Glamorgan Spring Bay Council votes to pass Tassal’s plans …

This evening Glamorgan Spring Bay Council voted to pass plans for a dam to service Tassal’s controversial east coast fish farm. Two Councillors, Debbie Wisby and Jenifer Crawford, voted against the dam.

Councillor Wisby claimed that with 20 years business experience she couldn’t understand how the figures in the business plan added up, which was concerning as the loan taken by Council to fund the dam, for which Tassal will be the only user listed on the water licence, took Council close to its maximum borrowing capacity.

Councillor Crawford asked that Council delay the vote, for the sake of transparency and good governance, to allow unanswered questions about the business plan to be addressed.

In response to questions about Council concerns regarding TasWater’s October assessment that the dam would exacerbate an already critical drought situation, Council General Manager, David Metcalf, claimed that when the facts became apparent to TasWater, “they changed their mind.” Asked what facts had changed, given that the dam remained in the same location, took from the same catchment and faced the same transmission losses which led TasWater engineers to advise against investment, Mr Metcalf claimed, “I haven’t analyzed all of that technical stuff you’re on about.”

Early today, Environment Tasmania wrote to the State’s Integrity Commission, asking them to investigate whether Tassal’s offer of 200 ML per year of free water influenced TasWater CEO, Michael Brewster, to ignore the advice of TasWater engineers, contained in a Briefing Note leaked to The Mercury in Octobe. The Briefing Note, addressed to the TasWater CEO, advised that the Tea Tree Rivulet dam proposal would worsen an already critical drought situation for the towns of Orford and Triabunna.
Laura Kelly Strategy Director Environment Tasmania