Warragamba Dam Raising

To whom it may concern,
My name is Dale Chalker
Im a Gundungurra women from Burragorang Valley, my family name is Riley, I lived in the valley as a child leaving in the late 50s when we were forced off our farm for the dam construction. We have a continuing connection to the valley, visiting family properties and sacred sites at every chance we get. I oppose the raising of Warragamba dam wall due to the destruction of my cultural heritage.

Yours sincerely,
Dale Chalker

I accept the Department's submissions disclaimer and declaration
I have not made a reportable political donation in the past two years.

Dear Sir/Madam

Please find attached submission to the Warragamba Dam Raising EIS from Hawkesbury City Council.

Should you have any queries in this respect, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Andrew Kearns | Manager Strategic Planning | Hawkesbury City Council
P (02) 4560 4604 | F (02) 4587 7740 | E [email protected]
W www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Council has provided a submission, refer references below;
Confirmation of submission – 19830320
Submission - 19796350

Upon review of the EIS, staff at Liverpool City Council are generally supportive of the proposal and its ambitions to provide for improved safety outcomes for residents in the Liverpool LGA. However, staff would like to see additional information relating flooding, biodiversity, and traffic impacts.

Good Afternoon,

Please find attached correspondence from Penrith City Council in response to Warragamba Dam Raising SSI.

Kind regards
Simone Muscat
Secretary - Management Team

To whom it may concern,
I am an ecology student who lives in Sydney and I oppose the raising of Warragamba Dam. I am passionate about the natural world and the protection of the environment, and this proposal does not align with these values. Water security for Sydney is important; however, raising Warragamba Dam is not the way to achieve this.
Scientists have been emphasising the terrible impacts of dams and river regulation for a long time. This has been a core concept in my studies and I'm upset about the history of river regulation and dam-building in Australia. The mass fish die-offs in the Menindee Lakes from 2018/2019 are a sad example of its ramifications. Our native wildlife and vegetation are reliant on a boom and bust system and dams have significantly altered this. We need to protect the natural cycles of water, and this is so so important as our native ecosystems are increasingly threatened by habitat destruction and pollution, climate change, and so much more. Raising the dam will alter and damage ecosystems both upstream and downstream and also threaten the national parks adjacent to the dam.
Please please please invest time, money and effort into better alternatives such as water recycling. Protecting our native ecosystems benefits us immensely especially in the long run as they provide us essential ecosystem services.
Yours sincerely,
Sophie Yang
I accept the Department's submissions disclaimer and declaration
I have not made a reportable political donation in the past two years.
I do not want my street address, post code or email address to be published but Sydney NSW can be published.

An Aboriginal organisation (represented by an individual) has made a submission on the RtS and PIR and have requested that their submission is not made public due to sensitive cultural information contained within the submission.
This will be provided separately to WaterNSW who will be required to respond to the submission in a confidential manner to DPE's Water Assessments team.

See attachment

I strongly object to the proposal.
The reasons I object to the proposal are as follows:

1. The Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley is one of the most flood-prone valley systems in Australia. Despite this knowledge, successive State governments, and compliant local Councils, have allowed urban and retail development to occur, particularly in flood-prone land in the northwest. This flood-prone land should never have been developed. How and why did it happen? Greedy land developers and acquiescent governments allowed it to happen.

The early 2021 floods demonstrated the folly of this development. What governments must now do is to develop infrastructure and evacuation plans that will mitigate the effects of future flooding .In addition those properties most affected need to be resumed. THIS IS WHERE THE MONEY FOR THE PROPOSED RAISING OF THE WARRAGAMBA DAM WALL SHOULD GO.

2. The 2021 floods barely impacted on the Upper Nepean River system as no significant rain fell in the Robertson area at the headwaters of the Nepean River. Camden town ship experienced only minor flooding. When there is severe flooding in the Upper Nepean system these floodwaters by pass the Dam and join the Hawkesbury system. Raising the Dam wall would have no effect on this considerable body of water.

3. In the 2021 floods water from Warragamba Dam was not released earlier enough. This is reminiscent of what happened to Brisbane in 2011 when water from the Wivenhoe Dam was not released in a timely fashion.

4. Raising the wall of Warragamba Dam will have many unacceptable upstream impacts. It will flood:

a. Wild rivers including lower sections of the Kowmung River, a NSW declared Wild River with pristine ecological values.

b. 1200 sites of immense cultural, natural and historical significance in the Burragorang Valley. These include indigenous cave art, occupation and burial sites. As well it will have an overall impact on the remaining indigenous history of the Gandangarra people.

c. 6000 hectares of World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Parks further endangering flora and fauna species.

5. The Original EIS for the project was completed before the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires. In the light of the impact of the fires on the biodiversity of the affected land, a new EIS needs to be undertaken.

6. The project does not adequately address the potential changes climate change will bring to the region. The known risk to people and property on the flood plain surely suggests that any further urbanisation is foolhardy. As recently as October 2021 the Insurance Council of Australia stated that public money spent raising the wall would be better spent buying back flood prone land that should never have been developed in the first place.

In summary, instead of raising the Warragamba Dam wall the money should be spent on:

a. Acquiring existing flood affected properties.

b. Providing sufficient road capacity for effective evacuations during inevitable further flooding.

c. Stopping further housing and retail development on the Hawkesbury - Nepean flood plain.

An Aboriginal person has made a submission on the RtS and PIR and has requested that their submission is not made public due to sensitive cultural information contained within the submission. This will be provided separately to WaterNSW who will be required to respond to the submission in a confidential manner to DPE's Water Assessments team.

An Aboriginal person has made a submission on the RtS and PIR and has requested that their submission is not made public due to sensitive cultural information contained within the submission. This will be provided separately to WaterNSW who will be required to respond to the submission in a confidential manner to DPE's Water Assessments team.

To whom it may concern,
Where to I start with flooding on the Nepean-Hawkesbury Rivers?
Having lived at Windsor for 20 years, residents & farmers are well aware of how to respond to approaching waters and evacuation routes, however messy, expensive and inconvenient.
I object to the raising the Warragamba Dam (WD) wall on the basis that the bulk of the flood waters enter the western Sydney floodplain via the Illawarra plateau dams and Camden to flow in below Warragamba Dam. Furthermore, rivers overflowing below WD being the Gross, South Creek, Colo, Webbs Creek, MacDonald river and finally Mangrove Creek all add to the build up of waters. Significantly, the incoming tides and Sackville Gorge "narrows" creates the back surges into low lying areas such as McGraths Hill and Pitt Town.
So, raising the WD wall might store more water, but as flood mitigation, it will be futile. Decision makers have been riding roughshod over eminent research which I regard as appalling, ignorant and entitled and gives no confidence to the public for consultations processes. Instead of raising WD wall, invest the funds to move citizens off the worst flood affected areas and make parklands.
Yours Sincerly

To whom it may concern, I oppose the damm because it is ecocide and stupid.

To whom it may concern,
The raised dam will only reduce the flooding of the affected areas by 50% (and will provide respite for a maximum of two weeks based on the rainfall recently experienced) with the other half being caused by the Hawkesbury-Nepean having to pass through a tight pinch point known as the Sackville Bathtub. This geographical feature slows the water flow causing it to back up across the floodplain – a floodplain which has been there a lot longer than we have.
Developers, lga’s and communities must get together to agree on smarter land-use zoning, not rely on mega projects like raising a dam wall (one and half billion dollars last count – and unfunded) which will only temporarily reduce the problem by half. Money which could be spent elsewhere.
As already known raising the dam wall will inundate 4700 hectares of World Heritage listed landscape and 1800 hectares of declared Wilderness Area and destroy 65 kilometres of Blue Mountain wild rivers.
Scientists such as Prof. Jamie Pittock from the ANU have also warned that raising the dam wall will not be effective in stopping flooding in the Sydney basin and says that the money would be much better spent on building more flood-proof evacuation routes from existing flood-prone suburbs.
The only winners in the wall raising situation will, of course, be the ‘developers’ who will squeeze as much housing in as they can on the floodplain then simply walk away leaving someone else to clean up the inevitable mess when the next flood arrives and people finally realise that raising the dam wall is not the solution.
As an afterthought if the government is serious about using Warragamba Dam as flood mitigation (the dam was built for water storage - not flood control) perhaps legislation could be passed vetoing any construction on the new areas ‘protected’.

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To whom it may concern,
I oppose the raising of the Warragamba Dam, and request you to stop this proposal.
It is clear that there are alternative options that would protect communities from flooding. It is disappointing that these alternatives were not assessed in the EIS.
We should protect our world heritage areas which are critical for maintaining biodiversity, and include significant cultural heritage sites of importance to traditional owners.

I have many happy memories of bushwalking in the areas that would be flooded under this proposal.
Please consider the evidence and listen to the concerns of the community and traditional owners, and do not proceed with the orooosal to raise the dam.

yours sincerely