on snake oil - Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association

Main menu:

on snake oil …

Any lingering doubts on the part of residents about the willingness of council officials to deliberately try & manipulate a particular outcome on a community issue should have been well & truly dispelled by council’s current 12 week “snake oil” campaign in support of the sewage outfall pipeline proposal for Merimbula/Pambula Beach.

The association believes that public statements made by or attributed to council’s Mayor Cr Kristy McBain, general manager Leanne Barnes, as well as other council officials, were clearly designed to deliberately mislead the community as to the options available for the future disposal of effluent treated at the Merimbula Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), by deliberately promoting the proposed $30M sewage ocean outfall pipeline as the only possible option open to the community, while stifling growing community calls for an alternate option to be found.

Let’s start with Cr McBain.

Back on February 20th, in response to a question on ABC Radio as to whether council was willing to reconsider its commitment to the ocean outfall proposal for managing sewage disposal, Cr McBain claimed that "the dunal exfiltration option was ruled-out by the EPA because it may have a significant impact on the dune & estuary system".

The association believes that the EPA did no such thing. Quite to the contrary, as the comprehensive report tabled at council's ordinary meeting on July 3rd, 2013 makes clear, it was the EPA who insisted that the dunal exfiltration options be included in the review of available options. As a result of that, the shallow dunal exfiltration option was one of the three options identified & considered by the Community Focus Group conducting the review.

It was council’s Focus Group that subsequently recommended that the ocean outfall pipeline option should be pursued, while also recommending that should funding by State and Federal Governments not be forthcoming, then council should “consider an effluent management strategy involving a Shallow Dunal Exfiltration system for disposal, additional treatment plant upgrades including nitrogen reduction & the expansion of effluent irrigation on the Pambula Merimbula Golf Club”.

Cr McBain was at it again on March 7th when the local print media fell-over itself to give her exclusive use of their letters page to spruik council's dishonest claims, claiming that no other viable alternative to the construction of an ocean outfall pipeline had been identified, ignoring the fact that it was council who had voted & resolved to go with a dunal exfiltration & expanded effluent reuse system as its preferred fall back option, if funding for the ocean outfall pipeline could not be found, based on the recommendation of the Focus Group.

While Cr McBain went on to confirm that council remains committed to the effluent reuse scheme, which currently disperses up to 30% of the effluent generated by the STP, the current dunal exfiltration pond system would be shut-down coincidental to the construction of the proposed ocean outfall pipeline, meaning that as much as 70% or more of future treated effluent would be discharged into the bay via that pipeline.

A couple of weeks later, council’s general manager Leanne Barnes joined the campaign, when responding to reported community concerns about the proposed sewage ocean outfall pipeline on ABC Radio by trying to downplay its significance.

Ms Barnes claimed that the ocean outfall pipeline will only be used as a "last resort", before going-on to claim that council would “love to be able to do 100% reuse”. Pure fiction.

Enter council’s Chris Best, who this week was reported as claiming that “there are three options, an outfall for treated effluent, dunal exfiltration or reuse as drinking water".

As Chris & his colleagues at council know only too well, that is an entirely misleading claim, as no-one has advocated that the effluent being dispersed via the current reuse scheme should be used as “drinking water”.

While the original Focus Group may well have considered the possibility of treating the effluent to potable standard & then recycling it into our drinking water supply nearly a decade ago, the obvious fact is that this week’s statement was just another clumsy attempt to prop-up the case for the ocean outfall pipeline by attempting to undermine the viability of possible alternatives.

Having said that, not even the association thought that council would stoop as low as it did when it tried to undermine the potential use of a dunal exfiltration system for disposing of treated effluent by mounting a cynical exercise in “virtue signalling”, expressing concern for the local Aboriginal community due to the alleged presence of artefacts & burial sites in the dunes.

While the association acknowledges that the whole area of the peninsular & beyond is in all likelihood of Aboriginal significance, its conversations with an Aboriginal Liaison Officer led it to believe that that this would not preclude the proposed area from hosting a shallow dunal exfiltration system.

And then, while council continued to make every effort to ignore the inflow of polluting sediment from the massive land clearance underway at the Mirador subdivision into the Back Lake in Merimbula on the one hand, it stooped even further by falsely claiming that an endangered ecological community of Bangalay Sand Forest trees existed in the same area as the proposed shallow dunal exfiltration system. Those specific trees are actually not located in the proposed area but are actually closer to town toward Fishpen, around the lake edge where council have been allowing their removal for years.

Since when did they care?

The association repeats its view that it is in the community’s best interests that public officials exercise absolute care in making public remarks on this issue that are genuine & factual, so as to ensure that the community is not only fully informed but that it can feel confident that its best interests are being pursued at all times.

As the association highlighted in an earlier release, it is certain that the community wants the best possible outcome from an economic, social & environmental perspective.

The association understands that the NSW Department of Planning (DPE) is responsible for determining the outcome of council’s application to pursue the construction of the proposed sewage ocean outfall pipeline but in doing so, must be satisfied that, amongst other things, the proposal will deliver the best possible environmental outcomes.

The association also understands that council’s completion of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a crucial part of that process & requires council to evidence that it has fully considered & evaluated all known alternative options in completing that part of the process, which should include contemporary comprehensive assessments of all alternate options & not just old outdated assessments.

Recently council succeeded in manipulating planning processes to promote the commercial interests of Bunnings. The association believes that council was largely successful in that regard because of the lack of openness & transparency around the processes involved.

The association believes that council would be seriously mistaken to think that it can manipulate decision-making processes involved in the proposed sewage ocean outfall pipeline in the same way.

John Richardson

Secretary/Treasurer

Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association

Tel: 0264945669

Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au

Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au