Irrigators v. Toowoomba City Council: water wars ...

Excerpt from Toowoomba Chronicle (annotated):

$200m mine deal sparks water war

16 November 2007

Gowrie Creek irrigators will sue Toowoomba City Council for $80 million in lost earnings caused by a $200 million deal to supply treated waste water to New Acland coal mine.

Kingsthorpe farmer Rod Sleba said the 43-year agreement to supply 3000 megalitres a year to the mine further reduced the amount of promised water dumped into the creek and subsequently pumped by irrigators.

A 47-kilometre pipeline will supply the water from Wetalla to Acland.

It will put $4m into council's coffers in its first year, starting March 1, 2009.

The funds and agreement will become a substantial legacy to the new regional council, courtesy of the outgoing city council led by [the outgoing] Toowoomba mayor.

"This is an absolutely great outcome for the community and a good deal for the environment," she said.

However, the deal has reignited the war with irrigators which started when Millmerran power station offered to pay for the water they previously got for free back in 1997.

Mr Sleba said more than 60 irrigators faced certain ruin.

His family has been on the Kingsthorpe farm for 57 years.

He said he remembered and there were notations in minutes from annual meetings over many years where council guaranteed waste water discharges of up to 21 megalitres a day into the creek. On that basis, he said, farmers spent millions of dollars growing their farms and developing infrastructure.

Now they want compensation.

Angry Kingsthorpe farmer Geoff Arundel accused Toowoomba council of being "closet environmental vandals" and claiming there was nothing environmentally friendly about killing off a river ecosystem.

"Irrigation of the Oakey valley will die because there will be no flow in Oakey Creek to recharge the aquifers. The bores will dry up. Oakey's $6m bore fields will be gone - you don't need a degree in hydrology - just look to the Lockyer Valley.

"Councillors cry over trees being lost in the city - there's trees along the 45km long riverine (system) that won't survive."

Both the irrigators and council claim to have legal advice supporting their stands.

[The outgoing Mayor] said: "At the end of the day it all comes down to what was on their licences and, that said, the water always remained the property of Toowoomba City Council - and it was by the good graces that they received that water."

"They were always made aware it was only opportunistic water - their businesses have been predicated on a product that had no long-term security."

"Time has moved on and water has become a precious commodity. I don't believe the irrigators would be able to pay the money that the mine is paying," [the outgoing Mayor] said.

"At the end of the day, I have an absolute obligation to this community for a resource that basically has been manufactured by them."

"There will still be some water going down the creek," she said.

A New Acland spokesman said the agreement would not "interfere with the natural flows of the creek at all."

Director of Engineering Kevin Flanagan said that during drought, the city consumed 25 megalitres a day with 20 megalitres returning to the Wetalla Water Reclamation plant. The plant has the capacity to treat 30 megalitres a day.

Council, he said, was committed to the sale of 1000 megalitres to Millmerran power station and now 3000 megalitres to Acland.

Millmerran power station, in an agreement across 28 years with three options of a further five years, has first right of refusal for another 2500 megalitres a year.

See - Irrigators v. Toowoomba City Council - water wars.