Mackay Conservation Group (MCG) has labeled the Palaszczuk Government’s announcement today of a pumped hydro scheme in the Pioneer Valley as a concern for the local environment.
MCG Coordinator, Peter McCallum said, "All of the water in the Pioneer catchment is already fully allocated for farmers, drinking water, and environmental flows. There simply is no available unallocated water to operate a pumped hydro scheme under the Pioneer Valley Water Plan. One of these stakeholders will have to suffer.”
Mr McCallum continued, “We are also very concerned about the impacts that any clearing for the project will have on the iconic Eungella National Park which is one of the jewels in the crown for Mackay biodiversity and tourism.
“Along with causing adverse environmental impacts, changes that will occur to flow regimes from extracting water for the upper and lower storages from the Pioneer River will potentially reduce the reliability of existing water entitlement holder’s allocations, which will cause economic impacts to primary producers.
“Due to the predominant topography, the lower storage is likely to be very shallow and have a large surface area, which will result in substantial evaporative losses, making the plan even more inefficient.
“This plan is deep on rhetoric and shallow on detail.
“And if the government is truly serious about climate action they would be announcing that they are stopping the approval of all new coal and gas projects today.”
CONTACT: Peter McCallum 0402 966 560
