Warragamba Dam Raising

To whom it may concern,
I am writing to express my dismay at yet another planning submission and environmental impact study that fails to adequately and impartially assess impact on and threatened species and protected wilderness areas.
To also have failed to consult the indigenous peoples of this land, its true custodians, is disgraceful.
Whilst I am not from NSW, I have visited many of the States Parks and I am always amazed by their diversity and beauty.
The EIS undertaken by SMEC Engineering should not be seen as being of an acceptable standard to form the basis for any further palnning decisions.

To whom it may concern,

The NSW Government recently released an environmental impact statement (EIS) that downplays – and denies – the environmental and cultural damage this project will cause.

The impact assessment was heavily condemned by several agencies:
• The National Parks and Wildlife Service said it failed to address impacts on species and ecological communities affected by last year’s bushfires.
• Heritage NSW said the EIS failed to properly consider cultural heritage values or adequately consult Traditional Owners.
• The Commonwealth Environment Department said the evaluation failed to consider impacts on iconic species like the platypus, and told the NSW Government to redo the entire heritage assessment.

This project should not proceed based on professional reports and inherent danger and damage to environmental and cultural elements

To whom it may concern,
I strongly object to the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall. It is a poorly thought out engineering solution that won't actually fix the flood-plain issues. The environmental impact on a World Heritage area will be devastating. I grew up walking the Kowmung River and would like my children to have the same opportunity.
The Traditional Owners have not had informed consent in this matter. Australia is already known internationally for our racism and poor treatment of the indigenous peoples, our extinction happy environmental policies, and lip-service to maintaing World Heritage areas. The Great Barrier Reef can already be considered a lost cause. I don't want another World Heritage area to follow suit. Stop making Australia an international embarrasment.

To whom it may concern,

To raise the dam wall in a catchment area that receives such little rainfall in comparison to the coastal areas which get the south easterly low pressure changes and hence rainfall, both in summer and winter, when most of Sydney's rain is within 30km of the coast, easily confirmed by BOM rain radar maps when a southerly low hits.
So consideration should be to try to capture some of this run off somehow, not raise Warragamba wall that with increasing climate change will still remain largely in drought, while the coastal areas receive rainfall.

To me this seems to be totally unnecessary as it is going to decimate a pristine area containing habitat for endangered species of fauna and flora as well as Aboriginal heritage and artifacts. Why would you consider this project when we have a desalination plant that was built to safeguard Sydney's water supply in dry times. To me there is an agenda hear that we are not being told about. So my plea to you is to re examine this proposal with greater depth and shelve the whole idea.

To whom it may concern,
If this dam wall were to be raised, more than 1,000 sites of immense cultural and historical significance in the beautiful Burragorang Valley, including irreplaceable Indigenous cave art galleries and occupation and burial sites, would be drowned under metres of muddy water. Please don't allow this to occur.

To whom it may concern,
i write to ask that you please refrain from building the Warragamba Dam. We need to preserve nature wherever possible and avoid developments that have a destructive impact on the environment, such as this project.

To whom it may concern,
Raising the dam wall will flood key regent honeyeater habitat and further degrade our struggling ecosystem.

To whom it may concern,
The proposal for increasing the height of the Warragamba Dam walll will greatly adversely affect the Blue Mountains environment. It is an unacceptable cost to the environment and the increase in the wall height should not proceed

To whom it may concern,
it is imperative that the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall by 17 metres does not go ahead. The destruction of so many culturallly-significant aboriginal sites, the loss of incredibly valuable habitat to many rare and endangered species such as the Regent Honeyeater, and the absolute desicration of what is World Heritage environment, cannot be allowed. The EIS has been a flawed, biased process, and the greatest priority appears to have been given to the state government's plan to open up even more land for housing development in flood-prone areas! There ARE alternatives to raising the dam wall, and they need to be carefully, and conscientiously, implimented. The alternative, deliberately flooding so much pristine wilderness would be a damning inditement on this government, forever.

My name is Ramona Headifen and I live in Port Melbourne VIC. I am concerned about the effects humans have on our environment in many ways - including plastics in the ocean, effects of climate change and our impact on other species/biodiversity. Things work in perfect balance until we, as humans, upset them and then sometimes the consequences are irreversible.
I strongly oppose the proposal to raise Warragamba Dam due to the project’s unacceptable potential impacts on the environment including to the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and threatened species in particular the Regent Honeyeater. This species is listed as Critically Endangered at both a state and federal level, with as few as 350 individuals remaining in the wild.  We need to do everything we can to protect and preserve them! There are only a handful of contemporary breeding sites for Regent Honeyeater and during the assessment of the project a total of twenty one (21) Regent Honeyeaters, including active nests, were recorded within the impact area.
The destruction and degradation of breeding habitat for Regent Honeyeaters is incongruous with the time and money that the Federal and NSW Governments have invested into the recovery program, including the Regent Honeyeater Captive Breeding and Release program. It is unacceptable and inconsistent with the National Recovery Plan for any avoidable loss or degradation of breeding habitat to occur and therefore I strongly oppose the Project’s offset strategy for the Regent Honeyeater.
Thank you for your help and in advance for protecting these critically endangered birds.

Please refer to written submission attached.

Submission against project is attached.

I am writing to strongly object to the proposal to raise the level of Warragamba Dam. It is an environmental and heritage disaster. Better planning for housing and infrastructure that is not on a flood plain would be a far better option. It is so typical of this government to throw money at projects that no one wants except developers. Fix the problem don't exacerbate it.

To whom it may concern,
I oppose the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall because it threatens so many things that I love: World Heritage Wilderness; Indigenous sites; endangered flora and fauna; an egalitarian society. It is a project that has been generated by the desire of developers to profit out of turning more of the floodplains over to housing- against the wishes of the Western Sydney communities and the recommendations of key scientists and town planners. In addition, the Environmental Impact Statement does not sufficiently take Indigenous heritage into consideration. There are alternative ways to achieve flood mitigation, including the buy-back of the properties most at risk.
World Heritage Wilderness and Endangered Flora and Fauna
Australian Government documents (obtained through a freedom of information request) state that:“The impact of increased flood water levels within the dam is likely to have extensive and significant impacts on listed threatened species and communities and world and national heritage values of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.” The areas that would be inundated if this proposal goes ahead are home to at least 48 threatened species. The nationally threatened Camden White Gum and critically endangered Regent honeyeater would likely become extinct if the dam goes ahead. Australia has an appalling track record for extinctions- we must do everything possible to avoid more.
Indigenous Heritage and Inadequate EIS
The World Heritage-listed Burragorang Valley is rich in cultural heritage and would be flooded if this proposal goes ahead. The traditional custodians have not been adequately consulted and over 800 sites have not been considered in the EIS. The federal government told the NSW government last September that their heritage assessment was inadequate and it has not been redressed. Indigenous leaders like Kazan Brown have been reported as being outraged, saying they were “locked out by the Government’s disrespectful consultancy firms” and “have been told no matter what we say the project will go ahead.”
Development of Floodplains
The raising of the dam wall is a developer-driven proposal that will make it easier to build on flood-prone areas in Western Sydney – against the wishes of local communities. The NSW Government has said that it wants to place an additional 134,000 people on western Sydney floodplains after the Warragamba Dam wall is raised. Housing more people on the floodplain will put thousands more lives at risk when floods occur. It will only add to the serious congestion problems facing western Sydney and the people who move here will find that they cannot afford insurance.
Alternatives
Respected academic authorities such as Prof Jamie Pittock of the ANU have identified alternative flood mitigation measures for existing communities that do not require raising the dam wall. These alternatives include international best practice floodplain development controls, flood evacuation routes, property repurchase schemes, construction of downstream flood diversion structures, and integrated dam management and climate forecasting. He determines that alternative flood management options have additional benefits for western Sydney, including greater safety for the most flood prone residents, better transport, a more vibrant agricultural sector, a healthier environment and improved water security.
The proposal to raise the dam wall must be rejected in favour of adopting the many alternative strategies that are available and which will benefit humans and the environment alike rather than enriching a few greedy politicians and developers.

I have lived in the Warragamba community for my entire life. I object to this project with every fibre of my being. Reading the EIS and taking in commentary from community groups makes me absolutely sick with the level of corruption involved in the formulating of this proposal.

SMEC Engineering’s proposal should be outright rejected due to their history of abusing indigenous rights country - they’ve been barred from the World Bank - why are we using them in NSW?

The bushfires of 2019/20 had a DEVASTATING impact on the Blue Mountains Heritage area - NO surveys have been conducted after this event.

The survey was completed in only 25 days and in that time 1,500 areas of significance were discovered. Imagine what they would have found given the appropriate opportunity.

We have been led to believe that this is the only feasible proposal to mitigate flooding in the Hawkesbury Valley however, NO MODELLING has been included in this study to back up these claims.

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.

The integrity of this assessment is fundamentally flawed and must be scrapped. If this proposal was to go ahead, this government will be forever remembered as one that chose to destroy a world heritage area because they decided to build their growth areas on the largest flood plain in the country.

To whom it may concern,
i live in the kings tableland area,here we go to great deal
of effort to maintain our streams that flow into the catchment area around the dam.
i am concerned that the EIS UNDERTAKEN have not addressed all the issues.i oppose the raising of the dam walls
lets maintain our GREATER BLUE MOUNTAINS HERITAGE AREA not destroy it.
why destroy 65 kilometres of wild rivers,5799 hectares of our national park and 1345 hectares of hertiage area.
we dont need 134000 new residents living on flood plains, if you thing raising the wall will stop floods, THINK AGAIN.
WE HAVE JUST GOT OVER FIRES AT MY FRONT DOOR.
LETS SEE WHAT DAMAGE FIRES HAS DONE TO OUR AREAS, ANIMAL AND PLANT HABITATS(PLATYPUS,KOALAS,BIRDS,EMUS AND OUR FLORA)
WE NEED TO CONSULT LOCAL ABORGINALS AND DO A PROPER ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL SIGNIFANCE AND HERTIAGE.
WORLD HERIAGE AREAS NEED PROTECTION NOT INVASION, DESTROYING LEGISLATION AND THE WORK THAT WE HAVE ALREADY DONE.
WHERE ARE THE MODELS THAT SHOW ALL THE ECONOMIC COSTS AND BENIFITS TO RAISING THE WALL...NO WHERE.
WHY DESTROY THE LOWER KOWMUNG,COXES NATTI,KEDUMBA,WOLLONDILLY AND LIVER RIVERS
YOU WILL NEVER SEE THESE RIVER AGAIN, ONCE IT IS UNDER WATER.
LOOK ANF FINF ALTERNATIVES.
WE ARE ALREADY A LAUGHTING STOCK OF THE WORLD OVER OUR CORAL REEFS, LACK OF REAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND NOW YOU WANT TO ADD OUR THE GREATER BLUE MOUNTAINS WORLD HERTIAGE PARK AND AREAS TO THIS LIST
WAKE UP.YOU DRINK THIS WATER AND WE NEED TO PROTECT WHAT WE HAVE AND HAVE CREATED

To whom it may concern,
I strongly oopose the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall.
I am increasingly concerned about the loss of native species and habitat, particularly in the wonderful area of the Blue Mountains National Park. The raising of the dam wall will lead directly to more more habitat loss for some of our most threatened species, such as the platypus. Considering that climate change is already putting severe pressure on our precious fauna and flora, this proposal is short-sighted and based on a flawed Environmental Impact Statement.
I ask that the NSW government undertake further environmental studies in the area before any further decisions are made.

To whom it may concern,
The World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Parks have been given the highest possible international status and protection in recognition of the area’s extraordinary biodiversity and ecological integrity.
The Commonwealth and NSW Governments made a commitment to future generations to protect the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area forever. This is the last place that any government should sacrifice to enable further expansion of floodplain development.
Raising the Warragamba Dam wall will inflict terrible damage on the environmental and cultural values of the catchment. It will decimate 5,700 hectares of National Parks, 1,300 hectares of World Heritage Area, more than 60 kilometres of wilderness rivers and thousands of Aboriginal sites and places of cultural significance. The area that will be destroyed contains some of the best remaining grassy woodland ecosystem in NSW, complete with healthy populations of dingo, quoll, woodland birds and many other native species. The rising water will drive threatened species into extinction.

To whom it may concern,
The World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Parks have been given the highest possible international status and protection in recognition of the area’s extraordinary biodiversity and ecological integrity.
The Commonwealth and NSW Governments made a commitment to future generations to protect the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area forever. This is the last place that any government should sacrifice to enable further expansion of floodplain development.
Raising the Warragamba Dam wall will inflict terrible damage on the environmental and cultural values of the catchment. It will decimate 5,700 hectares of National Parks, 1,300 hectares of World Heritage Area, more than 60 kilometres of wilderness rivers and thousands of Aboriginal sites and places of cultural significance. The area that will be destroyed contains some of the best remaining grassy woodland ecosystem in NSW, complete with healthy populations of dingo, quoll, woodland birds and many other native species. The rising water will drive threatened species into extinction.