Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

The Sydney Alliance to Avert Desalination will hold a meeting on September 12, 6-8pm, UTS University Hall - MEETING POSTER and link to Herald article 2/9/07: http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/water-plant-we-might-not-need/2007/09/01/1188067429776.html

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NPA has done a submission to the Department of Planning on the proposal by Energy Australia (EA)to augment the Sydney Electricity supply network by way of a cable crossing from La Perouse to Kurnell. (more…)

Botany Bay, once renowned for seafood production, has been converted bit by bit into hard surfaces for aircraft and containerised imports, including seafood imports. We are about to lose the only jetty on the northside of Botany Bay as well as sea grasses - fish breeding habitat - in the dredging for a new container terminal, desalination pipes and electricity cables. Now we find out that the imported seafood is causing health alarms….

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SSROC (Southern Sydney Region of Council) www.ssroc.nsw.gov.au  received funding under the Metropolitan Greenspace Program for a project-read at - Botany Bay Trail Report 2006

Informed by the successful San Francisco Bay Trail and identified as a key recreation trail in the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources 2005 Regional Recreation Trails Framework, the Botany Bay Trail will establish a continuous public pathway around Botany Bay offering a range of levels of interaction and involvement for education and recreation, which can be safely accessed by familles and people with a disability.

The original study was undertaken by the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre -read at -  Botany Bay Trail 2003 Draft

Click on this link for the Energy Australia REFERRAL TO EPBC ACT

BBACA and Alliance Members have made submissions on the Botany Bay Cable:

BBACA submission

La Perouse Precinct Committee submission

National Parks Association submission

When it comes to spending taxpayers’ money, there is always something to spend when the Government believes it will earn votes. This brings me to the white elephant, known also as the desalination plant. I received an email today from someone who I think sums it up precisely: “please let it be known that I do not want a desalination plant. I don’t want a big one or a small one. I want 100% stormwater harvesting. So please keep up the pressure. If the Iemma Government can’t manage the stormwater then let them give it to someone who can. No stormwater or sewerage should be going into our oceans or waterways to be wasted.” Nicely put?and it is certainly not an isolated message. Why have the Premier and his cohorts not heard this loud refrain? Water from the drenching rains of recent weeks has been pouring out to sea, literally gushing down stormwater drains. And what is the Government doing to harness that water? Its answer is a desalination plant that will cost some $2 billion! The Government should be supporting water recycling and stormwater harvesting instead of pouring taxpayers’ money into a desalination plant with dubious environmental credentials. *Ms Goward is the NSW Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Environment

Dear Mr Iemma, Our Branch of National Parks Association of NSW wishes to add to the flood of opposition to your government’s decision to proceed with construction of a desalination plant at Kurnell. We are opposed because:

1. Despite assurances of Green Energy sources, there appears to be a real chance of up to a 20 year lag time to develop these sources.
2. Your government acted against professional advice and its own stated committment by triggering the decision to construct the plant before the 30% dam levels were reached (more…)

Read Environmentally Speaking Issue 11 by Lynda Newnam

Please find details of the Botany Bay Cable Project which has come on exhibition today. The project involves the construction and operation of a dual 132kV cable between the Bunnerong and Kurnell sub-transmission stations via the bed of Botany Bay using a combination of trenching, horizontal directional drilling and submarine techniques. A copy of the Environmental Assessment is on the Energy Australia website. For further information contact Energy Australia - Peter Leate pleate@energy.com.au and/or Department of Planning Mark Turner: mark.turner@planning.nsw.gov.au Submissions are due 16 July 2007

Submissions to the IPART Inquiry on the Review of the Interface between the Land Transport Industries and the Stevedores at Port Botany are now available.  ING submission to IPART no longer available on IPART website.

Included are submissions from BBACA and members Save Botany Beach, South West Environment Centre, and John Tourrier.There are varying comments expressed in the submissions. Some are suggesting there should be greater port-related activity around the Port. The stevedores at Port Botany DO NOT support the expansion and Railcorp would not comment on it. Railcorp state Page 28: “The economic characteristics of the Port Botany corridor and the level of required investment indicates that it is unlikely to be a commercially feasible project. This leads to the conclusion that if an infrastructure bottleneck is to be avoided the required capital investment in the rail infrastructure to Port Botany can not be left to normal commercial drivers and is a prime candidate for AusLink funding.”(26.6.07)

Auslink funding should be for Sustainable Visionary National Projects not to patch up State Government mistakes.