Tassal’s dam strong-arming …

Environment Tasmania announced today their intention to make a complaint to the Integrity Commission regarding Tassal’s plans to dam the Prosser River, to treat Ameobic Gill Disease within their controversial east coast fish farm. The dam plans will go before Glamorgan Spring Bay Council tonight, with a recommendation from General Manager David Metcalf that council approve the development, despite the fact that none of the risks raised by TasWater in October last year have been addressed.

“In October, a leaked TasWater Briefing Note stressed that Tassal’s dam was in the wrong location – it relied on river-run down the Tea Tree Rivulet which will, I quote, lead to ‘extraordinary transmission losses’ that will ‘only exacerbate an already critical drought situation’” says Laura Kelly, Strategy Director at Environment Tasmania.

“TasWater also raised concerns that these losses – a whopping 30 per cent of water transmitted – had not been appropriately factored into the business plan for the dam.”

“The Business Plan going before council tomorrow retains all of these flaws, but has somehow secured a letter of support from TasWater. This raises questions about what exactly has changed in the proposal and why TasWater has disregarded the risks raised by its own engineers to make a complete backflip in its position” Ms Kelly said.

“It would appear that Tassal has offered TasWater 200ML of water per annum free of charge to secure their support.”

“While Tassal offering free water to TasWater is one thing – if it is coming from a dam that TasWater themselves have described as exacerbating an already critical drought situation, there are questions about whether it is strategic and ethical for TasWater to accept the gift that Tassal has offered to purchase their support.”

“While the dam proposal is presented on behalf of a consortium of water users, a closer look at the business plan reveals that Tassal, with the support of the council, is the sole applicant for a water licence, and has agreed to pay Glamorgan Spring Bay Council to ‘cover the reasonable costs of the scheme in the instance no other water users are contributing.’”

“Council papers also acknowledge that the site of the dam is on land owned by the Turvey family – members of which are current employees of Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, and will benefit financially from the dam contract. Council’s response to this conflict of interest is that the Turvey property is the best possible dam site – but considering the serious concerns raised in a leaked TasWater document last October, this is very difficult to believe,” Ms Kelly said.

“What we are seeing is expert advice from TasWater on the best way to secure water in a drought prone area being dumped, conflict of interest leading to financial gain for council employees being ignored, and all to benefit one corporation – Tassal – who will be the sole holder of the water licence for the dam.”

“All rate payers and farmers reliant on the Prosser River for water surety should be concerned that conflict of interest and expert risk analysis has been ignored – all for the benefit of Tassal, who has failed to secure the social licence it needs to proceed with its controversial east coast fish farms, but is effectively paying off both TasWater and council employees to get its dam plans through,” Ms Kelly said.

Download The October TasWater risk assessment:

http://cdn-src.tasmaniantimes.com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/TasWaterReport.pdf
Laura Kelly Strategy Director Environment Tasmania