NO DAM - URGENT:
SUBMISSION DUE, DRAFT WATER DEMAND MANAGEMENT PLAN
Additional water supply for the Tweed Shire is 'required' because of current plans to substantially increase the local population and house the new people here in inappropriately designed mass housing developments which are not required to capture and store rainwater, nor recycle greywater.
Submissions for the 'Water Demand Management Plan' are required by the Tuesday 9th March.
Submissions can most easily be made via a 30 second recorded telephone call (!).
- Object to the planned doubling of the Tweed Shire population.
- Object to the inappropriate design of the mass housing developments which have no requirement to capture and store rainwater on a large scale, and no requirement for grey water recycling.
The mass housing developments are being designed as unsustainable, hence the plans for a new dam in the highest biodiversity area of NSW and a pipeline connection to Qld's unsustainable climate changing desalination plants.
- Insist that the new mass housing developments collect and use rainwater as their primary source of water. We live in the countryside, we drink the rainwater here.
- Insist that the new mass housing developments be designed to recycle greywater.
- Object to the processes of council in the pushing through of the water demand and supply plans.
Freecall 1800 826 267 and record a 30 second verbal submission.
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WATER COLLECTION AND USE
‘New’ Australians have managed to settle in most parts of the driest continent on Earth via the almost ubiquitous use of water tanks which collect and store rainwater from roofs. Affordable, effective, simple and safe. Dams have been an option where conditions are suitable, but the environmental and ecological costs, let alone the large capital costs have become increasingly unacceptable. Coal-fired pumping and purification are inherent costs that must be added annually to the capital costs of extensive and expensive piping or reticulation costs. Reticulation is not carbon neutral.
New forms of urban stormwater harvesting can provide water where it is most needed and can employ natural rather than concrete or artificial means.
If water tanks have proved to be satisfactory as a primary water source in dry regions of Australia over many years, there is no reason why houses in the Tweed, one of the wettest parts of the country with new roof areas bigger than anywhere else on Earth, cannot be self-sufficient in water, using on-site collection and storage. We are not talking about tiny tokenistic tanks.
Apart from sugar cane ash, there is virtually no harmful pollution on roofs in the Caldera. Residents could use ‘first-flush’ devices and simple low cost filters for drinking water if they wish. Whilst the capital costs of large water tanks is considerable but affordable, there are virtually no running or on-going costs. Governments subsidise water tanks and Tweed Shire Council should redirect the dam money tank wise and water wise. Autonomy can be an affordable, chlorine-free luxury.
The current ‘consultation’ process is a bogus, tick-a-box sham charade that does not drill down to the basic possibility of on-site collection, storage and wise water use via landscape and garden design using appropriate plants. Gray water recycling can be incorporated into the water budget system to effect significant savings. Bananas, cassava and reed plants have an insatiable appetite for gray water, turning excess nutrients into healthy food and carbon fibre. Engineers are restricted by the brief and by their training no to think outside the square. Why should our solutions to water supply and use be determined by hydraulic engineers? Isn’t there an inherent bias and conflict of interest?
The adjudicators of the Community Working Group (CWG) process are the proponent engineers. Dracula in charge of the blood bank. Who assesses the environmental, ecological and social benefits and costs? What price does a group of in-house engineers put on the natural values of Byrill Creek, or the heritage landscape values of Doon Doon Valley? Are Councils engineers and managers capable of advocating simple technology that does not promise new career opportunities and a bigger engineering section?
Do contractual obligations between the Council and the major coastal developers pre-determine the design brief and the outcomes? Do these developer contributions shape the sham public consultation charade? Does anybody really think that pipelines to neighbouring water deficient catchments is a realistic solution? What about supply guarantees?
The only viable, sustainable solution which minimises harm and risk is by on-site collection and storage of roof water and the on-site recycling of gray water.
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Activities & Events, Calender
To view the Caldera Environment Center Calender of Comming Activities & Events, click here .
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NO DAM - Byrrill Creek Community Picnic and information Day
A Community Picnic and Information day will be held at Byrrill Creek on Sunday 14th March, 10am to 3pm. All are welcome to attend.
Iconic Byrrill Creek is the site of a highly controversial proposed new dam. The proposed dam will flood the highest riparian conservation value land in the Tweed Shire. The Byrrill Creek valley is a regionally significant biodiverse hotspot, adjacent to and ecologically integrated with the Mt. Warning World Herritage National Park.
Guided information walks will take participants along part of Byrrill Creek. This is an opportunity to see first-hand the natural beauty of the proposed dam site. Participants can spend time in one of the most biodiverse areas in Australia.
Participants are asked to bring: Lunch, Sunscreen, Water, Walking Shoes, Towel, ect.
Directions to meeting place: 5.6km along Byrrill Creek Road, (Byrrill Creek Road is 10 mins south of Uki on the Kyogle Road on your right). Park along the road, or the car park area just inside the Pretty Gully community gate. Lookout for the rainbow flag at meeting place.
March 14th is the International 'Let the rivers Run Free' Day.
At a time in our history requiring the urgent defense of what is left of the natural world, the proposed Dam will destroy of one of the few remaining areas of value. Environmental imperatives should conclusively stop the Byrrill Creek Dam.
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NO DAM
Tweed Shire Council Water Augmentation Plan has been announced as necessary and in process. "Community consultation" has been announced around 4 shortlisted options, options which have been determined by Council, ... prior to any -"community consultation"- process.
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Shortlisted options proposed within the said plan include:
- A new dam and the flooding of the highest riparian conservation value land in Tweed Shire at iconic Byrrill Creek valley;
- Increasing the height of the dam wall at Clarrie Hall Dam an additional 8 metres, flooding significant areas of farming, residential and forested land;
- Installing a pipeline to SE Queensland capable of taking water both ways, shipping water into the Caldera (from the non-sustainable desalination plants of the Gold Coast), or, shipping water out from the Caldera (to the on-going non-sustainable development of the Gold Coast).
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Council have initiated community consultation, though have presented the shortlisted options (4, from the original 11) as the only alternatives to be considered for final selection.
The Caldera Environment Centre actively contests the design and implementation of the decision making within the Water Augmentation Plan.
The desalination plant option should never have made it onto the shortlist given the huge amounts of electricity used and the source of that electricity. Given the climate crisis, sustainability impacts should decisively keep the desalination plant option off the shortlist.
The damming and loss of iconic Byrrill Creek valley should never have made it onto the options shortlist for ecological imperatives. Byrrill Creek is a biodiverse hotspot and a place of renowned natural beauty abutting World Heritage National Park. At a time in our history requiring the urgent defense of what is left of the natural world Tweed Shire Council are proposing the destruction of one of the few remaining areas of value. Environmental imperatives should have conclusively kept the Byrrill Creek Dam option off the shortlist.
Tweed Shire Council has yet again demonstrated a complete disregard for sustainability issues, environmental issues, and genuine community engagement.
The Caldera Environment Centre proposes, and seeks the support of other Working Group Members for:
1. The reopening of the process of the selection of the shortlisted options, and
2. The inclusion of the Wise Water Use Option for consideration as an option, and
3. Community input into the process of the selection of the options to be shortlisted.
UPDATE: Council have refused;
Council have stated that the Community Working Group members are to choose only from the options shortlisted by Council for final selection (ie to dam Byrrill Creek, to increase the size of Clarrie Hall dam, to connect to a desalination plant).
We have, they say, (a) no right to trigger a review of the preselection process, and (b) that the items contained within the Wise Water Use option proposed are all 'Demand' issues, and not therefore part of the Supply issue which the CWG is to address.
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The Wise Water Use Option - sustainable design of the planned mass housing developments.
High Volume On Site Rainwater Collection and Extended Use - We seek a more realistic approach concerning the collection and use of rain water. We live in The Countryside, we drink the rain water here, the rain water is good, we have Rain-Water-Tanks which supply Whole-of-House-Use. The new Mass Housing Developments can be re-designed to collect and store high volume rain water.
Dual System Reticulation utilising Grey Water Recycling and Integrated Storm Water Harvesting - Dual reticulation systems are already in place elsewhere, eg in Rouse Hill, Sydney, since 2001 (57% of water used is recycled), within the WRAMS scheme for Sydney Olympic Park, and such systems are under construction at Hoxton Park and Ropes Crossing at St Marys. The NSW Govt. through the Water for Life Programme recommends that Local Council's adopt such systems for new housing developments.
A Reconsideration of Option 9, the Mass Distribution of Direct Potable Recycled Water - option 9 was discounted as "unproven in Australia" - even though this method of water recycling has been in use for decades in Europe and Asia and the technology is readily available. The proposed new developments are all in close proximity to the waste water treatment plants at Banora Point and Kingscliff. Rainwater can be used for drinking water to allay concerns about drinking recycled water.
Promotion of Composting Toilets as a legitimate alternative to water based sewage treatment - 20% of indoor domestic water use is flushed down the toilet. Hydraulic solutions create many problems, including: significantly increasing the volume of sewage which must be treated, and that water needs then to be filtered clean for discharge or re-consumption. Approximately half of the Council budget goes on water distribution and sewage processing and treatment.
Sustainable Garden and Landscape Design of the new townships - 50% of outdoor domestic water use is used to water inappropriately designed gardens and public landscapes.
Proper Urban Demand Management - including limiting the planned population increase in this area (rather than doubling the local population, as is 'currently-in-process').
We recognise the limitations of the NSW Government Planning processes place on some of the Wise Water Use components, though believe that Tweed Shire Council has the obligation to challenge and modify these restrictions, as the representative body of the Caldera residents, and serving the interests of the shires biodiversity value.
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The above statement is the Formal Statement of the Caldera Environment Centre, member of the Community Working Group for the Tweed Shire Council Water Augmentation Plan.
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Community Survey – Water Options, Results
TWEED DISTRICT WATER SUPPLY AUGMENTATION PROJECT, CONDENSED COMMUNITY SURVEY REPORTS.
The survey results presented in this document represent the responses of the participants and can be further appreciated by reading individual comments presented in the document.
To view the survey reports click here: Condensed_Survey_Reports.pdf
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NO RALLY - REPORT:
The legally required "Rally Review" is in process.
Legislation says the rally continuing depends on a report written to review the rally.
The Pro-Rally State Environment Minister has appointed the General Manager of Homebush Motor Racing Authority (V8 racing) to implement the review process.
The Legislated review, the report which will decide if we ever again race hoon cars through our national parks, is being implemented by the V8 Motor Racing Authority General Manager. Guess the outcome.
The public opinion expressed at the very well attended Rally Review Community Consultation Meeting in Murwillumbah was overwhelmingly anti-rally. The implementation of the legally required rally review was roundly condemed as a sham.
We are supposed to believe that the legally required review is impartial in its current form. It is not. The review is a Claton's review, a review you have when you want a pre-determined, pro-rally outcome.
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THE NSW FAR NORTH COAST 'CONSERVATION' PLAN
The NSW Far North Coast Conservation Plan will determine conservation and developer outcomes for the next 25 years. The CEC has provided a submission to the draft document process.
Written by the developer financed state government, the plan is designed to make easier the approval of the planned new mass housing developments.
If a developer wants to profit from the destruction of nature on a planned development site, then the developer will be directed buy another piece of land which also has nature on it, and offer to preserve that land if he can destroy the nature on the planned development site. Which seems odd given that both pieces of land, given their high levels of biodiversity, should be protected.
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LOCAL MAN WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
"It came in the mail this morning" said the latest reported recipient of the soon-to-be-distributed-in-cornflake-boxes Nobel Peace Prize.
"I could think of nothing I had done to further world peace, such that I would be awarded this supposedly prestigious prize, so, thinking there was a mistake, I called the offices of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Apparently a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize doesn't need to have actually done anything for world peace."
Uncle Tom Obamarama was recently announced as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, apparently nominations for the prize closed when he was in office as president for only eleven days - not that he's done a lot for world peace since.
"I decided to take a lead from Obamarama and accept the award, as humbly as is possible to accept a discredited historical relic, and, like Obamarama, aspire to live up to the award, and actually do something for world peace, ... one day, ... perhaps. Or not, ... Like Obamarama."
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The NSW Far North Coast Regional Strategy
Note the key element of the New South Wales government Far North Coast Regional Strategy:
- A region of [new] villages: inland settlement promoted(!!), & urban infill in existing major centres.- 51,000 new dwellings
- an extra 60,400 people
- 32,500 additional jobs required to support population increase
The current plan is that there is to be a significant increase in the population of the Caldera, located in developer designed high density housing estates.
The 'NSW far north coast regional strategy' is a device which will be used to direct local and state public services to facilitate rezoning and release of land packages, and to approve development applications for large scale housing developments in the Caldera.
The introduction of a developer facilitated population increase significantly disrupts the existing local social and environmental ecology.
The plan has been displayed, commented on and brought into operation without a genuine public discourse regarding large scale population increase in our area and how that population is located.
The Caldera Environment Centre opposes the highly bias processes of strategic planning and decision making which guide the development planning and approval processes in the Tweed Shire and the NSW Government.
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An Anachronistic, Damaging, Rampaging Exploitation
It is understandable that motor races and rallies were popular in the previous (20th) Century before we realised the implications of Global Warming and the limits of fossil fuels. It is unbelievable that governments willingly permit - and even fund - an event like the redneck, revhead Wrecko Rally in a suburban biodiverse environment like the Mt. Warning Caldera.
Tourists, impressionable youths and stunted old boys are all sent the wrong message. Testosterone, petrol and alcohol is a lethal combination that invariably leads to crazy carnage.
A UNESCO sponsored Biosphere Reserve for our bioregion is a model which would unite the Green Calderan concept with World Heritage Rainforest Reserves. Industries and activities in a Biosphere Reserve would aspire to be ecologically sustainable and pro life. Imagine a Tour de Tweed of international cyclists as part of the Tour Down Under, similar to the Tour de France and the recent Tour de Timor Bike Ride.
The era of infernal combustion cars is ending. Government officials promoting races and rallies are like dinosaurs. Fossil fuels for fossilised fools. The Caldera environment is for the benefit of present and future creations of the Caldera, not for foreign corporations.
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Robco, . . . Stealing Your Future
Its a Promotional Event for the car industry - the biggest single carbon polluter on the planet.
Robco is complicit in stealing your final attempt to rescue ourselves from the collapse of the ecology.
Our ideas about nature are highly dysfunctional. We destroy nature on a global industrial scale — to the point that we are crashing the life support systems which exist on planet earth.
We learn our ideas about nature from the world around us as we live our lives. The institutions, media and events around us have taught us how to behave towards nature, have taught us that it is there for us to destroy on a global industrial scale. The broadcasting into our lives of the Robco event is reinforcing the dominant, highly dysfunctional ideas about nature, the same ideas which have brought us to this critical moment in time.
To rescue the future we need to quickly change the way we are towards nature. We need to value nature, to regenerate nature, to protect nature, to see nature as a fragile life support system that is in collapse because of the way we behave towards it.
The future which is being stolen from you is the future that contains a proper attempt to rescue ourselves.
The ecological crisis, the collapse of the ecology — the collapse of the systems of interrelated, interdependent life forms on this planet — is the ecological imperative for change, ... we must change.
Robco is complicit in knowingly and deliberately promoting the highly dysfunctional ideas about nature which threaten our immediate future as we are driven towards the collapse of the ecology.
Robco have failed to recognise the rapid shift in the sentiment of the people of the world.
The imposition of a future that contains no final attempt to rescue ourselves is unacceptable.
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 14
An Anachronistic, Damaging, Rampaging Exploitation, ... It is understandable that motor races and rallies were popular in the previous (20th) Century before we realised the implications of Global Warming and the limits of fossil fuels. It is unbelievable and governments willingly permit - and even fund - an event like the redneck, revhead Wrecko Rally in a suburban biodiverse environment like the Mt. Warning Caldera; Robco, ... Stealing Your Future. Robco is complicit in stealing your final attempt to rescue ourselves from the collapse of the ecology.
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 14: TREE_14.pdf.
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 12
Editorial, Developer puppet councillors and/or council bureaucrats call the shots; Kings Forest and Cobaki Lakes - Concept Plan Applications, Councillor Katie Milne on the inadequacies of the development proposals; Repco Rally Australia, inappropriate to say the least; The Issue of Public Consultation, interpreting power relationships; Dear Council, ... please explain; NSW Spin Doctors Find Another Frog to Save, tosh served up in the promotion of the Repco Australia Rally; Community is security, a Transition Initiative is a community working together to face the coming crisis; Bay Street, where is the transparency recommended by the Bulford and Daly Inquiries?; Hands Off Country, help the Kimberley; Submission by the CEC to the NSW DoP, objecting to the ‘Developer’ Proposals for Cobakai Lakes and Kings Forest, we don’t think golf courses are appropriate ecological buffers; Stirring the Calderan; renewable futures.
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 12: TREE 12.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 11
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY - KNOX PARK
FESTIVAL & SUSTAINABILITY FORUM
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 11 click here: TREE 11.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 9
Give Your Vote more teeth, vote multiple times below the line; editorial, when it comes to the federal election there is really only one option, letʼs get rid of the Howard gang; Why vote in a world gone mad?, at some time in the last thirty years, most of us decided that the suburban lifestyle we grew up in was a train wreck waiting to happen, and jumped off; PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT CONTROL PLAN (DCP) FOR MURWILLUMBAH, we believe there is a lack of local grass-roots democracy as a result of non residents awarding consultancy contracts to foreign firms who then do not sufficiently engage with local residents; TYALGUM DAM, THE OXLEY MORON; Stirring the Calderan, if we can remove the weasel-worded one we must be ahead; Some Questions for Candidates, for the Seat of Richmond; Chemical Free Weed Control, Part 4, WEED SUCCESSION AND REPLACEMENT AT CUMBEBIN; ROLL OUT THE TANKS IN OZ, “Clean Coal” and ”Clean and Green Nuclear” are oxymoronic and are a distant pipe dream, (or nightmare); SUSTAINABLE FARMS & CITIES, a carnival against carbon.
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 9 click here: TREE 9.pdf.
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 7
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY - KNOX PARK
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 7 click here: TREE 7.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 6
No Nightcap Nightmare, 420 buildings in a new 'village' just outside the existing village of Uki; editorial, Full Spectrum Dominance; Whose Fault?, the conservatives are accountable; ʻTHE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGINGʼ, time limits on development consents; KINGS FOREST, a timeline of the development of the 'Development'; RE Kings Forest, Letter to Frank Sartor, Minister for Planning, we have no alternative but to assume that you have summarily withdrawn the undertakings you gave; The NSW Government 'In Caldera' Development Plan, every issue from water to land the electoral funding system is The NSW Government Far North Coast Regional Planning Strategy has as its only theme ʻthe promotion of inland development,; The Ecological crisis, ... the collapse of the ecology, the collapse of the systems of interdependent, interrelated life forms on this planet, is the ecological imperative for change, we must change; Chemical Free Weed Control, All weed species have a beauty as well as a difficulty; YOU ARE NOT YOUR GLYPHOSATE, Glyphosate is a chemical, not a religion or a child or way of life; Water Policy, Tweed Shire Council spends half of its budget on water supply, sewerage and sewage effluent disposal; Stiring the Calderan, capitalist system canʼt be good for a civil society since itʼs all about profits for shareholders rather than justice and compassion and community.
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 6 click here: TREE 6.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 5
Lest We Forget, the massive bombing of people and infrastructure (the sewage treatment plants, water supply plants, electrical generation plants, schools and universities) and the depleted uranium fallout from battlefield weapons, adds up to an horrendous social justice and environmental catastrophe; KINGS FOREST, the Chief Town Plannerʼs recommendation regarding the Kingʼs Forest rezoning has Iemmaʼs and Sartorʼs grubby finger marks all over it; THICH NAT HAHNʼS 14 PRECEPTS, precepts or guidelines for life have been used daily as a method for seeing oneʼs place in the order of things; The Ecological Crisis, ... the collapse of the ecology, the ecological imperative for change; Council Status Report, with two (of 3) appointed Administrators residing in Sydney, local knowledge and resident access was always going to be a problem; GLYPHOSATE, the current climate of hysterical fear of weeds combined with a shrugging acceptance of the poison allows for no rational discussion; Chemical Free Weed Control, weed species currently dominate because soils are under threat; CHANGES TO THE PLANNING SYSTEM IN NSW, recent changes to planning laws in NSW include, ...; ARTIFICIAL MASS EARTH MOVEMENT OF HILLSIDES, the Council appears to be treating the problem of whole hillside regrading as an engineering exercise rather than heeding likely environmental effects and 21st Century best-practise town planning and urban design; Stirring the Calderan, if youʼre concerned about the welfare of any farm animals in your ken, you can ring Animal Liberation on 1800 751770; SEA SHEPHERD, Sea Shepherd managed to keep whalers on the run for fifteen days during the killing earlier this year; BEN OQUIST ON THE ELECTIONS, one in six Tasmanians voted for the Greens – thatʼs 16% of the vote across the Apple Isle;
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 5: TREE 5.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 4
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 4: TREE 4.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 3
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 3: TREE 3.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 2
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 2: TREE 2.pdf
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TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 1
TREE, the Tweed River Environmental Echo, is the newsletter of the Caldera Environment Center.
To view TREE, Vol. 9, Issue 1: TREE 1.pdf
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WHAT IS THE CALDERA ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
The Caldera Environment Centre Inc. (C.E.C.) is a registered Voluntary Conservation Organisation, a registered Charity & an Incorporated Association. The Caldera, Big Scrub , Byron & Nimbin Environment Centres are sibling organisations under the umbrella of the North Coast Environment Council & ultimately, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW
The CEC outgrew from the Tweed Valley Conservation Trust (c.1989) in order to protect Mt Nullum & subsequently, the whole Caldera. The organisation is voluntarily based, relying upon individual initiative, fundraising activities & donations. It aims to raise awareness of local environmental issues, consult with government on natural assessment & promote conservation in the Tweed Valley.
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WHAT ARE CEC'S MAIN AREAS OF CONCERN?
The CEC exists to seek solutions to our common environmental problems. In particular, these include...
- Coastal land use & the conservation of coastal wetlands.
- Protection of Mt Nullum & Wollumbin State Forest.
- Conservation of natural & cultural landscapes, especially the retention of naturally vegetated ridgelines, scenic escarpments & vegetation corridors.
- Protection, regeneration and enhancement of riparian zones & the consequent improvement of water quality.
- Promoting principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD), including the 5 Rs...
Reduce
Re-use
Recycle
Regenerate
Replant
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THE FUTURE
The need for involvement has never been greater. Without radical planning constraints to curb non-sustainable & inappropriate development, the unique ecology of the Tweed Valley will disappear under a blanket of bitumen & concrete.
The good news is that awareness of the environmental challenge is growing. The bad news is that local communities are being increasingly marginalised through Globalisation.
Joining your local Environment Centre is a great way to make friends & make a difference. CEC actitivities are educational, rewarding & just one part of a world-wide network of conservation.
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