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.

An Eerwah Vale doctor fighting proposed high voltage powerlines across his land this week slammed government agency Powerlink for again ignoring koala conservation in the area. The war of words comes just weeks after residents praised Powerlink for revisiting the issue. Members of PAGE – Powerlines Action Group Eumundi – said constant campaigning to protect wildlife resulted in the company agreeing to further investigations. In a letter to affected landowners, Powerlink said that under new koala habitat policies, it would ‘‘undertake some additional assessments prior to seeking ministerial designation for the project under the Sustainable Planning Act’’.

But Dr Carlos Sanchez said it was nothing but lies. ‘‘I was so happy that Powerlink agreed to undertake more wildlife surveys throughout this area – I really thought they were going to try and protect our local koalas,’’ he said. ‘‘But it’s all rubbish and Powerlink’s behaviour is just shocking. ‘‘I have recognised koala feeding trees on my land –we know the wildlife is there and will be affected by the Powerlink development. ‘‘But Powerlink didn’t even come onto my land – they stood on the road and looked in. How can you count and mark koalas trees on a property unless you walk it? ‘‘When I questioned the project manager, he said it didn’t matter as the information wouldn’t make any difference,’’ Dr Sanchez said.

Powerlink chief operating officer Simon Bartlett said: ‘‘The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared for the Woolooga to Eerwah Vale project has already identified that the area of low-medium value koala habitat impacted by the proposed route is quite small, and that high value koala habitat will not be impacted. ‘‘The recent field work to estimate the offsets obligation (under new government legislation) does not affect the outcome of the assessments carried out in the final EIS, nor does it indicate any shortcomings in the original environmental investigations. ‘‘The field work solely involved estimating the number of non-juvenile koala habitat trees that may need to be cleared – it was not necessary to enter every property to undertake this work,” he said.

Carlos Sanchez in Larneys Lane Eerwah Vale. Picture:Stuart Quinn.

I SAW Powerlink’s CEO Simon Bartlett’s reactive response in The Journal but I have a response of my own.

I am sure everyone reading his letter would be baffled as to how the cutting down of a mature koala feed tree and habitat can be replaced by a few tube stock and at the same time sustain the Koala ousted by the chainsaws.

Especially when there is an alternative which has less impact.

Many Land for Wildlife participants have planted tube stock trees. We all know that at least a marginal percentage of the plantings fail either due to too dry, too hot, too wet or too windy conditions, being shaded out by surrounding grass, weeds or strangling vines or being harmed by animals (eg hares, bush turkeys).

We also know it takes a minimum eight to 10 years for the trees to be of any size to minimally support a koala either in terms of its climbing weight or sufficient leaves.

It is more smoke and mirrors self-serving nonsense by the state to accept and justify new tree plantings to offset\replace the destroyed mature trees on which an existing koala habitat is dependent for its survival.

After these replacement tube trees are planted, it will take decades for those substantially fewer surviving trees to provide the same shelter and food supplies of today to a habitat which long ago was forced to move elsewhere or died due to the sudden destruction of their dependent habitat and their required food supply.

Mr Bartlett, your EIS expressly admits the clearings increase predator attacks and competing weed infestations, and expose the area more to the destructive elements which multiplies the survival risks directly created by the invasive project.

Question is, with the Bruce Highway already a blank canvas, why don’t you run the lines within the Highway corridor and protect what’s already here?

Mike Tsilfidis,

West Cooroy.

POWERLINK strongly refutes claims by PAGE president Jack Connolly in an article in the Noosa Journal (December 10), that additional assessment work Powerlink is undertaking, before seeking ministerial designation, is an admittance of insufficient environmental studies.

Following the release of the Final EIS for the Woolooga to Eerwah Vale transmission line project in January 2010, the Government introduced the State Planning Policy 2/10: Koala Conservation in South East Queensland (SPP 2/10) and the related Offsets for Net Gain of Koala Habitat in SEQ Policy.

As these new policies require additional quantification in relation to offsets, the additional surveys being undertaken are needed solely to address SPP 2/10.

This current quantification work does not affect the outcome of the assessments carried out by Parsons Brinkerhoff in the final EIS, nor does it indicate any shortcomings in the original environmental investigations.

Simon Bartlett,

Chief operating officer,

Powerlink Queensland.

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

The petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that:

Kate Jones MP as a representative of the State Government of QLD, recently stated that: ”we want to protect koala habitat for the future”
and that Premier Bligh’s Qld Green promises that: ”inheritance of wildlife carries with it a responsibility to protect and preserve it. As Qld grows we need to hold onto the land for natural habitat and green spaces: our unique lifestyle depends on it.”

Your petitioners therefore request the House to intervene and have Powerlink withdraw their EIS until proper and adequate studies are performed and ensure that the QLD koala habitat mapping is updated to include the significant koala habitat of the Eerwah Vale / Ridgewood area of the Sunshine Coast.

We also request that whilst the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) is reconsidering the status of the koala at the national level, the koala habitat we are referring to is fully protected while the reassessment process is underway.

HOW much can a koala bear?

Not much more, says Ray Chambers, who is desperately trying to save the habitat of what is thought to be Caloundra’s last koala.

The male koala has been living on a two-hectare block which backs on to Caloundra Road for about six months.

He has become a favourite with locals, who often see and hear the furry fella.

But if Mr Chambers, co-ordinator of Sunshine Coast Koala Rescue, is right, the koala’s days in paradise may be numbered.

Tell-tale pink ribbons and spray paint on trees indicate the land is set for subdivision, meaning Caloundra’s last koala will be left homeless.

“As far as I knew Caloundra didn’t have any koalas left, so the discovery of this little guy was really exciting,” Mr Chambers said.

“The land has been marked out for about three weeks and, as soon as we heard about it, we got on to the council.

“Caloundra used to have a large koala population, but development has killed them off.

“If this koala is our last furry friend in Caloundra I’ll be doing my darndest to save him.”

The land, which was owned by the Salvation Army, is believed to have been sold to a developer.

Just who, however, remains a mystery.

Mr Chambers said he contacted Sunshine Coast councillor Keryn Jones, who chairs the environmental portfolio, in relation to the matter, which she promised to investigate.

Ms Jones, however, failed to return the Daily’s calls regarding possible action being taken to protect the koala and the land.

“I’m scared the developer is just going to go in and rip down the trees. It’s happened in the past and, with Caloundra’s lax tree-clearing laws, it could happen again,” Mr Chambers said.

“There’s no deterrence to stop a developer destroying the habitat, and action needs to be taken before it’s too late and the koala is left homeless, or worse, dead.”

Two proposed state government planning instruments, to be introduced, aim to increase the protection provided to koalas and their habitats – a State Planning Regulatory Provision (SPRP) and a State Planning Policy (SPP).

Both are to be made under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 (SPA).

An SPRP is a planning tool which, in the case of any inconsistencies, prevails over any other planning instrument, such as a local government planning scheme.

It sets out requirements local governments and others must use to assess development applications to minimise the impact of new development on koalas.

The draft South East Queensland Koala Conservation State Planning Regulatory Provisions have been released for public comment only and do not yet have regulatory effect.

Mr Chambers said he feared the planning tools could be too little, too late.

Anne-Louise Brown | 2nd January 2010

Source:  http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/01/02/rescue-bid-for-citys-last-koala-as-developers-move/ ]]> http://www.saveeumundi.org/2010/01/rescue-bid-for-citys-last-koala/feed/ 0 http://www.saveeumundi.org/2009/12/habitat-is-threatened/ http://www.saveeumundi.org/2009/12/habitat-is-threatened/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:50:07 +0000 Save Eumundi Team http://www.saveeumundi.org/?p=1310 Elmes claims state government lacks the will to save koalas.

Read more in the attached Noosa News article that appeared on 29 December 2009.

Koala Habitat is Threatened - Glen Elmes

The AKF’s CEO Deborah Tabart said last week she would attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month to highlight declining koala habitat and numbers.

She said she would spend two weeks at Copenhagen telling international media and non-government organisations about the need to preserve existing forests, for the sake of both the environment and koalas.

Ms Tabart said the AKF had formed a partnership with the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) Academy to raise in other countries, the koala’s profile and plight here.

Australian actor and APSA patron, Jack Thompson, announced the partnership at the third annual awards at the Gold Coast last week.

Winner of the Best Actor award, Japan’s Masahiro Motoki, was photographed with a koala and said he would take the message about No Tree, No Me and the Foster-a-Koala programs back to Japan.

Each year, newly inducted academy members will become custodians of their own ‘‘foster koala’’.

A giant Ecualyptus tree named Propinqua at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, with a girth of 2.7 metres, was ‘‘pledged’’ as a reminder of the role trees have in protecting the environment and in providing koalas with food and shelter.

Ms Tabart said the tree stored about 289 tonnes of carbon in its trunk and to replace the carbon if the tree were cut down would require 579,000 saplings and 58 hectares of land.

“Research has shown that Eucalypt forests are some of the most valuable carbon sinks in the world,” Ms Tabart said.

“Without these trees, there will be no koalas. Australia could lead the way in the international fight against climate change by making a commitment to protecting the koala and its habitat.

“Instead, our political leaders remain stuck in a robber baron mentality, actively pursuing activities which increase Australia’s carbon emissions, whilst ignoring the benefits of protecting existing forests.”

Source:  Brisbane Times and The Sun-Herald