A MOURA farmer is disappointed after the Nathan Dam and Pipeline EIS stated water from the project will be too expensive for agricultural use.
Mr Hutchinson farms as part of a family operation with parents David and Verlie and brothers Brian and Christopher over two properties near Moura, with 1000 hectares of flood irrigation developed as well as dryland country.
He said SunWater took agriculture out of the equation so they didn’t have to assess the potential impacts on the Great Barrier Reef – and a SunWater spokesman agreed.
“Based on considerable concern regarding the impacts of irrigated agriculture on the Great Barrier Reef, an EPBC Act approval of an earlier dam on this site was successfully challenged in the High Court,” the SunWater spokesman said.
“The EIS for the earlier proposed dam had not appropriately considered the consequential impacts of provision of water to irrigated agriculture.
“As a result and to avoid a similar outcome, the Nathan Dam and Pipelines EIS needed to be clear with respect to the amount of water provided to agriculture.”
Mr Hutchinson said it was a big blow to local farmers, who have been pushing for the infrastructure for more than 20 years.
Personally, Mr Hutchinson has invested heavily in his own on-farm water infrastructure.
“We’ve gone ahead and built a ring tank here, and if I knew I could get access to water I’d go and build another one tomorrow,” he said.
SunWater said no final price had been set for the water.
“During the early stages of the EIS, SunWater undertook a demand survey for medium priority (irrigation) allocations and the survey revealed… demand dropped away at price levels required for the project to be financially viable,” the spokesman said.
The Nathan Dam and Pipelines Project EIS was developed based on supply of approximately 66,011 megalitres per annum of high priority water for mining developments in the Surat and southern Bowen Basin.
Some water will be released downstream to support existing agriculture supplies.
A SunWater spokesman said currently there is no push for construction.
“At this time there is not sufficient demand to support construction of the project, however SunWater is confident that demand will increase over the coming years,” they said.
“The EIS has proceeded on the basis that there may be future demand from the mining industry to support development of the Nathan Dam and pipelines.
“Dams take many years to develop and SunWater is taking the necessary steps in preparation to supply water to industry when demand returns.”
Earlier this month the Queensland Coordinator-General recommended that the project proceed, subject to conditions.