SAVE WATER ALLIANCE INC.
PO Box 5
ROBERTSON NSW 2577


27th December 2006

Mr Graeme Head
Chief Executive
Sydney Catchment Authority
Level 2, 311 High Street
PENRITH NSW 2750

Fax: 02 4732 3666

Dear Mr Head,

Re: The Kangaloon Bore Field Project Development
Land: Lots 175 and 243 DP 751277 Tourist Road Kangaloon
Owner: Sydney Catchment Authority (“SCA”)

It has come to the attention of the Save Water Alliance that the SCA has carried out development on the above mentioned land in nature of a bore field. Bores have been drilled to varying levels in the ground on lots 175 and 243 DP 751277 and pumps placed therein with a view to extracting groundwater from the Kangaloon aquifer. We understand that substantial volumes of ground water are to be pumped from the ground water in the Kangaloon area and transferred by pipes, channels and rivers to meet water demand in metropolitan Sydney and Wollongong.

The land is zoned Special Uses 5(c) Water Catchment under the provisions of the Wingecarribee LEP 1989.

In that zone the following provisions apply:

Zone No 5 (c) Special Uses “C” Water Catchment Zone

1 Objectives of zone

The objective of this zone is to protect land which is designated as being part of a water catchment from incompatible land uses.

2 Without development consent

Dams; recreation gardens; water catchment.

3 Only with development consent

Agriculture (other than dog breeding or boarding, lot feeding of livestock, poultry farming and pig keeping)any purpose ordinarily incidental or subsidiary to water catchment; bed and breakfast establishments, drainage, dwelling-houses (other than rural workers’ dwellings)exhibition gardens extractive industries forestry, mines, parks; playing fields; roads; utility installations (other than gas holders or generating works).

4 Prohibited

Any purpose other than a purpose included in Item 2 or 3.

The drilling of bores on this land for the purpose proposed is not “water catchment”. The phrase is not defined in the LEP but what is clear is that development of a bore field to extract groundwater for the purposes outlined on this land cannot be described as development characterised for the purpose of water catchment.

The LEP specifically controls “development for any purpose ordinarily incidental or subsidiary to water catchment”. That development requires development consent of the consent authority.

Apart from a very limited range of other development, all other development of this land is prohibited it being the express objective of the zone to protect land which is designated as being part of a water catchment from incompatible land uses.

The Wingecarribee Shire Council’s records disclose that the land is affected by Determinations of the NSW Scientific Committee. That Committee has determined that:

· The Mt. Gibraltar Forest;
· The Robertson Tall Open Forest;
· The Robertson Rainforest;
· The Southern Highlands Shale Woodlands and the Joadja Tall Open Forest;
· Shale/Sandstone Transition Forest; and
· Montane Peatlands and Swamps of the South Eastern Highlands,

are endangered ecological communities (“EEC”) under the provisions of the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1997 which fact has implications for all development proposals.

These EEC are dependant upon the maintenance of the current groundwater supply and access regimes.

Many farmers and residents in the Kangaloon/Robertson area are also dependant upon maintenance of current groundwater supplies and access regimes.

A proposal to pump groundwater from the Kangaloon aquifer and divert the water to metropolitan Sydney and Wollongong has obvious and potentially significant ramifications for environmental, ecological and biodiversity values in the region.

Changes in groundwater hydrostatic pressures and existing aquifer water levels could see ECC placed under threat to survival and the springs upon which communities, farms, businesses and individuals rely reduce in flow rate or dry up altogether.

It seems to us that this development is prohibited. At the very least it requires development consent under the provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

Accordingly we seek urgent clarification from the SCA on the following points:

1. How has the development referred to been characterised by the SCA for the purposes of cl 9 of the Wingecarribee LEP?

2. What are the facts and matters relied upon which has led the SCA to so characterise the development?

3. Has the SCA formed a view as to whether the development is permissible under the LEP and if so, what is the SCA’s understanding?

4. If the development is prohibited upon what basis has the SCA proceeded to build the bore field?

5. If development consent is required, has such consent been applied for, was it publicly notified and has consent been granted to the development? If so could you please provide a copy of the consent or advise where the development consent might be inspected? If not, on what legal basis has the development continued?

We are so concerned with what has occurred to date that Counsel's advice has been taken and urgent legal action is being contemplated.

We seek an urgent and detailed response to this inquiry within 14 days of this date.

We also seek an immediate undertaking from SCA that no further development of the bore field and no pumping from the aquifer for any reason (whether in the nature of testing investigation or substantive pumping) will occur prior to your replying to this correspondence. If such does occur we will apply for urgent injunctive relief in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.


Yours sincerely,



PHILLIP HERD
Chairman
02 4888 2310

KANGALOON AQUIFER NEWS UPDATE

A copy of the letter from Save Our Water Alliance Inc. to Mr Graeme Head, Chief Executive, Sydney Catchment Authority delivered to him in Sydney yesterday, 27th December 2006, is attached.

The NSW government and the Sydney Catchment Authority is brazenly ignoring all the highly respected scientific advice it has sought and received that it should not proceed with this proposal until a minimum five year moratorium has been had to enable a base line study to be undertaken. A base line study is an environmental audit of the status quo of the Kangaloon aquifer as it currently exists and, to have any value, must be undertaken over a number of seasons and during different climatic conditions as may exist during the minimum moratorium period aforesaid. The base line study would provide the essential yard stick against which any environmental damage caused by the borefield proposal can be immediately tested and measured.

Further, the government is resisting all political pressure aimed at having it shelve this dangerous and irresponsible initiative.

Accordingly, the Save Our Water Alliance (of which, along with a representative Councillor of Wingecarribee Shire Council and other community luminaries, I am a member as a representative of NSW Farmers Association) has now taken Counsel's opinion and we are moving forward to prepare the ground work to urgently seek an injunction in the Land & Environment Court of NSW to restrain this environmental vandalism.

The Alliance seeks the support of all members of the Southern Highlands community in seeking to explore this possible legal remedy and, in due course, if the Alliance determines, on the advice of its legal team, to proceed with the Court action, we will be asking the community for financial support to set up a Fighting Fund to defray the legal costs that will be necessarily incurred in putting a stop to this borefield development.

We have our lawyers preparing a ballpark estimate of the likely legal costs of the action as we speak.

I will keep you posted with respect to this matter.

Other issues the Alliance is focussing on include:

1. the Iemma government's flouting of the important 'precautionary principle' that is enshrined in environmental laws in NSW and its serious breaches of the (NSW) Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, the Wingecarribee Shire Council LEP, the (NSW) Threatened Species Conservation Act 1999, the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999 and the National Water Initiative 2005;
   
   
2. articulating the Upper Nepean Groundwater Community Reference Group's recommendations contained in its report to the Iemma government and the fact that this report has been buried by the government as it does not suit their purposes;
   the likely need to fell a massive number of trees along the environmentally sensitive western side of Tourist Road to bring 3 phase power to the Kangaloon borefield along with other environmental travesties that are being committed by the Iemma government in the Kangaloon area;
   
   
3. the cost benefit nonsense of threatening and causing all these very irresponsible environmental outcomes for a paltry gain of only 7 days water supply per annum for Sydney consumers;
   
   
4. the question of why the Greens, as a political party, along with Matt Brown MLA (State Member for Kiama), are strangely missing in action on the Kangaloon borefield? and the disgraceful conflict of interest that exists between SCA and NPWS and is perpetuated and presided over by Minister Debus as Minister of Environment and Conservation and which is seeing NPWS effectively muzzled in this debate.
   

We will be repeating these simple messages over and over again and will continue seeking to secure the broadest possible coverage we can achieve in the local and the Sydney metropolitan media until these messages finally get through to the voting public.


Jonathan Bell OAM, Chairman, NSW Farmers Association Sydney Water Catchment Taskforce.

Labors Tunnel Firesale We Pay For

THE NSW opposition says the government must explain to taxpayers what will happen to Sydney's Cross City Tunnel if no private buyer is found for the cash-strapped project.

Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal has ruled out the idea of the government purchasing the tollway. But if no private buyer is found and the tunnel sinks into further trouble, under the contract, the Roads and Transport Authority has the power to step in and keep the road open.

What the minister has not metioned is that the MacQuarrie Bank (ex Labor party premier Bob Carr's employer) can see a fire sale at the end of this tunnel which you and I will be financing to allow these leaches to bleed the public like the Sydney Airport they run.

Opposition roads spokesman Andrew Stoner says the government has to come clean on what will happen if no private buyer is found for the tunnel.

He has echoed comments by former NSW auditor-general Tony Harris, who said the tunnel's failure had put the private sector on notice about the dangers of entering into any contract with the NSW government.

Mr Stoner says NSW now has a dreadful reputation among the private sector in relation to private-public partnerships because of the Cross City Tunnel fiasco.

Corruption Investigation into Labor Party

West Australian voters have finally lost patience, with devastating effect,
after watching ministers being sacked or tarnished in the continuing fallout
from corruption inquiries, and seeing the ALP tainted by its links to
disgraced former premier Brian Burke.
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, shows the
Liberal Opposition has assumed the lead for the first time in a year.
Support for Labor fell to just 38 per cent of the primary vote, down from
the 42 per cent recorded in every other Newspoll this year.
By comparison, the Liberals surged from 37 to 40 per cent of the primary
vote while the Nationals recorded 2 per cent - giving the conservative
parties a combined total of 42 per cent.
While a child protection scandal earlier this year failed to translate into
lost votes, Labor has now lost ground as a result of Corruption and Crime
Commission revelations about Mr Burke, the sacking of minister Norm
Marlborough, alleged blackmail and intimidation in the party and the
questionable conduct of senior bureaucrats, as well as uproar in education.
On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor now has just 49 per cent support,
compared with 52 per cent when it won last year's election and 53 per cent
in the months after Alan Carpenter became Premier in January this year.
The two-party-preferred jump from 48 to 51 per cent for the Liberal Party
and Nationals was their best result in a year.
But the news was not all bad for the Government, with Mr Carpenter retaining
strong personal support despite the failings of his ministers. He remained
light years ahead of Liberal leader Paul Omodei as the preferred premier,
boasting 54 per cent support compared with 17 per cent for MrOmodei.
The result will place more pressure on Mr Omodei - the third Liberal leader
in less than two years - for failing to capitalise on the Premier's horror
year with a solid gain in his own rating. Both leaders rose two points
during the crisis period.
While Mr Omodei has steadied the ship since winning the Liberal leadership
in March amid a period of ugly infighting, he has not yet made a big
impression on voters.
But Mr Carpenter has little room for complacency, despite the next state
election not being due until 2009.
While the Premier undertook a major cabinet reshuffle just two weeks ago in
a bid to freshen the Government's image, including demoting some ministers
known to have links with Mr Burke, he is now trapped in a waiting game to
see if there is trouble ahead when the Corruption and Crime Commission
begins new hearings in February.
There have been reports that at least two ministers could be in the
spotlight as the CCC sifts through the mountain of information it obtained
by bugging the phones of Mr Burke and his lobbying partner Julian Grill.
The CCC is also due to report in March on whether action should be taken
against any of the government bureaucrats who were exposed in bugged phone
conversations discussing development issues with Mr Burke.
The Newspoll provided good news to the Greens, who have now reversed a slide
in support seen earlier this year. The party recorded 7 per cent of the
primary vote, which was in line with last year's election result.

Unbelievable Stupidity - Michael Richardson MP

In conjunction with the NSW Coastal Rights Association Inc, and Jack Tait, the president, who proffered a concern of suggestion that Toxic Waist had been dumped of Gabo Island and may be effecting the marine life, I suggested that SOS-NEWS had access to documented evidence of massive dumping from the late 1940's to the early 1970's by military conveyance of RAAF aircraft and NAVY ships and barges.

A thirty second search on the internet by a primary school student could establish that the GOVERNMENT dumped toxic waist around the coastline of Australia.
It would seem the letter of concern sent to the NSW Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam by Jack Tait of his concern, was passed down the chain of command with election candidate and shadow Minister for, the Environment, Michael Richardson
Required to answer.

The letter to Jack Tait received from the Shadow Minister below give great credence to what seems an Army of independents who are forming a group to represent the people and LISTEN not SPIN as the content would indicate the man is a fool, and with the thought of being crowned Environment Minister - a bloody National Disaster.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

8 December 2006
Mr Jack Tait,
President,
Coastal Rights Association Inc,
PO Box 572
BATEMANS BAY NSW 2536

Dear Mr Tait,

Thank-you for writing to the Leader of The Opposition, Peter Debnam, regarding the issue of alleged toxic waist dumping at sea. Mr Debnam has asked me to reply on his behalf
The NSW Opposition takes very seriously the pollution of our waterways. It was our persistent intervention that forced the Labor Government to do something about the dioxin contamination in Homebush Bay, and we intend to extend the clean-up, if necessary, in Government make Sydney Harbour safe for fishing again.

However, so far as the matter you have raised is concerned, I simply don't have sufficient information on which to make a decision as to an appropriate course of action. You yourself say your research is "limited". I don't know what minerals are alleged to have been dumped at sea, where they have been dumped (inside or outside the three-mile limit) and what the implications for the marine environment are.

Given the lack of detailed information, I'm afraid I can't take this matter any further.

Yours sincerely
(signature)

Michael Richardson MP
Shadow Minister for The Environment