Suma Park catchment -- pipeline project under environmental scrutiny

The $44 million Macquarie River Pipeline scheme has been put to the federal government for its first crucial environmental assessment.

Orange City Council has referred the project to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities for what’s expected to be a series of studies to determine whether the pipeline will have a benign or damaging effect on the Macquarie River ecology.

The scheme will also go before the NSW government for environmental scrutiny.

But Cabonne Shire Council has also decided on an assessment of its own on behalf of shire property owners along the route of the proposed pipeline from Long Point to Orange.

It’s taken up seven “key issues for landowners” put forward in meetings with the opposition Concerned Citizens Committee, which it says will be presented to the state government’s Office of Water Taskforce for assessment.

The referral by Orange City Council to the federal government lists “threatened species (and their habitat requirement) recorded or predicted to occur within the locality of the project.”

It notes the Box Gum woodland, Spotted Tailed Quoll, Trout Cod, Superb Parrot and Booroolong Frog as flora and fauna that need to be taken into account in the assessments.

“While the ecological specialists that compiled the referral are recommending that these species will not be significantly impacted, it is up to the minister, Tony Burke, to determine how the referral proceeds,” the council says.

“The minister may determine that the project should be a controlled action, requiring his consent as well as that of the NSW Minister for the Environment.

“If [Tony Burke] does feel the project requires his department’s overview, he may also determine that the NSW environmental assessment process is sufficiently robust to address any concerns the federal government might have.”

MAYOR DAVIS CONFIDENT ABOUT OUTCOME

Orange mayor John Davis says the referral “is another level of scrutiny to ensure the environmental impacts [are] minimised.”

Notice of the referral comes just one day after Cr Davis expressed his confidence about the pipeline project’s assessment in a wide-ranging video interview with ONN.

Here’s what he had to say:

WEED MANAGEMENT A MAJOR WORRY

Meantime, the issues that Cabonne Shire Council will present for assessment by the state government include Macquarie River flow and extraction rates, along with “the feasibility of placing the pipeline under the road pavement, reducing the number of pumping stations and the size of balance tanks, weed management, power upgrades, environmental assessments for power upgrades and land access agreements.”

Weed management is a major concern, according to Cabonne mayor Bob Dowling.

“Controlling noxious weeds is an ongoing battle in this area and many landlords make very large investments every year to ensure their properties are as weed free as possible,” he says.

“Vehicles coming onto their land to inspect and maintain the pipeline could have the potential to transmit weeds and ruin their control programs.

“Cabonne Council will be seeking stringent controls on weed transportation.”

The mayor said the opposition group, an amalgamation of several organisation opposed to the pipeline project, also believes that “a number of landowners along the proposed pipeline route have signed access agreements without fully understanding what they’re signing.”