EES Response Team Newsletter

After the Kilcunda meeting of Your Water Your Say, the Steering Committee agreed to set-up a separate structure to specifically address the Environmental Effects Statement and the Environmental Impact Statement. At the first meeting of the planning committee four working parties (to prepare submissions) and two liaison groups were established. They are:

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Environment & Engineering
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Amenity (visual, social, tourism, heritage, noise, traffic etc),
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Economics
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Alternative Solutions for Melbourne
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Lobby The lobby group will approach Universities and other organizations to make submission to the EES Panel. If anyone has a contact, or could suggest a relevant group or person with expertise, please let us know.
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Media. The media group is vitally important to keep the issue alive through press releases, letters to the editor and lobbying journalists.

A further working party may be set-up if necessary to cover the pipeline to Melbourne and the power lines to the plant.

Last week the Planning Committee was able to gain legal support from the Public Interest Law Clearing House. This is a community law group supported by about thirty law firms, Universities, Corporate Legal Departments and other professional organisations. We have also been able to gain the services of a barrister, who has a holiday house in the area. The legal options are currently being explored with these groups.

Current members of the planning committee are Andrea Bolch, Nola Maxfield, Geoff Glare, Chris Heislers, Bruce Fergie and myself (John Wright). My phone number is 56787083 and my email is jomaxi@bigpond.com.au.

If you have information that may help the working parties, please feel free to contact a committee member or me.

If you would like to be involved in a working party, and any help will be appreciated, please email Andrea Bolch at abolch@austarnet.com.au or phone 5678 7577

The Government’s decision to build a Desalination Plant on the Bass Coast is without logic. Our water problems have occurred because of global warming and their response is to choose the solution that generates the greatest greenhouse gasses (approximately 1 million tonnes per year). This solution will exacerbate Victoria’s appalling record on greenhouse emissions (30% increase since 1990) and guarantee further environmental damage. It is also the most expensive solution.

Water experts agree there are far better alternatives.

John Wright

Planning Committee Coordinator

Desalination Info Summary

Summary of Victoriaʼs proposed Desalination Plant

Victoria has a significant water security problem, however desalination is a regressive short term band-aid solution that will perpetuate the problem that it is intended to solve! There are better alternatives.
The proposed WATER FACTORY is the largest infrastructure project in Victoriaʼs history that will have far reaching and dramatic effects for all of Australia, and indeed the world.
It will spoil a wild and magnificent heritage listed coastline via a 5-storey factory the size of the MCG, and possibly a new gas-fired power station to power it!
It will threaten marine communities including that of the nearby Phillip Island Penguins, one of the nationʼs most important and internationally recognised natural attractions.
The threat to the marine environment is largely due to;
• the discharge of 7000 litres of effluent per SECOND into the ocean comprising concentrated brine, heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as chlorine that all kill ecosystems.
• sucking in and killing 300 000 small organisms per SECOND; the base of the food chain, with obvious flow on effects to fisheries, the adjacent marine national park, penguin reserve and RAMSAR wetland.
But MOST importantly, it will be a CLIMATE CHANGE NIGHTMARE. The proposed plant will produce an estimated massive 1 000 000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. While there are environmentally friendlier alternatives, this is absolutely irresponsible and incongruous with recent federal government commitments to reducing emissions by 60% by 2050!

Ironically, it is carbon emissions that increase climate change that reduce rainfall that is driving Governmentʼs misguided decision to pursue desalination, resulting in this lunatic and irresponsible vicious cycle.
Internationally and at home, independent water and environment experts unanimously agree that desalination must be a last resort.

Continue reading Desalination Information Summary »

download as pdf - ywys media release land acquisition

MEDIA RELEASE MEDIA RELEASE MEDIA RELEASE

25th January 2008

Compulsory acquisition notices

Compulsory acquisition notices were issued to residents of the proposed
desalination site today. This has happened before the Environmental Effects
Statement’s terms of reference, the panel composition or the time line have
been decided. It is typical of the Brumby government’s contempt for the
residents of the Bass Coast area.

John Wright from Your Water Your Say said that private land is being seized
and people’s lives are being dislocated for a project that water experts agree
should be a last resort. These people have been living in limbo since last June
and now their nightmare has been realized. Once the properties have been
gazetted the government becomes the legal owners and only then will
financial remuneration be considered

The Planning Minister announced an EES on 28th December which at the very
least should decide where, when, and how – now we discover that the
government has already made the decision of where. Surely the government
should first consider the environmental effects of the plant before such action.

Mr Wright described this action as typical of the Brumby government that is
intent on bulldozing the desalination plant through without any meaningful
consultation or scientific research. The community has been told since day
one that the project was a “done deal” and there was nothing they could do.
This latest development suggests that the EES is just a ploy to ‘be seen’ to be
considering the impact of one the largest pieces of infrastructure in the history
of Victoria rather than any genuine concern for the environment or global
warming.

The desalination plant did not form part of the government’s strategy for water
before the last election and is considered by the vast majority of water experts
as unnecessary. It would also be responsible for pumping at least 1 million
tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere exacerbating Victoria’s poor
record on greenhouse emissions (have soared by nearly 30% since 1990).

For more information contact:
John Wright
Coordinator, Planning Committee
Contact: 5678 7083

download as pdf - ywys media release land acquisition

Please take your time to watch and listen to Tim Flannery.

Eventhough he still sees desalination plants as needed insurance policies, he clearly talks about the mismanagement of water and the need of making a holistic approach to our future water policy.

Hopefully one of those links will work for you.

Please follow link to watch ABC - 7:30 Report - Tim Flannery reflects on 2007

Please follow this link to ABC - 7:30 Report

Please follow link to ABC news - video and follow their links

It might seem to far fetched to some, but there is a very big picture behind our “regional” water policy.

As much as we have to fight against this in our own communities, we unfortunately have to realise that we are up against global players.
And we have to look beyond our own concerns and needs to get the big picture. Because they will try and tell us what we need and will try to tell us that there is NO need for concern, as long as we can be sure that all we need is to open the tap without any restrictions.

Please read on in The Age - Festival film takes on water profiteers

Desalination Update from the Acting CEO, Danny Luna - 21 January