The New South Wales (NSW), Australia, Environment and Heritage Group (EHG) Friday suggested further modifications to minimise the impacts of the Warragamba Dam Raising project on NSW biodiversity and Aboriginal cultural heritage sites. The project would raise the dam by 14 metres, aiming to “reduce risk to life and property damage due to flooding downstream in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.”
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the proposal would be “the most effective long-term flood mitigation strategy to help protect residents across the Hawkesbury-Nepean,” dropping the number of impacted homes from 15,500 to 5,000. Pursuant to Section 6.3(f) of the Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2016 (NSW) and the guideline provided for the biodiversity offset scheme, the impact on biodiversity values and loss of habitat in an area of future development has to be offset by retirement of biodiversity credits or other conservation measures to counterbalance the biodiversity lost.
In a revised report, WaterNSW concludes that the offset strategy would remain the same as their environmental impact statement (EIS) last year, but proposed to focus on the identification and costing of on-park management actions that would deliver the same benefit equivalent to the loss in biodiversity credits. It also promised to prioritise land suitable for inclusion in the national park estate and include the costs of new lands on-park management for a 20 years at the commencement of operation of the project.
However, EHG raised concerns regarding the potential underestimation of the impacts on the downstream area. It maintained that WaterNSW could not rely on upstream biodiversity offset measures to counterbalance the impacts from the construction site or on the downstream region. EHG also urged revisions to be made regarding preserving and compensating for the potential loss of Aboriginal cultural heritage and biodiversity impacts. In their submission, the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory Committee also recommended that the National and World Heritage values of the total area of national park lands impacted be accounted for as part of its offsets.
The effectiveness of the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme was criticised by Spokesperson for the Environment of Greens New South Wales Sue Higginson, following an audit report of the offsetting scheme in October. Higginson stated, “The [audit] report is absolutely damning and confirms that we are facing an environmental crisis and the Government’s current policy is broken and contributing significantly to it.” She urged the government to intervene and halt projects that try to rely on the scheme until accurate accountability is developed for both developers and the government.
The audit report concludes that the DPE did not effectively design the scheme, failed to establish a clear strategy to develop the biodiversity credit market, nor assess the consistency of its operation and the Act.
