In the weeks ahead POW! will be doing a series of blogs that give you details about the relevant options for Stanthorpe’s urban water needs in the Regional Water Assessment (RWA) ahead of the public consultation period next month.

But before doing that, let’s just take a moment to reflect on the waste of ratepayer money on the Emu Swamp Dam project.

POW! understands that the revised minimum cost estimate for Emu Swamp Dam is now $540 million.  More than half a billion dollars! 

The cost estimate when the project was handed over to Sunwater, based on GBIP’s tenders, was more than $250 million.  Those that have followed this saga may remember that the estimate of $84 million in GBIP’s business case in 2019 was much lower than the previous estimates of Council.  This was because GBIP adopted (in its own words) “an innovative approach designed to reduce the capital costs of the project.”

The “innovation” was changing the construction from a concrete dam to a rock and clay dam.  Analysis by experts engaged by the Department of Water for the RWA has concluded that the cost to transport clay from the nearest source would be prohibitively expensive.  That is, the “innovation” was based on the fiction that clay would be available close to the dam.  The experts also noted that a concrete dam would be more suitable for the geotechnical and hydraulic conditions of the site.

Council has had numerous opportunities to stop throwing good money after bad when it comes to Emu Swamp Dam.  Council has already undertaken multiple reviews (paid for by ratepayers) which determined that the project was not financially viable.  It seems all of those reviews were spot on the money.

To date Southern Downs Regional Council has spent over $2.75 million of ratepayers’ money on reports and studies to support the case for Emu Swamp Dam.  That includes $140,000 on lawyers during the current Council to work on documents for a deal that was, even on an optimistic view, years away from being in any way certain.  Who calls in expensive lawyers before you’re sure something is going to happen?  And that doesn’t include the money spent by the old Stanthorpe Shire Council prior to 2008 in getting the first EIS (environmental impact study) done.

How’s this for an “innovative approach” from Council: try being prudent with ratepayers’ money and using some critical thinking in carefully assessing whether a project would supply urban water to Stanthorpe during an extended drought.  Just a thought …

5 September 2023