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.