Warragamba Dam Raising

To whom it may concern,
I absolutely OPPOSE the raising of Warragamba Dam.
There are MANY Statements that give all the reasons this is NOT in the interest of the surrounding environment, the floodplain, residents home, and local wildlife that REQUIRE Protection now and for the future.

This report is dismissing:
the destruction of our World Heritage;
Traditional Owners;
previous Community concerns
and alternatives to raising the Warragamba Dam wall!
It is vital that Developers and Development of this World Heritage listed Area is Controlled and Limited in order to Protect the many aspects of this Sensitive area.
Having lived in the Blue Mts, in several areas since 1981, I consider this our backyard. I regularly go walking in this area with a group of Walkers and we, as many who call this Home, are deeply concerned at this Short-sighted Proposal.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
The raising of Warragaamba dam would be a criminal act,infact I cant believe it is even being considerd,havent we destroyed the environment enough,we just keep on doing this environmental vandalism,we just dont learn,this being a world heritage site, makes it even worse,this project is just bull dozing its way through,ignoring UNESCO and Sydney water concerns,alternative options were not assessed in the EIS.Its all about helping developers further develop. western Sydney floodplain.This NSW state goverment wants the dam raised and they will do their utmost to railroad it through,ignoring all opposition.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
I do not support the proposal to raise Warragamba Dam wall. I object in every way to this proposal because:
- it will destroy First Nations peoples' heritage, history and stories which are essential to future generations.
- it will inundate enormous amounts of pristine Bushland without any indigenous and meaningful habitat offsets being delivered for the long term.

- it will destroy the existing habitat of plants and animals already threatened and make others extinct.
- It will not fix the flooding problem for existing and proposed dwellings in any way since much so flood water creates inundation from in front of the wall anyway.
- it will benefit developers who are only profit driven, not socially, environmentally and sustainably responsible. For example, mandate developers to plant three trees on every new housing site and legally require a $$$ bond to establish those trees until to 10m tall. Have developers not heard of climate change and heat island effect? Why Are they exempt from contributing anything positive for the environment they trash and the new community they sell these dwellings to?
Make political donations by developers illegal.

- it will waste tax payers' money that can be better used for schools and hospitals.

Please allow terrace houses and dual occupancy in residential suburbs to increase housing density which will have less environmental impact and be more sustainable and community friendly.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
I can't understand how you can seriously think about raising the dam wall when it's obvious that the Warragamba River system is only one source of flooding. Just note how Camden and Picton flooded earlier this year.
Windsor and Richmond and areas below them are impacted by other large rivers as well.
I don't want my tax money wasted on this project which will not achieve anything except make developers rich.
The area above the dam must stay as a wild area for people to enjoy and see. Also there are aboriginal areas which must be protected as well.

To whom it may concern,
After reading the changes to the Environmental Impact Statementl to raise the Warragamaba Dam wall, I like to make it clear that I still strongly oppose such plan because of the following concerns:
• The report has virtually dismissed the concerns raised in 2,500 community and government agency submissions to the initial EIS in 2021, and in some cases expert submissions were not even addressed.
• In the report it is announched that the NSW Government has plans to ignore the advice of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee by changing the boundaries of the Blue Mountains National Park World Heritage Area.
• Sydney Water and Health NSW are having serious concerns about the effects the dam project would have on Sydney's drinking water quality. These concerns have been dismissed in the report.
• The report tries to downplay the destruction of World Heritage and National Parks.
• Again the concerns of Tradidional Owners have not been included in the report.
• Alternative options to raising the dam wall were not assessed and therefore dismissed in the EIS.
All these concerns (and there are many more) make for extremely important reasons why the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall should not go ahead.

To whom it may concern,
I oppose the proposed raising of Warragamba Dam wall as the increased area of flooded land upstream of the dam will damage first nations traditional owner sites and artefacts, destroy habitat of threatened fauna and drown endangered plant communities. Over 1541 cultural heritage sites have been identified to be inundated by ths proposal and cultural heritage needs to be assessed more fully before any works proceed. Flooded and destroyed will be 5,700 hectares of unique national park and the last of Sydney's wild rivers, the Kowmung river will be drowned.
Alternative options to the proposed raising of Warragamba Dam wall have not been assessed in the EIS. This needs to be completed before any progress is made on this proposal.
45% of floodwaters that flood western Sydney are derived from areas outside of the upstream Warragamba Dam catchment, meaning these Hawkesbury-Nepean areas will still be under threat from flooding. Flooding is predicted to increase with climate change and NSW cannot afford to keep supporting development of housing that is built on floodplains. Insurance premiums are already out of the reach of many and this puts communities at even more risk of destitution when they lose everything in floods.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
I oppose the proposed raising of the dam wall. I place very high value on intact ecosystems, wild rivers, indigenous heritage and world heritage.
I am a long term resident of the Blue mountains and will not stand idly by while this destructive and ineffective flood mitigation scheme is allowed to line the pockets of flood plain property developers.
Please listen to current and previous community concerns and support alternative solutions.

Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
Increasing the height of Warragamba Dam wall is not the solution to the flooding issues downriver. The main issue is councils allowing homes to be built on flood plains, and rivers and streams that feed into the Nepean and Hawkesbury below the dam (eg flooding on the Colo is also fed by rivers out west). The wall is an expensive 'short term fix' that could encourage even further inappropriate housing developments close to the river and on flood plains.
Buy back those properties that should never have been built and rehouse residents in safer places for the long term.
The exquisite native bush does not need to be inundated by greed and short term gains and ignorance of developers, councils, and politicians who don't appreciate the need to care for our wild places.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
There are so many reasons why I do not agree with the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall. The list is endless and it's hard to know where to start.
How can our NSW Government ignore so many concerns of our community, UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the effect on the Blue Mountains Nat Park World, concerns of our Traditional Owners and the possible effects on our native endangered wildlife and unique eucalyptus species in our native forests.
Alternative options to the raising of the Dam wall must be considered and delt with.
Yours sincerely,

Submission – Warragamba Dam Raising Project – SSI-8441 –
Geoff Moxon – West Ryde
Temptation to further flood the World Heritage Site and make it permanent
One of the major things that will limit Australia’s population in the future will be water supply. Raising the Warragamba Dam wall will create a “dam half empty” situation (if you are a pessimist). If this planned raising of the wall is proceeded with, it will only increase the temptation of ambitious optimists to dispense with the excuse of flood prevention and make the flooding permanent as Sydney’s population is allowed to rise. One so-called “victory” over nature on this front will also only increase the temptation to further raise or rebuild the entire catchment, thus creating a larger permanent water scar across the Blue Mountains National Park and providing the citizens and tourists of Katoomba and environs with permanent water views - thus displaying to everyone NSW’s thoughtless desecration of the world heritage area.
This dam was designed and created as water storage. Attempting to turn it into a flood mitigation facility whilst still keeping it as water storage will result in a facility attempting to do two things, neither of which it will do particularly well and its failure as a flood mitigation or prevention tool will have catastrophic consequences, as occurred in Brisbane after the Wyvern Dam mismanagement fiasco in 2020. It is to be noted that the operators of this dam have subsequently reduced its storage level to 80% of its previous capacity.
Increased flooding threat downstream
The submersion of the approaches to the new Windsor Bridge and the recent flooding of Windsor have been described as a 1 in a 100 year flood which saw the Hawkesbury River at Windsor peaking at 12.9m above sea level on 24 March 2021, yet the Warragamba dam as it exists today did not overflow. This fact exposes the arguments about flood prevention on Western Cumberland plain as being entirely void. Raising the Dam beyond the level of the current overflow would only create a larger Sword of Damocles to hang over the heads of the residents and property buyers who are misled enough to be sucked in by the promotion of land-hungry developers and their enablers who want to change the flood zones for their own profit.
Destruction of indigenous sacred sites
As I understand it, the land of the Burragorang valley has been previously inhabited by the Gundungurra people, who were forced off their land and sacred sites when they were destroyed by the first flooding of the Burragorang catchment. The projected further flooding of the river systems would destroy many, many more of these lands and their sacred sites, further reducing and deleting the culture of these people, who are today part of our community. Let us not maintain the prevailing practice of using these people as doormats for developers and their developments. The Department of Planning and Environment acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land and pays respect to all Elders past, present and future – it says so on its website. This Department, and its supervising NSW Government, should put this into practice.
Drowning of wild habitats including Regent Honeyeater
Raising the Warragamba Dam wall by 14 metres would drown old-growth forests and stands of the threatened box gum tree in the Burragorang Valley. Many native animals and birds, some of them endangered, such as the Regent honeyeater, both nest and feed in these forests. When last surveyed, there were only 350 Regent honeyeaters left in the wild. The Regent Honeyeater is critically endangered, and the most threatened bird in NSW. Leading ecologists have said flooding the Burragorang Valley will be tantamount to signing off on the bird’s extinction.
Conclusion
Anyone who has been to some of these threatened rivers will know how beautiful they are. Those of us lucky enough to have wandered on the Coxs, the Kowmung, the Nattai and their tributaries will be aware that they are priceless gems. These are the treasures that we have an opportunity to preserve and bequeath to the world and our following generations. The surviving Burragorang wilderness is priceless. Let’s not throw it away.
I most strongly object to the dam raising proposal,

I am concerned that many opponents of this project have proposed that State Government should not care about those who are having their houses inundated by increasing flood events. Some of them say those buyers knew what and where they were buying or should have done more due diligence. I think that is callous and ignores the state of knowledge that existed when those houses were built and when those purchases were made. I also think that when State Government can take action to preserve private property it should do that. More so when a project can achieve multiple positive outcomes as this proposal does. For not only will it protect many homes; it will provide a water resource for Sydney for decades to come. Please note that I do not live in a flood zone that would be protected by the heightened dam. But I do care for those people and have made a number of personal charitable donations to help alleviate their suffering.

No dams have been built for over 40 years.
Sydney has a water shortage every decade, that requires drastic water usage restrictions
The desalination plant has not worked as it was intended
The raising or the dam wall may also help the Nepean basin

To whom it may concern,
I do not support the raising of Warragamba Dam wall. Instead, I support gaining all of our drinking water from desalination of ocean water.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
The new report has all but dismissed the 2,500 submissions opposing the dam project, siding instead with the interests of western Sydney’s floodplain developers to proceed with the project.
Like the original EIS, this new report severely downplays the effects of upstream inundation, which would endanger countless plant and animal species, destroy Sydney’s last wild river - the mighty Kowmung - and risk the Blue Mountains World Heritage Listing itself.
NSW Government is doing everything it can to ensure the dam wall raising is approved and ignore the chorus of community opposition.
The NSW Government has ignored the advice of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and change the boundaries of the Blue Mountains National Park.
Let’s not forget who this tax-payer funded scheme will ultimately benefit: property developers, who stand to profit off the further development of western Sydney floodplains

Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
I am opposed to the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall.
We are very lucky to have, at the moment, excellent drinking water which is envied by many other cities around the world but the report fron Water NSW last week, said that the raising of the dam wall may compromise our water quality in both the short and long terms.
I have deep concerns about the changing of boundaries of the Blue Mountains National Park against the advise of UNESCO World Heritage which would have been very carefullyconsidered and should not be changed.
65 kilometers of wilderness rivers including the Kowmung River, protected for it's pristine condition and 5,700 kilometers of National Park would be inundated due the raising of the wall as described.
Australia has a very poor record for preserving it's endangered and critically endangered species, such as the Regent Honeyeater and Sydney last Emu population both of which exist in the area and must be protected at all costs.
Over 1,540 identified culural heritage sites would be lost, due to this inundation, contrary to the wishes of the Gundungurra community for whom the sites have deep meaning and spiritual connection.
There are alternative options to the raising of the dam wall, which combined would protect existing floodprone communities at the and these were not even mentioned in the EIS even though they would be the most cost effective means to protect those communities.
On average 45% of floodwaters come from outside the upstream Warrabamba Dam catchment so the raising of the wall will not prevent flooding of Hawkesbury-Nepean Valleys downstream.
Yours sincerely,

I am totally opposed to the proposed raising of the Warragamba dam wall. Increasing the height Warragamba dam wall is not a realistic flood mitigation strategy. Most of the flooding on the Hawkesbury flood plain does not come from Warragamba dam. These areas of the Hawkesbury flood plain catchment area bypass Warragamba dam. The Nepean river, the Colo river (which includes the Wolgan river, Capertee river, Bowen creek, and the Wollemi river) Macdonald river, Grose Rivers, and other significant tributaries like Glenbrook creek, South Creek, Redbank Creek, Rickabys Creek, Webbs Creek and Cattai Creek. None of these rivers and tributaries run into Warragamba dam. Adding 14 metres to Warragamba dam wall will not hold back any water from these rivers or mitigate flooding on the farms of the Hawkesbury flood plain. Converting these Hawkesbury flood plain farms to high density urban areas is insane. The only beneficiaries from Dominic Perrottet's proposed development would be NSW government cabinet ministers, Hawkesbury Councillors, and property developers. New houses on the Hawkesbury flood plain will be uninsured and doomed to destruction. Floodwaters from the record 1867 flood reached a height that corresponds to the bottom of the current M4 bridge over the Nepean River. These flood waters were 13 metres above normal river levels. If the record 1867 flood was to occur today Penrith would be partially submerged under flood waters from the Nepean River, and from water backing up from the Colo river, Capertee river, Bowen, Wollemi river, Macdonald river, Grose Rivers, and other significant tributaries mentioned above. If Warragamba dam was full, as it is today, then flood waters from the Cox's River, Kowmung River, and Wollondily River would also contribute to the inundation of Penrith and the Hawkesbury flood plain. Warragamba dam wall with its proposed 14 metre addition would make no difference to this potential catastrophe. The effects of upstream inundation, which would endanger countless plant and animal species, destroy Sydney’s last wild river - the mighty Kowmung - and risk the Blue Mountains World Heritage Listing itself.

To whom it may concern,
Please do not raise the Warragamba Dam wall as it will flood upstream areas, endanger countless plant and animal species, destroy Sydney’s last wild river - the mighty Kowmung - and risk the Blue Mountains World Heritage Listing itself.
We will act to vote the current government out in our electorates and hold this act as evidence of property developers' needs being put before the community's needs if this act goes ahead.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
I am against the proposal to raise the height of the wall at Warragamba Dam. It has been discouraged by previous government departments and scientific experts. It will serve little protection from likely future flooding events, as 45% of floodwaters are derived from areas upstream of the dam.
Raising the dam will ruin many of the streams and valleys behind it and swamp yet more Aboriginal sacred sites. I have lived and walked in the Blue Mountains for many years and value our wonderful heritage listed National Park.
Further development on Sydney's flood plains is only courting more disaster and economic damage. Surely after the last 2 years of record rainfall throughout NSW and the prediction by scientists of an increase of extreme weather events, from climate change,we should limit further development in those areas of Sydney that are vulnerable to flooding.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
This proposal to increase the height of Warragamba Dam is a pointless shutting of the stable door after the horse has bolted. It will not prevent flooding on Western Sydney flood plains because that's what flood plains do - they flood. Raising Warragamba is not going to stop this from happening, as many environmental experts have already pointed out, exhaustively. Yet a concerted push for development in the area has, and will continue to, trump all environmental and cultural concerns.
There is a fatal tendency in the modern world - especially among certain kinds of government and certain levels of bueaucracy - to look for 'magic bullet' solutions to complex problems that will play well in sound bites. This is just another example of the tendency. It is a short-sighted, narrow-minded, deeply flawed so-called 'solution' that will destroy a World Heritage designation. It's like blowing up the Juukan Gorge or the Palmyra Arch of Triumph.
Don't do it. You know who the good guys are here, and it's not the people who want to destroy cast tracts of irreplaceable national park.
Yours sincerely,

To whom it may concern,
I strongly petition you to reconsider raising the Warrabamba Dam wall. This project is, in my opinion, foolish and short-sighted. I can see the benifits of protecting land and communities down stream, and for the possibility of further development on the flood plains, but what about the negativities?
It is not completely out of the question for an earthquake to destroy the dam wall, or the wall to simply fail due to increased stress.
Flood plains make excellent farmland and should be used as such. With increased costs in fuel, we need food production close to cities.
Upstream environments will be destroyed, including flora and fauna. Surely we need to be protecting our precious native wild-life instead of it being drowned?
Aboriginal heritage sites will be impacted. Have we not blown up or trampled on enough already?
I ask you respectfully to consider my argument.
Yours sincerely,