Our water is safe for now

Tabled at Council’s meeting yesterday was the SDRC Infrastructure Services Monthly Status Report for March 2023.  The last bullet point under “Water” (at page 63 of the Agenda) was an update on the option deed between Council and Granite Belt Water Limited for the proposed sale of 450ML of our town water allocation.  The update stated that the option deed was negotiated but was not signed by the parties and that Granite Belt Water had told the Council it would not be proceeding with the option deed.

The discussion in the meeting revealed that this notice from Granite Belt Water was received in February 2023.

Nice of Council to let us know.  Yet again, a massive fail on open and transparent government.  It was not like this was secret (or “commercial-in-confidence” as the Mayor likes to put it).  Granite Belt Water had an open letter in Stanthorpe Today on 15 December 2022 stating that it would be terminating all of its contracts and would be withdrawing from the Emu Swamp Dam project.

According to information gained under RTI requests, Council spent at least $142,000 of ratepayer money negotiating this document.  Money well spent?  From the outset POW! suggested that a prudent Council would only spend money once the project had more certainty.  Or if Granite Belt Water really needed it, it would be quite common to ask them to pay the legal fees.  You guessed it, that didn’t happen here.

So the proposed sale of town water has fallen through.  It is not on hold, it’s over.  This is a valuable asset, and we should now ensure that it is protected and kept in our ownership.  We should be clear that we do not want Councillors to try to sell it again to a private company.

There was also some discussion about the current status of the Regional Water Assessment program.  An update on that will follow soon …

13 April 2023