Ballina Deputy Mayor and Rous County Cr Sharon Cadwallader. Photo David Lowe.
The Dunoon Dam made an unscheduled appearance late in the last Ballina Shire Council meeting, on the back of a motion put forward by Cr Phillip Meehan and seconded by Cr Sharon Cadwallader.
Cr Meehan said he had growing concerns about Rous County Council’s plan to purchase the Marom Creek Water Treatment Plant and the associated water licences from Ballina as part of the Future Water Strategy. He also said he was alarmed about Rous’s plans for the Alstonville aquifers.
‘This is another example of water mining except the water’s not being put into bottles,’ he said. ‘But there’s a whole lot of public concern about it… We actually need to consider whether we want to move ahead with this or not.’
Since Rous County Council voted to abandon the Dunoon Dam as a potential solution to the future water needs of the Northern Rivers, a new group has emerged called Our Future Northern Rivers. As of this morning, 74 people have liked the group on Facebook and it has 103 followers. Austin Curtin. Photo supplied.
Tregeagle macadamia farmer Austin Curtin stood unsuccessfully for the Nationals in the state seat of Lismore at the last election. He is the spokesperson for Our Future Northern Rivers.
Mr Curtin agreed to answer a few questions from
The Echo on condition that his answers were printed in full.
Farmers fear water woes if Rous extracts from Plateau cqnews.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cqnews.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Subscriber only Alstonville farmers want assurances from Rous and the NSW Government their water allocation will not change in the future. Rous unveiled its new Future Water Project 2060 outlining where water will come from to meet demand in the Byron, Ballina, Lismore and Richmond Valley areas. Save Alstonville Aquifer conveyor and local farmer Mike Hogan said What we fear is, when we had the recent drought we saw hundreds of water trucks pulling water out of this area to service the rural communities, is that still happens and we also have water coming out of the aquifer because of population growth (.) there will be a huge impact in the aquifer, he said.
Farmers fear water woes if Rous extracts from Plateau ballinaadvocate.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ballinaadvocate.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.