As hunter water closes in on the families that remain in the bason that will be soon be underwater, the human side of the argument is comming to the head of the battle. Jim Moore  has 2 previos generations buried on the 550 acres of prime dairy farming land and has worked there all his life. The family is holding on as long as they can, not for the money but for the fact that this is a country version of the movie “the castle” which is in fact the moore’s castle and kingdom that has been built up with hard work and a love for ones land over generations. However, this didnt stop the water minister alegedly giving the moores a tingle with some advise on the best time to sell( being now of course) with a few dangles of a carrot that is being talked up and a few winks and nudges. The minister left his personal number and said Jim can call him any time if he needs anything, which seems an amusing statement for a family beeing kick out of their land where there family is buried.

This issue is definatly going grace the pages of our papers further now and in the future. stay tuned for the kingdom and don’t forget mr costa the added value those water tanks add to the property.

The lates with the tillegra dam proposal is dramatic and should prove to be the downfall of the labor government in the region. it seems that the government was sick of having to fight a battle so they passed legislation which meens that pretty much no one has a say anymore. Other options like water tanks are now irrelivent as the decision to go ahead no has no public input taken into consideration. Nathan reece was at the town hall at maitland last week but in usuual political way it seemed just to be a stonewall forum as a point to vent yet get nothing through to anyone. alternatives like the rainwater tanks inisitive that would cost 100’s of millions of dollars less are now seemsing to come upon deaf ears.  Hunter water has senmt through their “environmental report” that should help cross off a few natives off the endangered list its a big report and it is due for relaes to the public in about 2 weeks so it should attract some media attention and i am sure there will be many response angles so keep a look out in the media.

An update on the proposed costs of the tillegra dam is showing that the proposed costs have hit nearly half a billion dollars and rising to keep updated there are many groups out there one is the no tillegra dam group who even though opose the dam are providing acurate information and arguments from either side.  the williams river is one of the most pristene rivers in the contry and the argument for other avenues such as water tanks and other proposals, The tribunal acknowledged Hunter Water’s alternative drought security strategy would cost only $155 million.  The article below shows that if only the current rate of water tank instillation contiues due to the basix requirements and rebate incentive the need for the dam would be non existant. the information is out there in favor of the presumption that the dam is not necessary and in the long and short term will have a major negative effect on the health of the system and surrounding eco systems.

Peter J. Coombes, George Kuczera and Jetse D. Kalma; Department of Civil, Surveying and

Environmental Engineering. University of Newcastle, New South Wales.

The tillegra dam project has torn the dungog community apart with most on the negative side of the argument. there are many points one is that everyone in the areas in need should just purchase a water tank or even be given them it seems like it would be a great deal cheaper than the 400million dollar plus project in fact that would by the government approximatly 4000000 water tanks which is a greener way and more sustainable. this considering that the land is prime agricultural land ( some of the best in the country )and is litterally going to be destroyed. Additionally, the Dungog community has a dam that is constantly overflowing which also supplies water to newcastle and still overflows. The dam is not acuallually being made to supply water to local areas it is to supply the central coast, which has a limited water suppply but does not really want a large dam in there area and does not really want to fund the entire progect so Dungog willl be donating the land and the huntyer region will chip in to pay for the dam that they will not be using. Seems very strange. However, the local high school just got 9million dollars to spend on renovations and the small population of local buisnesses ( maybe 10) just got half a million dollars to spend on investing in local buisness so that has greesed the slope for some people falling into the dam is a good thing trap. Water tanks seem to be a far more reasonable way to be resposible for our own water use.

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