Craig Zerk, East Ballina
As an engineer with over 45 years’ experience working in the water supply industry, I support the new water Strategy proposed by Rous Water and I am opposed to the Dunoon Dam.
There are some very significant reasons for favouring groundwater over construction of a new dam downstream of the existing Rocky Creek Dam.
Economically, groundwater offers the lowest Net Present Value and can be sequentially staged over decades to meet the needs of a growing population. By comparison, the dam involves a huge up-front cost (the estimate as at 2020 was $220 million – but we know that the cost of these kinds of projects always blows out significantly). The dam is actually sized to meet the needs of a more than 70 per cent increase in population to the year 2080 but would need to be funded by the present ratepayers (even though we already have enough water for our present needs).