Warragamba Dam Raising

To whom it may concern,
With a great sadness I have read the documents exposed at the NSW Planning Portal.
I am an architect by profession working in a construction company , I do understand the impacts of a wall over 14m been built in a world heritage.
I can see this is an easy and quick straight forward solution that probably will resolve the problem in the next 5 years.
What we are failing to do is to look to the next 100 years ahead, to challenge the status quo, to challenge engineers to look for sustainable solutions that will makes us all proud and set the example for other to follow to stop destroying my beautiful Australia.
I do know the place well and often enjoy my time bushwalking around. This proposal hurts, and makes me cry because I’m insignificant and powerless.
I wish I could make a difference, I wish a could take action and protect with my arms the little green space that has survive over million years.
I do love nature and I hope you can make the right decision, no for your party or your political ambitions but for a future where we stand up for mother nature.

To whom it may concern,
I have bushwalked in the Blue Mountains for most of my life. One of my favourite areas is the Wild Dog Mountains, the Gangerang Range and the Kowmung River. They are beautiful and irreplaceable.
Raising Warragamba Dam will flood these areas. Destroying parts of them for my generation and future generations.
I strongly oppose raising Warragamba Dam. Flood plan development in Sydney (of which the dam makes up only 55% of the catchment anyway) can not justify the destruction of these wonderful areas.

To whom it may concern,
I do not agree with the dam construction give the fact by raising the wall, it will flood wild rivers and other important bushwalking
areas west of Sydney. More than 1,000
sites of immense cultural, national and
historical significance in the Burragorang
Valley, like Indigenous cave art,
occupation and burial sites, will drown
beneath silty waters.
I love hiking and Australia is a lucky place that have such a marvellous treasure in nature. Please let's protect our natural resources!

Man made. dams are not natural to the environment and are dangerous should a natural disaster happen.

To whom it may concern,
The Blue Mountains World Heritage area is not just a world class National Park, in 2000 it was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in recognition of its Outstanding Universal Value for the whole of mankind. Raising the Warragamba dam wall and consequent damage to natural and cultural values would be a clear breach of these undertakings and Australia’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention.
An estimated 65 kilometres of wilderness rivers, and 5,700 hectares of National Parks, 1,300 hectares of which is within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, would be inundated by the Dam project. This includes:
• The Kowmung River - declared a ‘Wild River’, protected for its pristine condition under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974;
• Unique eucalyptus species diversity recognised as having Outstanding Universal Value under the area’s World Heritage listing such as the Camden White Gum;
• A number of Threatened Ecological Communities, notably Grassy Box Woodland;
• Habitat for endangered and critically endangered species including the Critically Endangered Regent Honeyeater and Sydney’s last Emu population.
• The engineering firm (SMEC Engineering) who undertook the environmental and cultural assessments for the project have an established history abusing Indigenous rights, recently being barred from the world bank.
• Severe fires during the summer of 2019/20 devastated 81% of Blue Mountains Heritage Area. No post-bushfire field surveys have been undertaken.
• Only 27% of the impact area was assessed for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage.
• Threatened species surveys are substantially less than guideline requirements. Where field surveys were not adequately completed, expert reports were not obtained.
• No modelling of the stated flood and economic benefits of the dam wall raising are outlined in the EIS.
• The integrity of the environmental assessment is fundamentally flawed, and cannot be accepted as a basis for further decision-making by the Minister for Planning.
• Over 1541 identified cultural heritage sites would be inundated by the Dam proposal.
• The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment Report has been severely and repeatedly criticised by both the Australian Department of Environment and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) for not appropriately assessing cultural heritage in meaningful consultation with Gundungurra community members.
• There are many alternative options to raising the Warragamba Dam wall that would protect existing floodplain communities. A combined approach of multiple options has been recommended as the most cost-effective means of flood risk mitigation.
• Alternative options were not comprehensively assessed in the EIS. Any assessment of alternatives does not take into account the economic benefits that would offset the initial cost of implementation.
• On average, 45% of floodwaters are derived from areas outside of the upstream Warragamba Dam catchment. This means that no matter how high the dam wall is constructed, it will not be able to prevent flooding in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley downstream.
I implore you to reconsider that plan designed to allow developers to profit from teh loss of this pristine wilderness.

To whom it may concern,
I would like the opportunity to do bushwalking in the areas be affected by the flood plan development.
The loss of culturally significant sites would be devastating for many people.
Please seek alternative options.

To whom it may concern,
Raising the dam must go ahead to ensure Sydney's future needs.

To whom it may concern,
I have been living in the Blue Mountains most of my life and I am very concerened about the environmental impact of the dam raising project.
I am an avid camper and bushwalker, and this project endangers the environment of which it is our duty to protect. From the information provided in the environment impact statement I am concerned about the environment impact. As a result of these concerns I oppose the dam raising project.

To whom it may concern,
This proposal is unnecessary and will damage significant environmental areas, that we should be protecting, not jeopardising. Humans can live elsewhere, wildlife cannot.

To whom it may concern,
Nature and the environment are far more important than providing yet more housing for yet more people.
The benefits of having bush as part of our environment to the well-being of humans and those native animals that make it their home are well established. Once the bush is gone, it is gone forever. Where will this process stop?
I have walked in this area and it is extremely beautiful.
To allow this area of bush to be inundated and destroyed would be sacrilege. The Government of New South Wales has an obligation to its residents and to the people of Australia to protect this area - and other, similar areas.
We need more bush and natural areas, not more people and houses.

To whom it may concern,
I am formally protesting the conclsions reached by the Warragamba Dam raising project Environmental Impact Statement.
I personally have had my life changed by the world heritage listed blue mountains national park. As a teenager with anger issues and a disadvantaged background, walking the trails and coming to understand the flora and fauna in that area helped to set me straight and aim for a better life.

That we would put this park and it's inhabitants at risk for a proposal that multiple agencies question is troubling. I understand the issue is flooding - if 45% of flood waters are derived from areas outside of the warragamba system, will this wall achieve the desired outcome of protecting land-owners in the Sydney Nepean region? Let's not jump on a sub-optimal option - let's ask for more proposals, and assess them in turn.

I ask that we explore alternatives that pose less of an impact to our World Heritage parks and cultural sites. This current plan is not worth the cost.

To whom it may concern,
I'm 57 years old and have been an avid outdoor adventurer since my late teens. Over those decades I have walked into the Kowmung wilderness dozens of times. It is an epic walk down steep and rugged terrain. But I've done this trip more than any other in my vast outdoor experiences. Why? Because the Kowmung is simply amazing. It is one of the most beautiful and untouched areas in Australia, a truly wild river.

I did this trip again last July. The destruction from the fires and flood was extraordinary. In my 40 years of making this trip, I have never seen it so altered, so denuded. It brought tears to my eyes. I cannot tell you how much I grieved. But I consoled myself that these were natural events. While I have never seen them before, the Kowmung surely had. It will recover. It may take a few decades, but it will recover. Wild nature does such things.

But humans don't. Humans do unnatural things. The Kowmung has never been the arm of a lake. The fragile valley floor, the last 50m of depth, is the only thing that the fires left untouched. The thought that we could inflict drowning on that precious river floor is abhorrent to me. Leave it be, to heal in peace.

My 12 year old son has heard so much about the Kowmung. He wants to join me when he is strong enough to endure the walk. I only hope that by then I will still be strong enough to join him. If not, I want him to experience the place that his dad has raved about. I want the Kowmung to nurture him as it has nurtured me. Don't you dare deny him that.

Quite simply, if you haven't been to the lower Kowmung River, then you don't have the right to vote on its destruction. Only those willing to strap a 20 kg pack on their back and walk the 30+ km required have such a right. If you aren't willing to do that, then that's understandable, but you then lose your right to make decisions on its part, my part, my son's part. Leave it to recover in peace. Don't destroy it for the selfish and ignorant benefits of short sighted developers and insurance companies.

Rivers flood. They recover. Houses flood, their owners recover. Either that, or they decide to live where the might of nature has less impact on them. The wild and magestic Kowmung, one of the treasures of Australia, is in your hands. Only you have the power to inflict the only change from which it cannot recover.

I plead to you, with all my passion ... don't do it.

To whom it may concern,

Yes, the damn did overflow recently, however if it was managed better this would not have happened. Raising the wall is NOT the solution.

To whom it may concern,
Unless the government act on behalf of the people and fauna and fauna of Australia then we will kill all Koalas, Australian native birds and fish. The loss must stop. Steps should be taken to increase numbers being lost to climate change and population growth in animal habitat areas. The rich developers and govenment members who benefit from behind the scene bribes need to be controlled.

To whom it may concern,
I oppose the dam proposal for a number of reasons, and believe that the long-term negative impacts on the ecology of the waterway, and on cultural sites and are worrying and wil be very damaging and far outweigh the short-sighted benefits of expanding the suburban footprint with more housing in an unsustainable fashion.

To whom it may concern,
Although work has now taken me to Sydney, I have lived and worked for many years in the Blue Mountains. I was primarily working in Outdoor Education during this time, sharing the wonderful Blue Mountains Landscape with school students from all over NSW.
The continual destruction of native bushlands, World Heritage, and Aboriginal Cultural sites in the pursuit of development is well documented in current media reports.
The Environmental Impact Statement must be reconsidered in the light of bushfire damage and the impact on World Heritage and Aboriginal Cultural sites.
A combined approach to reduce flooding in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley needs to be taken, given that the raising of the dam wall will only moderate approximately half of the floodwaters funnelling into the valley.
I urge you to reconsider this gross act of vandalism on an environment that deserves your protection.

To whom it may concern,
I oppose the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall.
The scientific evidence says the dam will not provide sufficicent mitigation of flood risks to warrant its construction.
Regardless, the EIS for this project is utterly inadequate. The EIS has been criticized by the government's own departments. In short, raising the dam wall will result in flooding of and destruction of precious natural and cultural heritage in the lower blue mountains area.
I bush walk in the region, and much of the rest of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. This area is invaluable to recreation, harbours significant biological diversity and indigenous cultural heritage sites. If flooded, even once, these sites will be destroyed. This region is already vulnerable to bush fires and repeated environmental stressors are likely to destroy, permanently, the biological values it is renowned for.
These costs are too much to pay for controversial, marginal benefits. The real reason the wall is to be raised is to allow further development of the Hawkesbury/Nepean flood plains. This would put many human lives and livelihoods at risk.
I strongly oppose the raising of the dam wall.

It is time to stop letting finance override concerns and care for the environment

To whom it may concern,
This is the most significant threat to Australla's World Heritage areas in decades. There are few times in Australian history when Govemments have undertaken such callous attacks on protected areas.