To whom it may concern,
I write to you to voice my desperate hope that the Warragamba Dam wall not be raised. It is unconscionable and unforgivable, that native wildlife and Indigenouse heritage will be destroyed so that flood plains can be deemed 'safe' for humans to habitat.
I find it breathtaking that politicians can be so utterly focussed on development and economic profit that they lose sight of what is truly important. I drive to work every day through Marsden Park and along Schofields Road and I see the ugliness of housing estates. I see the destruction of nature and a sea of colourbond rooves. What was once a beautiful natural bush area is now an abomination.
To think that the NSW Government wants to raise the Warragamba Dam wall, destroying native habitat and Indigenous history, so that a natural flood plain can host more hideous housing developments just beggars belief.
When the platypus and the regent honey eaters have died and our First Nations people have lost their cultural sites, who will put their hand up and claim responsibility?

To Whom it may concern,
I oppose the raising of the Warragamba dam wall project.

I am a resident, business owner, artist and author from the Hawkesbury Valley. I oppose the project for environmental reasons. I love hiking and I love the remote World Heritage Area. On my most recent hike (this past weekend, Mt Solitary via Kedumba River) I reflected on how precious it is to humans to be able to access places that are unaltered (much) by man. My brain and body is refreshed for the next round of Suburban grind.

I also reflected on the benefit to the economy tourism brings to the Blue Mountains. We saw the new dinosaur display at Scenic World - people come from all over the globe to venture into the Australian wilderness. With my history in Australian Scouting (including Assistant Scout Leadership), I've learned passion and pleasure for environmental conservation begins with small steps. Access to the wilderness environment is essential to humanity; because people will develop the internal drive to care for the environment.

I strongly oppose the raising of the Dam wall on grounds of flood risk, which includes risk to life. I believe such an act would be criminally negligent, because raising the dam wall will not prevent flooding in the Hawkesbury district. It will minimise minor flooding, sure; causing a one in one hundred year flood to take residents by fatal surprise. There are four tributary water sources flowing into the Hawkesbury River, of which Lake Burragorang is only one, but the average punter does not know this, and raising the dam wall sends a deceptive message to them.

I have no worries about my submission being published in whole or in part. I have no political affiliations and am not in the habit of making political donations.

To the Warragamba Dam Assessment Team ,
Attached and below is my submission on the Warragamba Dam Raising project -SSI-8441. I strongly object to the proposal on the basis of the loss of outstanding biodiversity and cultural heritage values of national and international conservation significance and failure of the proposal to protect the community from flooding.

Submission on Warragamba Dam Raising EIS by Peter Prineas
– Wednesday 24 November 2021

I object to the Warragamba Dam Raising.
The project is unnecessary as there are alternatives that are better and cheaper.
The project must not be allowed to proceed on the basis of this faulty and inadequate EIS.

1. Alternatives to raising Warragamba Dam are for the most part ignored
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 EIS fails to acknowledge this fundamental flaw in the project.
Alternative options were not comprehensively assessed in the EIS. The assessment of alternatives does not take into account the economic benefits that would offset the initial cost of implementation.
There are alternatives to raising the Warragamba Dam wall that would protect existing floodplain communities. An approach with multiple options is recommended as the most cost-effective means of flood risk mitigation. This would involve (1) reducing the maximum high water level of the Warragamba reservoir to provide flood mitigation, with the lost water being made from new sources including additional desalination capacity, development of urban stormwater and wastewater recycling, and (2) enhancing the flood resilience of developed areas on the flood plain that are at risk by modifying housing and other structures, removing those most at risk, and by providing flood infrastructure such as raised evacuation roads.

2. The project has unacceptable impacts on a world heritage area, national parks, wilderness areas and wild rivers, biodiversity and Aboriginal cultural heritage
The Blue Mountains World Heritage area is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in recognition of its outstanding universal value for the whole of mankind. Raising the Warragamba dam with its consequent damage to natural and cultural values would be a clear breach of Australia’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention.
Many kilometres of wild rivers, part of a wilderness area, and 5,700 hectares of national parks, native species habitat, and numerous Aboriginal cultural heritage sites, could be inundated intermittently and/or adversely affected as a result of the project. This includes:
The Kowmung River - declared a ‘Wild River’, protected for its pristine condition under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974;
The Kanangra Wilderness Area, declared under the NSW Wilderness Act, 1987.
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.
Hundreds of Aboriginal cultural heritage sites (noting also that the Aboriginal cultural heritage assessment has been found wanting by the Australian Department of Environment and the International Council on Monuments and Sites).

3. The EIS has serious failures
Severe fires during the summer of 2019/20 devastated 81% of Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, yet 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 and 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 is outlined in the EIS.
The EIS attempts to relieve the project of massive biodiversity costs by falsely claiming that the costs are not direct. These costs could triple the cost of the project and must be taken into account in determining 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.

4. The project will adversely impact habitat of NSW’s most endangered bird species, the Regent Honeyeater
The project has unacceptable impacts on threatened species.
The draft EIS concludes that the project poses potential significant impacts to contemporary breeding habitat for the Regent Honeyeater that “cannot be avoided or minimised.”
The Regent Honeyeater is listed as critically endangered at both a state and federal level, with as few as 350 individuals remaining in the wild. 
Modelling by BirdLife Australia suggests that up to 50% of contemporary Regent Honeyeater foraging and breeding habitat was burnt in the 2019/20 bushfires. Protecting remaining unburnt breeding habitat is of the highest conservation priority.
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 this project’s impact area.
Any breeding habitat is considered habitat critical for survival of the species under the national recovery plan for the Regent Honeyeater which states “It is essential that the highest level of protection is provided to these areas and that enhancement and protection measures target these productive sites”.
The project’s destruction or degradation of a contemporary breeding site for Regent Honeyeaters would have dire consequences for the species as a whole.
The project’s destruction and degradation of breeding habitat for Regent Honeyeaters negatives the effort and expenditure the Federal and NSW Governments have invested in the recovery program, including the Regent Honeyeater Captive Breeding and Release program.

5. The offset strategy for the Regent Honeyeater lacks credibility
I strongly oppose the Project’s offset strategy for the Regent Honeyeater. It is unacceptable and inconsistent with the National Recovery Plan for any avoidable loss or degradation of breeding habitat to occur. Offsets are rarely an appropriate response to proposed biodiversity loss and especially for critical habitat for the survival of a species, in this case breeding habitat for the Critically Endangered Regent Honeyeater. There is no evidence that breeding habitat for Regent Honeyeaters can be successfully offset and any offsets would be unlikely to provide direct benefits for both the local affected population and the species.

The attached submission has all my comments of objection.

Submission: Warragamba Dam Raising Project Environmental Impact Statement
To Whom it May Concern,
I am making a submission on the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed raising of the wall of Warragamba Dam.
I live in Sydney and have spent all my life walking, canyoning and holidaying in the Blue Mountains. The place has enormous significance to me and my family who, over several generations, have enjoyed the unique beauty of its landscapes, waterways, and its diverse native flora and fauna. The Blue Mountains is a place with a wild and rugged character that has been deservedly declared World Heritage.
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) fails to properly recognise the true value of the Blue Mountains World Heritage: its unique irreplaceable Biodiversity, Wilderness values, Wild Rivers and Indigenous Cultural Heritage, nor does the EIS adequately address the incalculable loss to the Blue Mountains World Heritage and to the community that raising the Warragamba Dam Wall would bring.
The proposal to raising the Warragamba Dam wall by 17 metres will periodically inundate an appreciable part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area above the existing Lake Burragorang impoundment. In doing so it will flood the lower reaches of the Kowmung River and destroy its status as a declared ‘Wild River’. The Kowmung is an iconic wild river that has been loved and visited by bushwalkers for generations. The lower Kowmung and the Kedumba Valley also supports unique vegetation communities, including a major population of the vulnerable Camden White Gum, that will be lost due to inundation. Flooding of part of the World Heritage Area will diminish Wilderness values , cause irrevocable damage to unique Blue Mountains ecosystems and destroy one of the last remaining significant habitats of the beautiful and critically endangered Regent Honey Eater.
The Traditional Owners have expressed concern that most of their remaining cultural sites will be destroyed by the intermittent flooding caused by the proposed raising of the dam wall. These concerns have not been adequately recognised by the EIS. So much Indigenous heritage has already been lost through the original flooding of the Burragorang Valley when Warragamba Dam was first built. Therefore I strongly urge the NSW government to preserve the remaining Indigenous heritage and abandon any plans to raise the Warragamba Dam wall.
The NSW State Government argues for the need to raise the Warragamba Dam wall as a measure for reducing the risk of floods for residents in the Hawkesbury Nepean Floodplain. However, I am concerned that raising the dam will result in a push for rezoning of flood prone areas for residential development. Nearly half of the floodwaters in the Hawkesbury Nepean Floodplain come from catchments that are not part of the Lake Burragorang impoundment, such as the Grose River and South Creek. Therefore major floods will still happen and more residential development in flood prone areas will in the long-term place more residents to the risk of flooding rather than mitigate the risks. There are other flood-mitigation measures that need to be considered such as improving emergency egress from flood-prone areas and stronger planning regulations for housing built and infrastructure in the flood plain.
The protection of the Blue Mountains as World Heritage is the result of tireless advocacy by individuals, walking clubs and community groups over several generations, so that future generations could enjoy this unique and iconic natural environment. The work and vision that went into protecting the magnificent natural values of the Blue Mountains should not be undone by raising the Warragamba Dam wall and inundating an irreplaceable part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. So again I urge the NSW government to abandon any plans to raise the height of the Warragamba Dam Wall and give full weight to protecting the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.