Stop the ATCO Hydro Power Station: Save Our Drinking Water
Petitioner:
Ms Anita Rogers
| Member:
Toole, Paul
| No. of Signatories:
506
| Date closed:
04/11/2022
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,
The undersigned petitioners bring to your attention our opposition to ATCO’s proposal to build and operate the Central West Pumped Hydro project at Yetholme (SSD-32286107), New South Wales, because:
● It will deforest and industrialise the rural landscape, destroying thousands of mature trees including threatened ecological tree communities.
● It will imperil five (5) critically endangered listed species (Regent Honeyeater), seventeen (17) endangered listed species (Koala) and twenty-two (22) vulnerable listed species (Gang Gang).
● The project will require unsustainable volumes of water (3.3 gigalitres to fill the dams and then 400 megalitres per year to replace evaporation losses) and the water is proposed to be taken from the Fish River, which currently supplies 62% of Bathurst’s drinking water.
● The need to purchase and/or create new water licenses will divide local communities and neighbours, destroying social cohesion.
● Construction will destroy Aboriginal heritage and archaeological sites.
● Blasting to remove the top of Mt Tennyson to create the 75-acre top dam will be a threat to health and the environment.
● The project will use more energy (including coal or gas generated) than it creates
The undersigned petitioners, therefore, ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to reject the proposed project because it does not have any social license from surrounding communities and farmers.
