A Hunter Valley community group is accusing Hunter Water of ignoring years of community consultation over proposals for two new dams in the region.
Community engagement on the Lower Hunter Water Plan in 2019 showed the majority of respondents preferred water recycling and harvesting as the top two options ahead of building dams, which came in at number 5 on the list.
Hunter Water has now put forward the idea of building dams at Limeburner's Creek and the Upper Chichester.
However the Save the Williams River Coalition says dams are expensive to build and will have a major impact on the environment and the viability of agriculture in the Dungog Shire.
The group says more than 94% of all water for Lower Hunter water consumers comes from the Williams River catchment, so there is already an over-reliance on that catchment and rainfall dependent systems. They say the ill-fated Tillegra Dam was canned due to the "unacceptable level of uncertainty of potential impact on the environment, particularly the Hunter Estuary and its internationally recognised wetlands", so any new dam proposal on this river system would have the same impact.
The state government wants the dam proposals considered as a means of future-proofing the region against drought.
Hunter Water says they are actively investigating all options as part of a comprehensive review of the Lower Hunter Water Security Plan.
"Aside from water conservation and leakage reduction, no decisions have been made about what options will be included in the revised plan," a spokesperson from Hunter Water said.
"We
are exploring options to supplement our existing water supplies such as
desalination, dams, groundwater and water sharing, as well as demand options to
reduce the amount of water we use like recycling and storm water harvesting."
"We
will continue to inform and engage with our community throughout the review
process, before any decisions are made."
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| The existing Chichester Dam upstream of Dungog |
