Dam a 'disaster for all' | Gympie News | Local News in Gympie

THE Queensland Government has for the first time admitted its proposed Traveston Crossing dam would be an environmental, social and financial disaster, all the way downstream to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island.

And, according to Gympie Regional Council Works Committee chairman Larry Friske, associated sewerage disposal problems could send the council broke.

Tighter Environmental Protection Agency requirements for effluent disposal came as an ironic counterpoint to the same agency's admissions, revealed yesterday, that council would have to plan for periods of "zero flow of the Mary River due to the Traveston Dam". In a further irony, the EPA has also rejected, on river health grounds, a council plan for land-based disposal.

"I must admit it came as a surprise that a government organisation has identified that there will (sometimes) be no flow in the Mary River as a result of the dam," Cr Friske said.

Mayor Ron Dyne said: "I am amazed that a government department has come up with this, because I was assured in all our discussions that there would be a substantial flow in the Mary River.

"If we have to find another way of disposing of effluent (it will cost money)," he said. "If we think we've got a tight budget in coming weeks, it's going to get worse."

Finance Committee chairman Cr Donna Neilson said: "That's a cost from the dam that we haven't allowed for."

Cr Dyne said: "I have a sneaking suspicion there'll be a release from the government saying it's not accurate", to which Mary Valley councillor Jan Watt responded: "I suspect it is accurate though".

Cr Friske said: "If we have reduced flow or zero flow at Gympie, what ends up at Hervey Bay?

"If the government is saying zero flow, then they are going to destroy Hervey Bay and all the fish breeding and prawn breeding the Mary River spawns, by building this dam."

Irrigation farming would also be devastated if dry periods were marked by zero flow in the Mary River, Crs Ian Petersen and Graham Engeman said.

Cr Watt said it was the first time the government had revealed this information.

Cr Dyne said environmental protocols were a big cost.

"People have to realise we have to find the dollars and cents to fund these requirements, which seem to come out as a daily event."

Cr Friske said council faced limited options for sewage disposal "if we can't put it into the river".

"You can't put it on dairy paddocks or crops where it could get into food. It's simply going to break us," he said.

He said the dam was now revealed as "an ecological disaster right down the river. If they don't allow us to put some (treated effluent) back, we've got a financial disaster too".

Cr Watt said the dam's Environmental Impact Statement, prepared by dam construction company Queensland Water Infrastructure, had claimed 85 per cent of the river's flow would be unimpeded. Engineering director Bob Fredman said council had tried hard to find alternative means of disposal, including using the river as a conduit to sugar paddocks towards the northern part of the old Cooloola Shire.

"But we are not allowed to use the river as a conduit," he said.

"The new treatment plant will greatly improve the quality of effluent, but as fast as we improve it, the noose tightens with new restrictions.

"This is one of the few times the EPA has commented on the dam and it is significant," he said.