AVW Submissions re North south pipeline and general water policy issues

22 October 2007
AVW Submission on the Food Bowl Modernisation Project draft report, download here

16 November 2007
AVW Submission to Planning Minister Justin Madden re EES and adequate public involvement, download here

29 January 2008
AVW Submission on EPBC referral 2008/3960 of Federal Minister Peter Garrett, download here

15 March 2008
AVW Submission to the Victorian Sustainable Water Strategy Northern Region, download here

17 March 2008
AVW Submission on the Project Impact Assessment to the Advisory Committee, download here

10 April 2008
AVW Presentation to the Advisory Committee:
Powerpoint presentation, download here
Speaking note, download here

23 July 2008
AVW Request for reconsideration of the referral decision of the Federal Minister Peter Garrett under the EPBC Act 1999, download here

19 August 2008
AVW Second request for reconsideration of the referral decision of the Federal Minister Peter Garrett under the EPBC Act 1999, download here

29 August 2008
AVW Submission to the Victoria Parliamentary Inquiry re Melbourne's Future Water Supply, download here

10 September 2008
AVW Submission to the Federal Inquiry into water management in the Coorong and Lower Lakes, download here


AVW submission on the EPBC referral regarding the North South Pipeline
On January 29th, 2008, AVW sent a submission to Canberra on the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act referral of the North South Pipeline. The project alliance had lodged a EPBC referral because their preliminary impact assessment had revealed that the project site would affect flora, fauna and ecological communities listed on the nationally endangered species list.
Based on the referral and the supporting document "Summary of Preliminary Flora and Fauna Assessment Report" of the project alliance, and studying the preliminary impact assessment documents previously released for the Environment Effect Statement referral, AVW came to the conclusion that a number of endangered flora, fauna and ecological communities could be significantly affected by this huge project, both in the project area of the pipeline and also on the Goulburn River downstream of the water takeoff point. AVW therefore recommended that the Sugarloaf Pipeline be declared a "controlled action" under the EPBC Act 1999 and subject to a formal assessment provided by means of an Environmental Impact Statement and approval under the EPBC Act 1999.

Together with 3717 Watch Inc. AVW organized the Great Water Debate on February 5, 2008 in order to get the view of scientists on the North South pipeline and to have project proponents and scientists debate the project in public. Only the scientists turned up – with astonishing insight.

The great Debate - Our water crisis - Have a look at the presentations
In March 2008, AVW submitted a 50-page submission on the Project Impact Assessment report of the Project Alliance – after having worked through nearly 1000 pages of technical reports, and was invited to present our views to the Expert Panel Hearings on April 10th. A few of our concerns were taken up by the Advisory Committee, i.e. the need to define clear operating rules for the diversion of water from the Goulburn River and third party auditing of “water savings” of the FBMP.

The Advisory Committee Report on the North South Pipeline and response of Minister for Planning available for download on Department of Planning and Community Development website here:
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au

Based on new and relevant scientific evidence that had not been available at the time of the initial decision of the Federal Minister, Peter Garrett, AVW submitted a request for reconsideration on July 23 and again on August 19, 2008.

The notification of the decision re our request for reconsideration of September 5, 2008 and the final decision of September 12, 2008 of Minister Peter Garrett including new conditions can be downloaded here:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=referral_detail&proposal_id=3960

In a next step, we have asked the Federal Environment Assessment Branch to send us the detailed reasons for these two decisions.

Meanwhile, the discussion about the North Victorian Sustainable Water Strategy, Melbourne’s Water Supply and the Federal Inquiry into the Coorong and Lower Lakes is still ongoing.