Say NO to Dungowan Pumped Hydro
Protecting our environment, lifestyle and farms before they are destroyed forever by pumped hydro.
We are a community working together to protect our pristine landscapes and rural way of life. We oppose an ill-conceived pumped hydro power station planned for fertile grazing lands of the picturesque Dungowan Creek.
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Pumped hydro threatens our pristine valley.
EDF and its city-based partners, Mirus Energy and Energy Estate, want to build a 300MW large-scale pumped hydro power station 50km east of Tamworth NSW in the Dungowan valley. EDF is Électricité de France, a multinational company wholly-owned by the French government. We oppose the Dungowan Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) project.
The site EDF has chosen is approximately 5kms downstream of Dungowan Dam. The footprint of the site is almost 1900 acres (765ha) - that's more than twice the size of Sydney's Centennial Park, Moore Park and Queens Park combined.
EDF needs to connect its power station to the grid, and so it wants to build kilometres and kilometres of huge transmission towers and lines through koala habitat, remnant forest and prime, valuable agricultural farmland. The lines will run through neighbouring communities - possibly Duncans Creek, Mulla Creek, Limbri and beyond. The 330kV towers and lines represent a real fire and biosecurity risk.
EDF wants to store 4.3 gigalitres of precious water on site - that's more than two-thirds the size of Dungowan Dam itself. That water will be taken from the delicate Murray-Darling Basin catchment. EDF has not explained exactly where that water is coming from. Will your water be impacted?
We share our valley with endangered and vulnerable flora and fauna, such as koalas, platypus, spotted quoll, the Booroolong and Davies' Tree frogs, and the critically endangered Dungowan Star Bush. All of these species will be threatened by an inappropriate industrial-scale power plant built in a quiet, pristine rural valley.
The Dungowan pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project will scar the local landscape forever. It risks our lives, water, farms, property values, affordable insurance, quality of life, road safety, environment, quiet ambience, dark sky, visual amenity and firefighting capacity. Dungowan Creek Alliance stands against this outrageous development because it is in the wrong place, has no social licence and threatens to divide our community.
“They couldn’t have picked a worse spot for pumped hydro.”
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