Newsletter #5 Upcoming Community Morning Tea
Dear Members and Supporters,
I hope this newsletter finds you all well, dry and warm. A lot has happened since our last newsletter. Firstly, we have set the date for a community morning tea to get together with members, friends and neighbours to share information with a special focus on WATER. EDF is planning to host a water workshop very soon detailing how they plan to take at least 4 gigalitres of water from our system to lock up for their use so they can make substantial profits to send offshore. The committee sees water as one of the most critical issues which this pumped hydro project will impact—it’s availability to you, the people of Tamworth and the wider Namoi catchment.
Sunday 6th July 10:30am
Community Morning Tea at Ogunbil Community Hall
Come along and chat with your committee, friends and neighbours at Ogunbil Community Hall for an update about this pumped hydro project and more importantly, to let us hear what you think about the project. There will be a focus on voicing as many water issues as possible. Bring a Plate if you can & Gold Coin Donation
Hope to see you there!
EDF HAS REPLIED TO OUR FIRST WRITTEN LIST OF QUESTIONS
The main concerns arising from EDF’s reply letter are the massive scale of the project, and that Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) is working with EDF to facilitate the project. If you want to read the full reply letter, check out our earlier News post.
The scale of the project is almost inconceivable. EDF will build two concrete-lined turkey nest reservoirs to store at least 4 gigalitres of water. Each reservoir will cover about 60 acres (25ha) and have a circumference of about 2½ kilometres. The generators for the power station will be housed about 500m underground, which means EDF will have to blast and drill massive tunnels and caverns into the mountain underneath Carinya North in Niangala. Make no mistake: this is an industrial-scale power station. Our valley will be changed forever if this monstrosity is approved and built.
The most unsettling thing was finding out that EDF has been talking regularly to Tamworth Regional Council staff about this project for a while. TRC seems to be working very closely with EDF to get this project off the ground.
Are Dungowan Valley residents about to be thrown under the bus by Tamworth Regional Council ONCE AGAIN?
We have a challenge ahead to change council’s mind. But Hills of Gold protesters remember well that TRC originally supported the Nundle wind project, but after years of hard work the community managed to get council on their side. TRC think they’ve worked out a great deal with EDF: EDF will store an extra gigalitre of water for Tamworth to use during a drought. That’s a dud deal. If we give this foreign company four gigalitres of our precious water and they only give us back one gigalitre – how is that a good deal? Besides, we all know what dams look like at the height of a drought – and they’re not full. We’ve calculated that TRC’s one gigalitre would have evaporated away after about eighteen months of drought. So, when Tamworth needs that water in the second or third year of drought – it just won’t be there.
It’s a really bad deal and TRC are being played.
We need to explain that to them and to the people of Tamworth. If you’re talking to a local councillor, tell them it’s a bad deal.
EDF is still trying to get local landholders to sign a “Land Use and Exclusivity Agreement”
The terms of the agreement are outrageous and very one-sided, a contract in which you agree to sign away some extraordinary rights for just $5000. If your solicitor says it’s fine to sign this agreement – maybe you should consider getting a new solicitor. Here’s a summary of the contract.
ACCESS TO LAND
For 2 years you agree to EDF and its associates coming onto your land to look for suitable easements, Aboriginal heritage, environmental impacts, geotechnical studies, etc
EDF has the option to extend that 2 years to 4 years. If EDF opts for an extension, you cannot say no.
EDF pays $5k for the first 2 years and another $5k for the (optional) 2 year extension
EDF may secure this agreement with a caveat on your title deeds. Of course, that might impact your next loan application at the bank.
during the term of the agreement you can only kick EDF off your property if they breach this agreement in a significant way (clause 7.1)
EXCLUSIVITY (clause 8)
you agree not to enter into a similar agreement with any other energy or mining company during the 2+2 years
you will not grant anyone access to your land for "any other activity" that could interfere with EDF's interests (this could include things like agistment)
RIGHT TO FIRST REFUSAL (clause 5.3)
if you want to sell or transfer your property, or part of it, you have to offer it to EDF first. You might not intend to sell your property now, but happens if you die or get seriously ill? Your will might say the kids get the farm, but if you signed this agreement then it has to be offered to EDF first! That’s right – a foreign company could take the farm off your kids.
AMOUNT PAYABLE FOR OPTION TO AN EASEMENT (clause 9)
this agreement does not grant an easement (or an option to grant an easement at a later date)
if you sign this agreement you can still ultimately refuse to have transmission lines on your property
but you agree to lock in now the payment figure of $10k (or whatever you negotiate) every year for every km of transmission lines, for 20 years
CONFIDENTIALITY (clause 10.5)
you cannot disclose any information that EDF gives you to anyone, until EDF makes it public
the confidentiality agreement lasts forever, in other words until the day you die
LEGAL FEES (clause 10.2)
EDF will pay up to $6500 of your solicitor fees for getting advice about signing this agreement. That’s right – your lawyer will get more money than you get, if you sign this agreement!
EDF is insistent that they plan to build, own and maintain their transmission lines. The initial capital expenditure and ongoing maintenance and easement costs must be huge. They also promise landholders that they’ll decommission the lines. But what guarantees are there that EDF will even be around in 80 or 100 years to do that? Unlike mining companies, renewable energy companies are not required by law to pay a bond upfront to fund the decommissioning. If EDF leaves Australia, future landholders will have to bear the cost of removing the lines.
EDF WATER WORKSHOP - When we know the date we’ll let you know!
EDF is planning a workshop on water issues arising from the project. That’s things like: effects on irrigators, stock & domestic water users, the environment, recreational water users, the people of Tamworth and the RFS.
Their biggest question remains unanswered: where is the water coming from? It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the water to run the power station will come from Dungowan Dam. EDF is insisting that they won’t collect run-off from the hills or pump water from the creek, and they are talking to TRC about water. But one fundamental fact remains: all the water in the Dungowan Valley is already allocated and fully subscribed, so if the NSW government gives four gigalitres of water to EDF, then they’ll have to take 4 gigalitres off of someone else. If they’re taking Tamworth’s drinking water from Dungowan Dam, then TRC needs to tell the people of Tamworth that. Or will they take the water from the farmers, by reducing our water allocation? Or will they take the water from the environment, so that the water flows into the Peel, Namoi and Murray-Darling systems are reduced?
And it’s not just the initial fill of 4 gigalitres. The power station will have to top-up about half a gigalitre (500ML) every year due to evaporation. All that water will be locked up in the power plant for 100 years. At least when a farmer irrigates their crops, the excess water trickles back into the soil and the environment. EDF won’t be releasing one drop of water for the environment.
The proponent is also willing to organise another workshop on biodiversity issues. That’s where you can raise sightings of wildlife like pygmy possums and quolls. If you’re interested in attending a biodiversity workshop let a committee member know and we’ll pass it on to EDF.
The committee has enlisted the help of Kevin Anderson’s office to ask some NSW government departments what they know and think of the pumped hydro project. We expect a reply from Water NSW and Energy NSW in the coming weeks. We’ll keep you posted. Planning NSW replied with little more than an outline of the application process that EDF has to follow.
This pumped hydro project is inappropriate, irresponsible and unnecessary. It’s inappropriate to build a pumped hydro power station on the western side of the Great Divide, where water is precious and the land is drought prone. It’s irresponsible because storing gigalitres of water downstream of one of the oldest and least-safe dams in NSW will result in more people being killed and more farms being destroyed in the event of a catastrophic failure of Dungowan Dam. It’s unnecessary because battery-storage technology is advancing rapidly to the point that they can dispatch more power (up to 1GW) and store more energy (up to 8GWh) than this pumped hydro project (300MW and 3GWh, respectively) – all without the need for tens of kilometres of transmission lines, blasting holes in mountains and taking water away from the Dungowan Valley.
STOP THE PRESS!!
EDF announced this week that it will partner with EnergyAustralia to build a pumped hydro power station at Lake Lyell, near Lithgow. That project is about the same size as the proposed Dungowan pumped hydro and is expected to cost much more than the original $1B (one billion dollars) estimate. Just how much is this Dungowan hydro project going to cost???
“They couldn’t have picked a worse site for pumped hydro!”