*Pic: Nearby Lake Rowallan … Image by Lindsay from here
RET with Regret, an Urgent Alert about one of the thousand cuts to wilderness
When you drive The Mersey Forest Road to the start of the Walls of Jerusalem National Park track you are surrounded by the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area [TWWHA], its wilderness values just on the horizon.
No avoiding the obvious: you are on a road next to the Rowallan impoundment, but there ends the reminders of the industrialized world. To get to the start of the Walls of Jerusalem track you cross the bridge over the Fish River, a Class 1 stream.
The company G7 Generation Pty Ltd of PO Box 714 North Hobart, TAS 7002 proposes a 2MW hydro power station fed by a 995m pipe by damming the Fish River, within a few metres of the Mersey Forest Road within 1.5km of the World Heritage Area and 800 metres of the Walls of Jerusalem Track.
On 14 July 2015 under the agenda item: Mini Hydro Power Station, Transmission Lines And Associated Infrastructure – Mersey Forest Road, Mersey Forest, the Meander Valley Council approved G7 Generation Pty Ltd’s planning application PA\12\0183 for a Discretionary Use – Utilities (mini hydro power station, transmission line and associated infrastructure), for land located at Mersey Forest Road, Mersey Forest (PID: 2530822) – Development no. 344/2015.
The 14 days right of appeal expires on the 28th July 2015.
The site of the proposed mini hydro power station is approximately 5 kms to the south of the Lake Rowallan dam, 50 metres from where Mersey Forest Road crosses the Fish River at the base of Howells Bluff.
Figure 1: Proposed transmission line routes.
It would cause the clearance of approximately 7040m2 of forest for the power station, pipeline and access, with an additional 64000m2 (approximate) required for the transmission lines.
The power lines along the Mersey Forest Road will be obtrusive, contrary to the claims of the Council’s planning officer. The proposal could have proposed to put the power lines underground but chose instead to extract the poles from the native forest. They will not even withstand a bushfire: the bushfire code has effectively been avoided.
The Council’s assessment erroneously claims: “There are no major tourist facilities, habitable buildings or sensitive uses in the vicinity of the development. An 800m wide buffer composed of mature native forest creates an effective buffer between the station and the start of the Walls of Jerusalem Walking Track.” Clearly the Walls of Jerusalem Walking Track is a major tourist attraction. Such a miserable assessment denies any skerrick of responsibility.
The development area in the vicinity of Dublin Plains would be visible from Devils Gullet.
The so-called power station will be housed in four shipping containers – obviously a wonderful attempt to remain in keeping with the surrounding World Heritage ambience!
The Fish River Hydro proposal site is on State Forest. Forestry Tasmania has the Forest Management System Guidelines For State Forest Activity Assessments (SFAA).
This is meant to be signed by the following: • District Forest Manager (Approval) • Conservation Planner (validated) • Environmental Manager (Approval) • External Approvals Received (signed by preparer) • Proponent (if applicable) (agree to follow prescriptions)
But in this case only the SFAA Preparers have signed off on the report.
The power generated would feed into the grid by a power line along part of the Mersey Forest Road where none currently exists, although the report to Meander Valley Council, the Planning Authority, does not give that impression.
If the proposal goes ahead about 1 km of the Fish River will have its flow severely curtailed and reduced by up to 90%. In low flow conditions the Fish River will in essence be piped (into the hydro penstock).
Hazardous uses such as this small power station must demonstrate that they are of an overriding benefit to the community and that there is no suitable alternative site. The impacts of this plan will produce a miniscule 0.083% of the Hydro Tasmania’s current output. MVC’s Scheme states at E1.0 Bushfire Prone Areas Code, E1.5.2.1 Standards for hazardous use:
“Hazardous uses should only be located in bushfire-prone areas in exceptional circumstances. Where a hazardous use is to be located in a bushfire-prone area, bushfire protection measures must reflect the risk arising from the bushfire-prone vegetation and take into consideration the characteristics, nature and scale of the use…”
The Meander Valley Council officer’s recommendations state there are no alternatives to avoid the Hazardous Use under the Bushfire Prone Areas Code:
“Due to the extent of infrastructure generally required for electricity generation it is difficult to accommodate such infrastructure in urban areas or non bushfire prone areas.”
If you have a solar system on your roof will know that is nonsense.
G7 Generation Pty. Ltd. (ABN 58151519425) will get a tradeable Renewable Energy Certificate, on top of the power generated, something denied your solar rooftop installation.
The reports backing the proponent’s case lack any study of the Fish River biota or the impact of an 11m weir across it.
And what would the Public Interest lose?
• 1 km of the Fish River would be impacted, potentially affecting the stream biota.
• Industrialization becomes closer to the WHA wilderness experience,
• An informal reserve in the Tasmanian Reserve Estate, a part of the National Reserve System would be degraded
• The access road to the World Heritage, the Mersey Forest Road, would include a swathe of about 8 kms of powerlines.
The power station site and pipeline is to be located within an approved 53.2 hectare lease on Crown Land. Two easements have also been approved by Forestry Tasmania to export the power to the Fisher Power Station. The appropriate approval of the hydro penstock and associated weir does not appear to be included in the Meander Valley Council July 2015 Agenda documentation. Does Meander Valley Council staff hold the expertise to assess such a project?
We reiterate there is a 14 day right of appeal which expires on the 28th July 2015. – tomorrow.
For the detail of this proposal you can download the Council’s July Agenda at: http://www.meander.tas.gov.au/page.aspx?u=368
We suspect this project has largely escaped the public scrutiny it deserves. It has only just come to our attention.
The whole project should be reviewed. It is an unnecessary scavenging of unneeded and unwanted electrical power that could be obtained from installations much closer to users, thus reducing transmission losses.
There is little time left for an appeal to be mounted, yet we consider the assessment inadequate including on the World Heritage values the scheme potentially impacts.
By the way … to arrive at the Fish River you pass the Rowallan Dam. Some time ago we raised the potential failure of the dam wall. Denial was the position taken by the authorities. The Rowallan Dam wall is now being reconstructed.
• Andrew Ricketts in Comments: The MVC letter advising people of the decision is dated the 17th July thus the appeal deadline is 14 days hence, being the 31st July, not the 28th as advised in the article. The MVC approval in condition 2 of the Permit allows one of either two power line routes. That is it would seem they have approved both routes. How can one object when the final decisions over the project have not been made. Permit Condition 5 covers the finding of aboriginal relicts. Search for these artefacts, it seems, does not start until the actual works have already commenced. No advanced planning or surveying for the aboriginal heritage. Seems the Jordan River fiasco was not a good learning exercise. No one has actually learnt anything.
• Clinton Garratt in Comments: No one seems to have picked up that the weir, pipeline, maintenance road, access road and power station are all located within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. I’ve just submitted a tastrekker blog post with more detail.
And other meedja catches up … SUNDAY, September 27 …
• ABC report: ABC_Fish_River_26-9-2015.pdf
• Examiner report: Examiner_26-9-2015.pdf
• .. And other pollies: Senator Nick McKim to write to Environment Minister Greg Hunt over World Heritage Area power station
• Neil Smith in Comments: Bryan Green is displaying both the traditional Tasmanian LibLab contempt for environmental treasures and a lack of knowledge of what World Heritage is supposed to be about.
