How much will it cost? - Dispite the State Government claiming $3.5 billion, the chairman of the company building and operating the plant says $ 4.8 billion, all from our water bills and taxes. This means water from the plant must cost at least five times what we get from Melbourne water now! (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UsEFhl_DdI)

Results of our Annual General Meeting held on 20th October:

The following nominations were unopposed and duly elected:

President - Stephen Cannon
Vice presidents - Col Truman & Mark Robertson
Secretary - Neil Rankine
Treasurer - Kaye Craddock
Public Officer - Roger Thorrowgood

Contact details for the above if you click on the CONTACT tab above.

We invite further volunteers to the Committee to assist all activities of Watershed in seeking sustainable water solutions for Victorians - use the contact button above if you would like to be involved in a more sustainable future.

Still concerned about a healthy future for our children & their children, about caring for the environment, about sustainable water solutions? We are. We met once again in the Wonthaggi Town Hall where it all began.

Great article in the Age, 5th October

Check it out here:

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/economic-rationalists-have-hijacked-water-policy-at-our-peril-20091004-ght2.html

Think about writing a short letter to the editor, or your local paper about these and related issues!

The government now owns a land easement from the Bass Coast to Melbourne’s suburbs.

Around 125 farmers and other landowners have had parts of their properties compulsorily aquired, and this has happened without the usual 5 month notice. The government have kindly told the farmers that they won’t have to pay rent on this land (at least not yet). Read the story in ‘The Weekly Times’ newspaper at the link below:

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2009/09/25/116381_latest-news.html

Sustainability - what is it?

Film challenge for young Victorians - $8,000 in prizes to be won

If you are under 21 and interested in the much misused word “sustainability”, and visual media, here’s you chance to win some great prizes. If you chose to question the sustainability of building a huge desal plant, that would shut out cheaper and better options for our environment, while tying up huge amounts of renewable energy, that isn’t even available yet, that could otherwise have been used to cut our carbon emissions, and a plant that creates yet another ocean pollution outfall, I wonder if you would have much hope of winning, given who’s running the show, but you never know!

Click here for the details:  www.futureshots.com.au

Do you Bank with Westpac ?

Or if you bank with - click here

Or even if you don’t bank with either, read on and see what they are doing:

Westpac Bank espouses their environmental credentials in relation to investment decisions for the money we place in their care. Yet now they are allowing the desalination plant to go ahead, preventing better and cheaper options from an environmental point of view, from going ahead, by backing the desalination plant’s construction.

Write a letter of objection:

Download, print and post a letter addressed to their Board of Directors here, or
download a letter to their Corporate Responsibility Department here, or
download an alternative letter to their Corporate Responsibility Department here, or
Cut and paste bits or the whole of these letters, or use your own ideas and the points below, into an email to corporateresponsibility@westpac.com.au, or you can ring,
ask for their ‘Corporate Responsibility officer’, Westpac - 132032 or (02) 82530769, National - 1300 889398.

• shortcomings of environmental assessment study
• the consortium aren’t committing to proper monitoring of marine effects
• so much water we won’t build the sustainable alternatives
• financial risk to bank
• bad investment
• what could go wrong (soils, substructure of area-mines etc, size of project, water temperature, more ?
• NAB’s reputation as environmenatlly responsible may be lost
• backlash
• env and social impacts -traffic, housing, green tourism
• long-term damage to bank’s reputation
  

_______________________________________

The Board of Directors
Westpac Bank Head Office
275 Kent St,
Sydney, NSW 2000

Westpac’s Investment in the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant:

On the 31st July, Aquasure, a consortium made up of Suez Environment (affiliated to Degremont), Theiss and Maquarie Capital announced that it would be building the Wonthaggi desalination plant.

Aquasure and the State of Victoria secured a financing package lead by Westpac and NAB, and supported by banks from Belgium, China, France, Italy, Japan, Spain and the UK.
Westpac’s decision to finance the project is contrary to Westpac’s stated principles of responsibility toward the environment. Westpac could not legitimately claim that this project met even the most basic of environment requirements, due to the following:

1. Lack of credible environmental assessment of the site before works began. The shortest Environmental Effects Study (EES) on record took place - inadequate and insufficient for such a complex public infrastructure project, planned to be the largest desalination plant in Australia.
2. The long term effects of the construction and operation of the desalination plant have not been properly assessed. Comprehensive baseline data collected over 2 - 3 years is required prior to construction / operation in order to develop an optimal monitoring plan. In addition, no completed Cultural Heritage Management Plan required for a comprehensive assessment and planning, was completed.
3. Location adjacent to Bunurong Marine Park, in a migration path and activity zone for whales. The marine investigations in the EES were inadequate and deficient in their examination of the impact of the discharge from the desalination plant on marine life. There are significant gaps in the existing reports regarding failure to highlight known important EPBC listed species (e.g. three native orchids, Dwarf / Antarctic Minke Whales) and the frequency of presence of species, particularly migratory marine mammals.
4. Marine effects:
   • Mixing: There has been no analysis of the social, environmental or economic cost in the event that coastal upwelling shifts the brine pools along the Victorian coast. The outlet pipeline needs to be at least 2 km off shore (the current Aquasure plan shows pipe only 1.1km in length). An outlet on a true sandy bottom is “world’s best practice” and is essential to minimise negative impacts of brine and other chemical accumulation. The planned outlet is on moderate relief reef, rich in marine life.
   • Intake: The cumulative impacts of the entrainment of eggs, plankton, fish, larval life stages and other small marine invertebrates in the intake of seawater. Studies are required into the effect of entrainment of eggs and larvae of marine fauna.
   • Outlet - The cumulative impacts of the discharge of ecotoxins, and the potential for pooling of ecotoxins on the marine environment and human health. The effect that the long-term accumulation of organic detritus (typically includes the bodies of dead organisms or fragments of organisms) will have upon the marine environment was not assessed.
   • Other areas of concern: impact on coastal habitats, including the Powlett River, other coastal estuaries, rivers, inlets and bays; impact of construction and the operation of the desalination plant on endangered birds, such as the Hooded Plover that breeds within close proximity of the subject site; impact of the construction and the operation of the desalination plant (particularly noise emissions) on protected marine species including: Blue, Southern Right and Humpback whales; Dolphins; Little Penguins; Seals and sea lions; Leatherback Turtles; Sharks, specifically the Great White Shark.
5. French infrastructure company GDF Suez, whose subsidiary Suez Environment is a lead member of the Aquasure consortium, has a track record of breaches of performance requirements, after illegally logging Amazon rainforest during the construction of the $5.6 billion hydro-electric dam in Brazil. It was fined $305,000 in February for clearing 19 hectares of rainforest, some of which was protected by a permanent reserve. The project has been fiercely opposed by environmentalists, who say it will flood 520 square kilometres of rainforest, triggering tonnes of greenhouse gases from rotting vegetation, as well as impeding fish migration. According to Spanish news agency EFE, the company also used dynamite to kill 11 tons of fish in local rivers.
6. Carbon emissions associated with huge energy use:With only one larger desalination plant operating anywhere in the world, the scale of desalination proposed would prevent as many as 900,000 tonnes of existing emissions being avoided every year. The surplus energy from wind and hydro projects, that would still be available if cheaper water supply options had been chosen, will not be available to reduce existing emissions by 900,000 tonnes per year.

There has been little, if any, critical analysis of the desalination project promoting and complying with the principles of ecological sustainable development, which includes the precautionary principle.

Westpac claim to have a set of corporate environmental principles, promoted in television advertisements, to guide their investment strategies. I find it difficult to see how they can be reconciled with investing in the Wonthaggi desalination plant.

I appreciate that Westpac would be undertaking due diligence on this proposed investment and that it may find this investment not consistent with its stated corporate responsibilities and obligations toward the environment.

I urge the bank to investigate the many threats to the environment caused by the construction and operation of the desalination plant in Wonthaggi. To quote your own slogan “It’s about doing the right thing”

Yours faithfully …………………………………………………………………………

Address…………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………..………………………………………………………………

Postcode………………….

Click here to see BANK-Track’s assessment of Westpac

Click here to see what the “Equator Principles” that Westpac have signed up to say

Click here to see a flyer that we are handing out at Westpac branches

Click here to see Westpac’s statements on Water and Climate Change

HELP US  -  ONGOING ACTIVE MONITORING OF DESAL SITE:

As our campaign is strongly motivated by our love for the Bass Coast, we plan to actively pursue compliance with the Environmental Effects Study (EES) as well as acting on the social and traffic impacts of the project on our community.

In the next few weeks we will summarise the key EES recommendations to make it clear what may be breaches and to which authorities breaches can be reported. A program will be worked around this.

At the brainstorm on the 15^th August, 3 action areas were identified:

·         Monitoring wildlife, especially bird life.

We plan to get an idea of pre -existing conditions of a few key indicators such as the endangered Hooded Plover, which is known to visit Williamsons Beach and attempt to breed along the coast. Other species will also be important. Whales continue to migrate along the coast – there have been over 30 documented sightings in the last month. Salinity measurements will be important  near the outlet, though that will depend on our resources. Noise measurement will be needed. Vibration and light glare will also affect the environment.

·         Breaches of performance requirements.

During the pilot plant construction, numerous breaches of the Environmental Management Plan were identified, such as dumping of asbestos in Campbell St, waste dumping in Skip Lane and delivery of materials using trucks which were not compliant. We are not too hopeful of a better result now that the Aquasure consortium are in charge– the need for haste, disturbance of acid sulphate soils and waste silt flowing into the Powlett River some of the many conditions likely to cause problems. We have already had contradictory statements about at what hours per day the construction will take place.

·         Social  Impacts.

Traffic and housing problems are already affecting coastal residents. We need to identify which authorities are in charge of traffic planning and compliance. A list of people whose tenancies are threatened and  those who are experiencing problems with housing is being compiled, but follow-up is needed. Many families are not keen to make a fuss, in case they risk their chances of finding secure housing.

If you are keen to help with a bird count and keeping an eye on the project, please get in touch with Chris Heislers 0419556381 or Jessica Harrison 0407307231

Letters! Letters! Letters!

Please help us create 

 a flood of letters…a deluge of letters!

Help us explain why the….

Desalination Contracts Must Not Be Signed!

The official government line is still that the final contracts with either Veolia/Connex or Degremont/Suez, to build the proposed desalination plant, are not yet signed, and may not be until after August, due to the global financial crisis. The complexity of signing a 30 year contract with a  global “water baron” such as Veolia/Connex or Degremont/Suez, could also be contributing to the delay.

But then again,  contracts could be signed any day now…..

So, we need everyone to take a deep breath, and write letters, letters, letters, preferably email, followed by hard copy (incl.fax), to flood our politicians desks.

Allied politicians and journalists have actually been listening to us, over the past 2 years. We just need them to do more, now, today! 

Cut and paste the proformas  provided at “letter ideas“, or below, write your own letter, or combine ours with yours…..you don’t need to understand all the issues, just express your outrage!

For up-to-date contact details for State and Federal politicians, go to

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/mlas.html

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memlist.pdf  

All too hard? Then an easy way to start might be to go direct to the ‘Ask the Premier a question’ webpage, where you can put your details and a quick question to the man himself, just click the link below http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/option,com_forme/Itemid,61/fid,2/

For added inspiration, take another stroll along Williamsons Beach – you may see a seal riding the waves with the surfers, a whale swimming by, a stunning sunset, or all three! 

Missed this one - Host a screening in your local area. Hit the CONTACT button to get in touch.

________________________________________________________________________________

“OUT OF THE BLUE”  -  INTO THE RED!

We are screening the documentary following our fight for a better Water Plan at:

Mount Waverley Youth Centre,  Thursday 2nd July,  7.30 pm

45 Miller Cres, Melways Map 61 C12.

FREE ENTRY, and the screening

will be followed by a question

and answer session.

You can download a flyer to distribute in your area - click here.

A secret, State Government, cabinet-commissioned water plan delivered to ministers early in June 2007 said that the desalination plant and the N-S pipe could have been avoided with the kind of water policy Watershed Victoria is advocating. This was before the decision, to turn the water plan put to the people at the last election, on its head.

Click here to - Read the report in the Sunday Age 29/03/2009

(http://www.theage.com.au/environment/water-projects-not-needed-20090328-9ev6.html)

And Mr Brumby’s response: If we had done that we would be on Stage 4 restrictions now. But Mr Brumby, your government’s new Water Plan hasn’t actually sourced any new water as yet! Some of these alternatives could already be topping up our dams And the efficiency measures could have been allowing us to take much less from the dams than the miserly tank rebates and replacement showerheads you have spent millions in the media to convince us you are doing something.