Two high ranking officers have told the State Government inquiry into the rationale for, and impacts of, new dams and other water infrastructure in NSW that the Wyangala project and other proposed projects are not being started ahead of normal approval processes and are widely supported by the community.
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The inquiry sat in Sydney on October 29 and November 2 and is due to hear more submissions on November 27 and December 4.
The state government is proposing to raise the Wyangala Dam wall by 10 metres at an estimated cost of $650 Million, to increase storage by 53% to create capacity for an additional 650 gigalitres.
Jim Bentley, Chief Executive Officer (Deputy Secretary), Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and Andrew George, Acting Chief Executive Officer for WaterNSW, both told the inquiry no work was being carried out at Wyangala ahead of normal impact assessments.
"To be clear we are not starting construction of any of these significant projects in advance of all the normal impact assessments having been carried out," Mr Bentley told the inquiry.
"There is some concern, understandably, in some of the submissions about rushing ahead and starting construction before we have received approval, and that is certainly not the case.
"There is some concern expressed about fast tracking, and fast tracking is the overlapping of approvals stages.
"It is not the avoidance of those stages. We are still carrying out the assessments that would ordinarily be carried out. It is just a matter of decision made to fast track by overlapping some of these things," he said.
Mr George told the inquiry WaterNSW has, as part of its specific and tailored community engagement strategies and plans, throughout August and September, undertaken a qualitative sentiment survey of over 800 people in the Lachlan and Peel River communities.
"On a positive note, I can report that early indications are that the projects do, in fact, have strong community support, with, for example, the Wyangala wall raising having an 84 per cent positive local community sentiment and the new Dungowan Dam, an 88 per cent positive local community sentiment," Mr George said.
"When specifically asked about the projects, 82 per cent of respondents supported Dungowan and 78 per cent of respondents supported Wyangala."
"In the case of the three dams-it is important to note, as Dr Bentley mentioned in his statement, that the planning for these projects has been a long time in the making having evolved out of work by Infrastructure NSW and the 2014 State Infrastructure Strategy, which soon led to State and Federally funded feasibility studies being initiated.
"Notwithstanding the projects current accelerated time lines, these projects must still pass through and meet all of the usual planning and government approval requirements.
"WaterNSW, government and our government partners are in the process of investigating the projects and preparing to start early enabling works, as Dr Bentley mentioned, that are not directly associated with the main dam construction."
