Opposition wrong, wrong, wrong on Traveston EIS

People interested in the $1.6 billion Traveston Crossing Dam EIS should read it for themselves rather than believe State Opposition misrepresentations, Deputy Premier Paul Lucas said today.

Mr Lucas said Shadow Infrastructure Minister Fiona Simpson had demonstrated to Parliament today that she could not even grasp the basics of the environmental impact statement.

“Ms Simpson either hasn’t read the EIS or she doesn’t understand it,” Mr Lucas said.

“Ms Simpson thought she had found a smoking gun and produced a table from the EIS, that she said indicated the State Government was being ‘loose with the truth’ about rainfall in the area. But she ended up shooting herself in the foot.

“The table she presented shows the percentage of rainfall at the various sites that fell in different months of the year.

“Nowhere does the table Ms Simpson referred to show levels of rainfall.

“Nowhere does the table talk about inflows from this site.

“Nowhere does the table say there’ll be thousands of litres flowing from this site into the dam.

“It simply shows that north of the dam site, south of the dam site and in the middle of the dam site there’s more rain during summer months than during winter.

“It’s hardly rocket science.

“The Opposition is wrong, wrong, wrong. They’re not across the detail, don’t understand it and can’t even represent a simple graph accurately.

“I’m more than happy to talk about rainfall in and around the Traveston Crossing Dam area if Ms Simpson likes because it’s all good news in terms of delivering water security for South East Queensland.”

Traveston Crossing Dam rainfall and storage facts:

• The Upper Mary Valley receives up to 55% more rain on average per year than the Wivenhoe catchment.
• This dam would have filled four times since 2003, had it been built.
• As a result of the August/September rainfall, the dam would have been at 100% capacity in early September. This is during our worst ever drought on record.
• Modelling shows Traveston Crossing Dam will be full or near full more than 80% of the time and will have lower evaporation rates than both Wivenhoe and Borumba Dams.

“But that’s not the end of the bad news for the Shadow Minister,” Mr Lucas said.

“The weather station at Crohamhurst, which Ms Simpson refers to, provides the longest historical record in the region of rainfall observations - 106 years.

“But annual rainfall at Maleny, which is in the dam catchment area, is actually higher than rainfall at Crohamhurst.

“So if we were going to deliberately misrepresent rainfall figures – as the Opposition alleges – why would we talk about a site that had lower average annual rainfall.

“The EIS was prepared independently by consultants Sinclair Knight Merz, not by the State Government. SKM employs more than 5000 people across the world and has done work for Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and governments across the world.

“Ms Simpson is grasping at straws.

“It’s yet another example of how the Opposition doesn’t have a plan to deliver water security for the South East.”

Media inquiries: Robert Hoge 0419 757 868

How to get a copy of the Traveston Crossing Dam EIS

• Copies of the EIS can be downloaded free at: http://www.qldwi.com.
• If you would like to receive the EIS on CD Rom, a copy is available free of charge by calling QWI on 1800 225 384 or emailing info@qldwi.com.au.
• Supplementary Technical Reports on CD Rom are also available on request.
• Alternatively, a hard copy of the EIS and Appendices may be purchased from QWI for $150. A hard copy of the Supplementary Technical Reports is available for $400.