One step closer to saving the Williams River and halting the Tillegra Dam

A new independent study, commissioned by The Wilderness Society, Newcastle, has found that the proposal to build Tillegra Dam in the Hunter Valley, is unnecessary, expensive and has not been properly investigated.

'The NSW Government has stated that Tillegra Dam is necessary to drought proof the Hunter, however the reasons given for the dam are unsupported by the evidence and are unsound' says Professor Stuart White, director of the ISF. Dungog Falls, Williams River, NSW. Photo: The Wilderness Society Collection

The Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF), UTS report “An Independent Review of Supply-Demand Planning in the Lower Hunter and the Need for Tillegra Dam” (Download PDF of report - 634KB) found that the NSW Government prevented the independent economic regulator for NSW, IPART, from examining whether the proposed dam was needed or not.

The report found that, with lower water consumption and increased supplies, drought security was at a 30 year high, that alternatives would cost hundreds of million less and that the Tillegra Dam project should be abandoned.

Professor Stuart White, director of the ISF, said the results of the study overwhelmingly demonstrate that the proposed Tillegra Dam is an expensive, unnecessary and wasteful approach by the government to securing the region’s future water needs.

“The NSW Government has stated that Tillegra Dam is necessary to drought proof the Hunter, however the reasons given for the dam are unsupported by the evidence and are unsound. Our analysis has demonstrated that there is more than sufficient time to develop a sustainable urban water strategy for the Lower Hunter. In fact if water conservation initiatives are expanded to similar levels to Sydney’s it will be 2050 before any new supply options need even be considered. Proposing to build a dam in the Hunter is a nineteenth century solution to problems that don’t exist.”

The Wilderness Society has been campaigning for the environmental protection of the Williams River from the threat of Tillegra Dam. The proposed dam would be as big as Sydney Harbour, destroying 21 kilometres of precious natural riverine environment with very healthy platypus populations and would drown over 2,000 hectares of irreplaceable agricultural land.

The dam would also threaten the unique ecology of the RAMSAR-listed Hunter Estuary Wetlands which are fed by the Williams River.

We believe that the proposed dam would be an economic, environmental and social disaster and is calling for the project to be scrapped.

• Download an electronic copy of the report “An Independent Review of Supply-Demand Planning in the Lower Hunter and the Need for Tillegra Dam” (PDF - 624 KB)

Further Reading:

Damned dam has $500m bill
Daily Telegraph - 3 August 2009
ALMOST $500 million is being spent by the State Government on a dam that has a "one in a million" chance of being needed, a study has found. More >>