s management plan.

However, chief judge Brian Preston found on Friday this was based on an incorrect reading of the law. Regardless, he also found the government had considered those objectives at the proper time, relying principally on three affidavits and oral evidence from National Parks and Wildlife Service director Mark Pettitt.

Pettitt told the court the NPWS carefully considered those matters as it was “concerned about the potential precedent that may be set by allowing works such as overhead transmission lines” to be built in the national park. It wanted to ensure the government maintained the ban on new above-ground lines for all future development in the park except Snowy 2.0, he said.

National Parks Association executive Ted Woodley said the organisation was “bitterly disappointed” by the court’s decision.

“This is the first time in 50 years that overhead transmission lines will be built in a national park,” he said, describing Kosciuszko as “one of our jewels”. “These towers and [transmission] lines will be visible over 200 square kilometres of the park and the neighbouring state forest.”

The organisation has long opposed the entire Snowy Hydro 2.0 project, arguing it does not stack up economically, technically or environmentally.

“Simply, it is the wrong project in the wrong location. There are better alternatives, ones that avoid catastrophic impacts on Kosciusko National Park,” the NPA says.

In a statement, the NSW government’s National Parks and Wildlife Service said: “We welcome the decision of the court. This will enable Snowy 2.0 to proceed in accordance with the relevant planning approvals.”

Snowy Hydro was also contacted for comment. Its website says it is “committed to avoiding and minimising potential [environmental] impacts from Snowy 2.0, as we do for our existing business. The park is our backyard and we want to look after it.”

The pumped hydro mega-project, started under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, has been besieged by delays and cost blowouts. Snowy Hydro said in August a “review and reset” had put the scheme a sustainable footing with a revised price tag of $12 billion and operation date of December 2028.

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