Koalas are under threat of extinction. Powerlink’s highly controversial power-line project through Noosa Biosphere will destroy the last remaining healthy koala habitat and unique nature corridor in Noosa’a hinterland. Destruction of our biodiversity means extinction of our significant and iconic species. There are alternatives. Please watch the video.

Scientists refute claims made by Powerlink and Parsons Brinckerhoff. Inadequate surveys and no koala mapping carried out in the affected area. Also at risk is the most northern colony of the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly and its habitat. PAGE’s proposed solution is to use a common infrastructure corridor, avoiding further destruction of our diminishing wildlife habitat. The Qld government ignores its own SEQ Regional Plan and common sense to impose high voltage EMF’s on local residents.

Population growth in SE Queensland is not sustainable and is driven by developers.  Think globally, but act locally. We need to protect our wildlife heritage for our children and our children’s children before it is taken away forever.

What You Can Do To Help

It’s time people power put a stop to this  proposed Powerlink project and adopt lesser impact solutions.

Write to Queensland’s Premier, Anna Bligh, and ask her to protect this valuable koala habitat – habitat that will be destroyed if Powerlink continues with their project.

Write and speak with your local MP.

Contact all local media outlets and let them know what is planned for this koala habitat.

Send this video link to all your friends and family.

Stuart Topp — Project Manager
Woolooga to Eerwah Vale Project
Powerlink Queensland
PO Box 1193
VIRGINIA QLD 4014

Delivered via Email: stopp@powerlink.com.au                                                                                    09 June 2010

CID – Woolooga to Cooroy Transmission Line and Eerwah Vale Substation Project

Powerlines Action Group Eumundi (PAGE) is a community group formed to ensure that the wider community interests are served when considering how to provide energy for sustainable development on the Sunshine Coast.

With this in mind, PAGE wish to work constructively with the Queensland Government and its agencies to deal with the issues facing the Sunshine Coast with respect to provision of energy. With this mind PAGE have commissioned an independent electrical engineering consultant to review the proposal and make an assessment of the Powerlink proposal and any feasible alternatives that meet the network requirements – the full report is attached with this submission.

This submission comprises documents (noted in the list of attachments below) which we have produced in response to your letter of 7 May 2010. In this covering letter we raise our general concerns with the proposed Powerlink project. These general concerns are drawn from our list of specific issues raised with the project to date and the supporting attachments. We expect you to respond to the matters raised in this covering letter and the specific issues in the attachments.

This document also addresses fundamental deficiencies in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process and the substandard final EIS produced. Core issues are addressed in an executive summary, with more detail and comments provided in the ensuing table, referenced for ease of use. We trust you will act on our comments and demonstrate that genuine community input into this proposal is possible at this late stage. We look forward to receiving the response to the CID submission in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Jack Connolly,
President,
Powerlines Action Group Eumundi Inc.

Executive summary

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is a complex and lengthy document. In order to deliver a meaningful, community-centred reflection of impacted residents’ concerns, a substantial amount of time and effort was required, but not provided.

The main requirement of the EIS was to provide an assessment of the environmental (economic, social, cultural and physical) impacts from the construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of the proposed transmission line (TL) and substation, and to duly consider alternatives to the proposal carried forward. Ultimately this document is to be used to form the basis of a Ministerial designation of land for community infrastructure.

PAGE concludes that the proposal:

• Fails to assess the lowest cost and lowest impact solution
• Fails the Australian Energy Regulators (AER) lowest cost solution requirement
• Fails in its requirement to have adequately consulted with the community
• Fails to comprehensively address the issues raised by the community
• Fails the threatened iconic Koala
• Is not required in light of the alternatives proposed

The EIS cannot therefore form the basis of a credible assessment of the environmental impact of the proposal, which is intended to responsibly meet the future energy requirements of the northern Sunshine Coast and Gympie regions. The Woolooga – Eerwah Vale project is not required. It is incomprehensible from a system strategic assessment as to why the proposed 275kV injection with 800MW capacity would be fed into a 132kV bottle neck which is the 132kV system between Woolooga to Palmwoods given that the 132kV system limits the flows out of the 132kV system to the wider Sunshine Coast area to 200MW in its present and proposed configuration, while the wider Sunshine Coast area is seen to be the area which requires the new additional supply capacity.

There are several key issues that PAGE has identified within the EIS and project assessment process that lead us to this conclusion. These issues are outlined below and explored in greater detail in the attachments to this submission.

Fails to assess all viable options

Three alternatives have not been adequately considered by Powerlink and are documented in more detail in attachment A of this submission. The proposals have not previously been adequately assessed by PL or Parsons Brinckerhoff.  PAGE puts forward three cheaper and significantly lower impact solutions:

1. A single Bus Section Circuit breaker at Gympie (Cost estimated at $1.5M) deferring any augmentation requirement until at least 2027.
2. A Staged augmentation north of Cooroy (NPV estimated at $96.2m – savings of $14.4m )
3. Network augmentation Woolooga to Palmwoods at 275kV using the existing PL easement (NPV estimated at less than $60.5m – a saving of over $50m)

Options 2 and 3 were put forward in submissions to the draft EIS in May 2009. The solutions developed by PL from this information were incorrect and bore no relation to the actual solution being proposed. PL did not attempt to clarify or validate their understanding of the alternative solutions that they assessed and dismissed in the EIS. Options 1 and 3 have been put forward by an independent electrical engineering consultant, who has reviewed option 2 and concluded that this is also a feasible alternative to the Powerlink proposal.

The Eerwah Vale 275kV tee off line and substation is not required for the Energex 132kV Woolooga to Palmwoods system and the PL preferred solution is not the cheapest or lowest impact solution.

Consultation

PAGE considers the consultation process to be flawed and have consistently pointed this out to both Powerlink (PL) and Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) Australia during the past 18 months. The EIS displays lots of statistics about the volume of consultation, but no information regarding the quality or timeliness of the consultation. From a community perspective, the quality of consultation has been completely inadequate on a number of levels. They include:

• Refusal to provide relevant and timely information when requested
• Refusal to attend community organised public meetings
• Issuing misleading information and attempting to portray PAGE as deceitful and dishonest
• Treating this community with contempt, with no willingness to conduct an open and transparent consultation process
• Inadequate time provided to formulate a comprehensive response to a 1900-page document that it has taken PL/PB 19 months to compile
• The EIS either does not address satisfactorily or ignores the majority of issues raised in the PAGE submission on the draft terms of reference

The combination of these factors leads PAGE and its members to have little or no faith in consultation process undertaken to inform the EIS process or as a basis for the Minister to make an assessment regarding community infrastructure designation.

Financial assessment

The proposal is not the lowest cost alternative and the augmentation is not required urgently as stated by Powerlink. The table below highlights the alternatives, their cost and the timing:

Alternatives    NPV    Timing
Powerlink Woolooga – Eerwah Vale Project    $110.6m    2014 / 22
PAGE – Option 1 – Bus Switch (Gympie)    $1.5m    2014
PAGE – Option 2 – A Staged augmentation north of Cooroy    $96.2m    2014 / 27
PAGE – Option 3 – Woolooga to Palmwoods    $60.5m    2027
PAGE Preferred Option – Combine Option 1 and 3    $62.0m    2014 / 27

The PAGE preferred option is not only the cheapest, but provides a staged solution, requires investment when it is demonstrated that demand requires it and provides the best long term security of supply for the whole of the Sunshine Coast Region.

Impact on Koala and other species

Powerlink’s proposed route is planned to go through pristine koala habitat, which is home to a healthy population of Koalas. The koala habitat mapping commissioned in 2009 by the Queensland Government, the very mapping relied upon by Parsons Brinckerhoff, as the basis for their assessment of the Woolooga to Eerwah Vale area, has been found to be flawed and has drawn scathing criticism from a wide circle of stakeholders – including conservation groups, local government authorities and landowners throughout South East Queensland. Chief among their criticisms has been the methodology employed in this mapping project – which relied on the remote digital analysis of aerial image pixels (pertaining to tree colour). The consultants responsible for the delivery of the mapping to DERM (GHD), recommended comprehensive ground truthing (field verification of koala habitation), and that this was not conducted to the extent required.

Other key species including the northern most colony of the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly will be adversely impacted by Powerlink’s proposal with the easement planned to go directly through the habitat of the butterfly. Generally survey methods undertaken were not considered adequate, despite the community putting forward detailed proposals at the ToR stage of the project that would have ensured that detailed and best practice flora and fauna surveys were conducted. These proposals were ignored through the EIS process. Consequently the community has little faith in the veracity or accuracy of the conclusions relating to environmental impacts based upon the actual studies undertaken.

Conclusion

The dismissive approach taken to the alternative technologies and sustainable strategies aimed at meeting the energy needs of the region is extremely disappointing, particularly as it counters major policy reforms of the Bligh Government, namely Towards Q2.

Not only does it counter the Towards Q2 target of protecting more land for conservation as it rips through hectares dedicated as Land for Wildlife, it also highlights that Powerlink, a Queensland Government agency, is not serious about introducing its own policies and measures to cut carbon omissions. The government’s Towards Q2 – Tomorrow’s Queensland green vision is made to appear as nothing more than that; a vision.

Therefore, based on the innumerable flaws in the EIS, many highlighted in this document, this Project and the proposed alignment cannot be recommended to the Minister for designation and should be stopped now. This EIS fails to fulfil the ToR and lacks critical detail, providing the Minister with inferior and insufficient information on which to base a decision regarding the designation of land for community purposes.

This Project also cannot be recommended with integrity, based on the inappropriate EIS process deployed, including poor community consultation and engagement practices. The process for Ministerial designation regarding this Project is therefore flawed to a potentially devastating extent, based upon the current analysis completed.

Recommendation

Based on the above considerations, the PL preferred option cannot be endorsed and Community Infrastructure Designation (CID) should not be granted. The EIS has failed to address all of the relevant and cheaper options. The PL preferred option is clearly not the cheapest option and will not pass the regulatory test as required by the Australian Energy Regulator. The CID should be refused and PAGE asks that an independent and transparent assessment be made of the options proposed in this document and that the lowest impact and cheapest option be selected that meets the network requirements.

PAGE further recommends that should an alternative option be considered a more appropriate alternative that the Community Infrastructure Designation process be abandoned for the Powerlink proposal and the cheaper options outlined in this submission be assessed with a view to eventual designation when actually required in 2027 at the earliest.

Full Submission Document Link

The full submission can be downloaded from this link (967kB):

PAGE CID Submission – Alternative Proposal

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/06/18/2931239.htm

Transcript

Kathy McLeish reports property owners fear for their livelihoods.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: Queensland is grappling with unprecedented growth. And one of the problems is accommodating more people while protecting the environment. Kathy McLeish reports on a Sunshine Coast group fighting a move to put powerlines through their rural community

KATHY McLEISH: Jack Connolly always wanted to own his own vineyard and his own business.

JACK CONNOLLY, RESIDENT: We spent 12 years looking for our piece of paradise my wife and I

(FOOTAGE OF EERWAH VALE, NORTH WEST OF NOOSA)

KATHY McLEISH: They found it here in Eerwah Vale North West of Noosa.

JACK CONNOLLY: An ancient volcano valley floor and the soil here is so fertile you can plant anything, it will grow

KATHY McLEISH: Jack Connolly says before buying the property he had extra searches done to ensure there were no easements or unknowns that would affect their long term plans.

JACK CONNOLLY’S WIFE: Did the mail come?

JACK CONNOLLY: Yes and I think we’ve got the information.

(JACK CONNOLLY SPEAKS WITH KATHY McLEISH)

JACK CONNOLLY: We even intended to be brought out of here in wooden boxes, but that was before.

KATHY McLEISH: The Queensland Government owned Energy Company Powerlink wants to run a high voltage transmission line through their property and eight and a half kilometres of their neighbours’ properties.

JACK CONNOLLY: Breaks our heart I’ve put my life on hold, I’ve put my business on hold I put my family on hold. We’ve got to just try and get this thing out of our life but if it does proceed it’s going to destroy not only our lives but nobody really wants to be anywhere near this obtrusive development.

(FOOTAGE OF PEOPLE WORKING ON EMISSIONS)

KATHY McLEISH: The land owners are now working on a submission to fight the move. They say though the environmental process is supposed to be centred on community consultation the process has been difficult and at times bordered on obstructive.

JACK CONNOLLY: Whatever we’ve asked they’ve just given a very generic reference: So the fact that they made it hard to access has just been more and more stress put on people.

KATHY McLEISH: Locals say there is a reasonable koala population in the area, but it’s never been mapped by the environment department.

JACK CONNOLLY: We’ve got documented evidence of koala, we’ve got photos of the koala here, we’ve got scratch trees, we’ve got scats, GPS recordings of every scratch tree we found and basically they just say that it is not high value koala habitat.

KATHY McLEISH: They say the habitat of the Richmond Birdwing butterfly will also be affected. Property prices have also been hit some falling as much as $400,000. Locals now fear for their businesses. Conservationist Simon Baltais says there are reasons for concern.

SIMON BALTAIS, QUEENSLAND CONSERVATION: 390 land species and 111 plant species are going to be directly or indirectly potentially impacted by this development. That is a lot of biodiversity that’s going to be impacted. And whether through direct clearing of habitat or reducing canopy which impacts microclimates which impacts a whole range of other species there will be impacts it’s just a matter how severe and how many but this is something we don’t have to do.

KATHY McLEISH; The powerlines action group paid $10,000 to have an independent energy engineer develop an alternative plan.

(JACK CONNOLLY SPEAKS WITH KATHY McLEISH)

JACK CONNOLLY: What we’re talking about in page is saying is not coming down this 18.6ks at all and coming off a family federal and across about 6.3klms to a substation site. What we’re saying is there’s a much cheaper better and doable alternative and using common infrastructure corridors where the land is already fragmented and there’s no social or environmental impact.

KATHY McLEISH: The group argues it’s the cheapest option.

JACK CONNOLLY: Powerlink drew a line on the map and they’ve been defending that drawing of the line rather than seriously looking at what we’ve been saying.

KATHY McLEISH: Powerlink says it has done exhaustive studies and the best option is the one that goes through the properties.

(KATHY McLEISH SPEAKS WITH GORDON JARDINE, POWERLINK)

KATHY McLEISH: The lines will be installed by helicopter but the pillions will be installed from the ground so there will be impact on the habitat won’t there.

GORDON JARDINE, POWERLINK: What we do is try and minimise the amount of clearing we have to by selectively locating these towers and bringing the conductor above the canopy. In relation to alternatives we will always look at alternatives that are put forward in terms of assessing them. There has been an alternative put forward into this latest round of consultation. We’ve only received that a week ago. It’s quite premature to be commenting on the merit or otherwise of that but that will have to be assessed.

KATHY McLEISH; The landholders say a representative should have met with a community group to discuss alternatives.

GORDON JARDINE: Well the way we’d go about this is dictated by the process under the sustainable planning act which has a structured process in terms of various times when we seek submissions and when we respond to those submissions so we’ve done that and then we do all these other things these 4,500 contacts the property owners on top of that.

KATHY McLEISH: Local member David Gibson says this issue shows it’s clearly time for regulations and environmental approval processes to be updated.

DAVID GIBSON, MEMBER FOR GYMPIE: Powerlink have been doing what they’re legally required to do and you know you can say well that isn’t enough but that’s all you know they’re obliged to do. I think what we’ve got to see is a real shift in the way in which Governments and Government owned corporations actually engage in their communities.

KATHY McLEISH: The final decision lies with the Environment and Resources Minister.

JACK CONNOLLY: We believe that we’re going to give them a bit of a shakeup the fights not over yet. They don’t know what’s coming but when they find out when they start reading I think they will be even surprised.

Read the article below by Isobel Coleman that appeared in the Noosa Journal on 31 December 2009.

Hear what Peter Garrett, Federal Environment Minister, is doing about listing the Koala as an endangered species.  Also interviewed is Deborah Tabart from the Australian Koala Foundation.

Or use this link Koala Under Threat – 7pm Project – The Koala Coverage starts at around the 6 minute mark.

Peter Garrett can be contacted as follows:

T: 02 6277 7640   F: 02 6273 6101

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts

PO Box 6022

Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

To send an email, go to www.aph.gov.au/P_Garrett_MP/ then click ‘contact form’.

http://au.video.yahoo.com/playlist/3964738?o=70 and go to number 95 … “The End Of Our Furry Friends”

Source:  Today Tonight show – Channel 7 – 2 September 2009

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_QLD/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=1290

Thanks for all of your support.

Petition Details

Subject: Proposed construction of high voltage overhead power lines by Powerlink from Ridgewood to Eerwah Vale
Eligibility: Queensland Residents
Sponsoring Member: Peter Wellington MP

TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the Community’s total opposition to the construction of the proposed 270 KVA overhead transmission lines that will destroy the unique and fragile environmental corridor of Ridgewood to Eerwah Vale. The terrain of this corridor is not fit for purpose and will be a safety issue for residents, maintenance and emergency workers. It will affect the valuable tourist industry by the permanent and obtrusive high voltage towers through this beautiful landscape. The House should note that the proposed construction totally contradicts the Government ‘Q2′ plan to reduce our carbon footprint and to protect our lifestyle and environment by introducing more sustainable methods of supplying electricity to the community. The residents believe the dEIS and the consultation process carried out by Parsons Brinkerhoff who is paid by Powerlink is fundamentally flawed.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to bring pressure to bear on Powerlink not to proceed with this project through its current proposed route but to seek further independent consultation to choose a more appropriate and safer option.

Here’s the link again:  http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_QLD/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=1290

On Monday and Tuesday, it was Sydney’s turn to succumb to winds generated from a strong cold front which cut power to nearly 10,000 homes as electricity lines came down.

The weather was by no means unusual, nor was the loss of power. It’s the price we pay for having power lines strung from poles across the metropolitan area. They will come down whenever the wind blows.

So it doesn’t make much sense for the Rudd Labor Government to string its much-vaunted hi-tech glass fibre national broadband networks (NBN) lines on the same rotting wooden poles.

Surely the whole 21st century concept of providing a “nation-building infrastructure needed for tomorrow”, to use Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s own overblown description of the scheme, demands something more substantial than transmission towers built to meet the demands of the 19th century?

Taxpayers, who will be saddled with a $43 billion debt for the network, should be demanding surety of service, not a high-risk web of hundreds of thousands of kilometres of vulnerable overhead cabling.

The problem is that the NBN was a spur-of-the-moment decision without the backing of any research and no proper costing or business plan. The Government is now searching for ways to reduce the stupendous cost burden.

Running dangerous overhead lines is the Government’s first option to reduce the cost. It should be the last.

In a number of submissions to the Federal Government’s Senate Select Committee, a variety of groups have pointed out the foolishness of the low-cost overhead roll-out.

Some refer to the findings of a $1.5 million study conducted for the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts by Optus and Telstra in 1998 titled Putting Cables Underground which concluded (presciently) that undergrounding electricity lines would decrease transmission losses and reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions.

Other timely conclusions included the reduction of bushfire risk, reduced electricity outages and a reduction in the number of electrocutions, reduced network maintenance costs, reduced numbers of vehicle collisions with poles, reduced costs of tree pruning and a beneficial impact on property values.

Placing all cables underground makes sense. Up to 10 per cent of all road deaths currently involve a roadside pole.

The lobby group Cables Down Under also claims that underground cables are up to five times more reliable than overhead networks and cost 50 per cent less to maintain. The undergrounding initiative is also supported by the NSW Local Government Association.

Commonsense should apply. Even an amateur DIY handyman would understand the difference between repairing a broken copper wire connection with a simple twist and the technical difficulties involved in joining a brittle glass fibre.

If we are to believe the Government, there is a crying need to go into hock to pay for the NBN because it will essentially replace all other forms of communication.

To place such a network at risk by stringing it between poles rather than undergrounding negates the thinking behind building a modern web.

In every bushfire around Sydney in the past 30 years, wooden power and telephone poles have been burnt down, cutting communications in a crisis.

In some areas, those wooden poles have now been replaced with concrete replicas but the threat to the wires is the same.

In the 1994 bushfires there were power and communications failures to the south, west and north of the city. In the 2003 ACT fires suburbs of Canberra lost communication and power lines.

The severe storms that sweep NSW are just as likely to smash the communication and power distribution networks – as Blacktown residents learnt to their cost in February last year, when thousands were left without power or communications for weeks.

NSW has suffered enough from patch-work solutions to pressing problems (look at the Cahill Expressway) and the repeatedly-announced plans to fix the public transport system. It seems that the Federal Labor Government is now determined to impose a second-rate Third World solution to this latest challenge.

Anyone who has seen the webs of wires hanging from poles in Asian and South and Central American slums will be familiar with the answer the Rudd Government has in mind for its broadband rollout.

Cheap and nasty comes to mind but ugly, inefficient and ultimately more costly is closer to the mark.

Source: Piers Akerman – Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 11:04pm

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/powerful_arguments_for_rudd_to_go_underground