If a dam at Traveston Crossing had been operating during 2006/2007, flows from the Mary River to the Great Sandy Strait would have been reduced to less than 25% of the natural state. Yet the Queensland Government says the Great Sandy Strait, Hervey Bay and Fraser Island would not be affected.

The impact of Climate Change and a dam’s impacts on the Great Sandy Strait have not been adequately addressed. Rainfall is predicted to decline and if it were to fall by only 10%, stream flows into the dam would be a cut by a third. Further reductions in environmental flow would be inevitable.

Already, worrying trends across the last decade have seen the Mary River flows cut by around half, similar to what has occurred in the Murray River system.

If we are serious about reversing Climate Change, the Queensland Government should be trying to prevent any emission of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane will be present in the dam in very high volumes, produced by long periods of water storage, fluctuating levels, low oxygen and high nutrient in the water.

Along with the greenhouse gas costs of pumping water to Brisbane, this adds up to a dam on the Mary River making an unacceptably high contribution to Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The dam poses threats to the survival of a number of threatened species, notably the Queensland Lungfish, Mary River Turtle and Mary River Cod with only untested mitigation measures proposed. Announcing a Research Centre into these species is a welcome move but this research needs to be done before contemplation of a dam rather than after one is built.

Traveston Crossing Dam would, at best, supply less than 10% of South East Queensland’s future water needs. There are viable alternatives, not adequately considered by the government, that would give South East Queensland a truly secure and ecologically sustainable water supply with significantly lower triple bottom line impacts.