news, local-news, Warragamba Dam, Burragorang Valley, Give A Dam, Hawkesbury, Nepean, Greater Blue Mountains

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act have shown the Berejiklian government’s controversial plan to raise the height of the Warragamba dam wall is likely to have “significant impacts” on threatened species and heritage. The report, obtained by Give A Dam activists, noted while the project aimed to protect communities in the flood-prone Hawkesbury-Nepean region, raising the wall would result in the inundation of parts of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, including the Burragorang Valley. “The impact of increased flood water levels within the dam is likely to have extensive and significant impacts on listed threatened species and communities and world and national heritage values of the [area],” the environment department document stated. Give A Dam spokesman Harry Burkitt said the plan “must be shelved immediately”. “Flooding a world heritage site in a developed country like Australia is just not on,” Mr Burkitt said, predicting “a relentless national campaign” to halt the plan. Wollondilly councillor Matt Gould took to social media to have his say on the revelation. “It's been revealed that the Federal Environment Department think raising Warragamba Dam will likely have ‘extensive and significant impacts on listed threatened species and communities and [the] world and national heritage values of the area’,” he said. “Despite knowing this, the state government still rammed through changes to weaken environmental protections laws and allow flooding of the world heritage area, before the environmental impact assessment was even completed. “What makes this even more hypocritical is that at the start of this process they promised that the dam raising proposal would need to meet all the environmental protections if it was proceed. “Instead they seem to be ignoring inconvenient information and shifting the goal posts to get the outcome they want. “The community deserves that this process be transparent, robust and free from political interference so that the impacts of this proposal can be objectively assessed. Sadly that doesn't seem to be what's happening.” An Environment Department spokesperson said the project – which was estimated to cost $670 million in 2015 – would need a full federal environmental assessment before it could proceed. That assessment would be conducted by NSW on behalf of the Commonwealth under a bilateral agreement. “The Warragamba Dam wall-raising project will be subject to rigorous environmental and cultural heritage assessment,” a spokesman for NSW environment minister Gabrielle Upton said. “Until this assessment is completed, it would be improper to comment further.” WaterNSW notes the project has been declared a so-called controlled action because of its “likely impact on matters of national environmental significance”, including national heritage places and threatened species.

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